4 ms·

The doctor's note is presumably to explain that the glasses cannot be removed easily and are actually implanted in him. A few years back he had airport securit

by alex_c 14y ago

The doctor's note is presumably to explain that the glasses cannot be removed easily and are actually implanted in him. A few years back he had airport security physically pull out wires out of him. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/14/technology/circuits/14MANN.html http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/14/technology/circuits/14MANN... (apparently "a few years back" is 10 years ago. Yikes.) Edit: a link to an old (1997) article about his glasses: http://www.wearcam.org/ieeecomputer/r2025.htm http://www.wearcam.org/ieeecomputer/r2025.htm

TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago
Wow, that's dreadful. Having security guards rip electrodes off someone's skull making them bleed is no way to treat somebody.
- gcb 14y ago
  you say that until some terrorist screw a bomb to his head and kill YOUR CHILDREN!!!!1!!
  - writetoalok 14y ago
    calm down, more people have been killed on roads than due to terrorism.
    - vertr 14y ago
      That comment was clearly sarcasm.
      - gcb 14y ago
        And i thought leaving the 1 among the !s was overkill here on HN... Little do i know.
    - Tuna-Fish 14y ago
      I'd like to point out that this is a huge understatement. Roughly 10 times more people are killed on the roads in each year than have died as a result of terrorism on us soil (or us airplanes) in the past 50 years.
  - leviathan 14y ago
    Just a note, I have show dead on, and your comments are showing up as dead.
  - Kronopath 14y ago
    It appears you've been hellbanned for this comment. My condolences.
polyfractal 14y ago
I'm trying really hard to understand why these glasses cannot be removed from his body. They are glorified video goggles...not an EEG connected to his brain. There is no good reason that they need to be bolted to his head. Hell, even gluing them on is excessive. Until someone can provide a good reason why this would be chronically implanted into him, I think this all smells like hype to me. And why no pictures of the guy trying to grab his goggles off his face? Surely there would be a snapshot somewhere of that?
- jlgreco 14y ago
  Of course it's hype. It's Steve Mann... he bills himself as the first cyborg iirc. I don't get the point you are attempting to make. Are you doubting that he has in fact done this to himself?
- SilasX 14y ago
  >And why no pictures of the guy trying to grab his goggles off his face? Surely there would be a snapshot somewhere of that? I think because of the "polar bear in a blizzard" problem: you don't actually see anything informative. "And here, ladies and gentleman, is a blurry hand covering up most of the camera's view! I promise it's someone trying to rip my glasses off!"
- alex_c 14y ago
  I stand corrected - it seems it was electrodes rather than implants. Some interesting comments on the old Slashdot story: http://it.slashdot.org/story/02/03/14/2051228/airport-security-vs-cyborg-steve-mann http://it.slashdot.org/story/02/03/14/2051228/airport-securi... From reading the New York Times article, it doesn't sound like Mann had any "implants" "forcibly removed". It sounds like they tore electrodes off his body. In other words, they pulled tape off his skin, and it caused bleeding. Unpleasant, sure, but it's not like they strapped him down and used a drill to extract chips from his brain. More like they pulled off a Band-Aid too fast. The reason that he ended up in a wheelchair was that since he no longer had his cyborg navigation gear, he supposedly got confused while walking around the airport and hit his head on a pile of fire extinguishers. I don't even know where to start with that one. And another comment, which may explain the doctor's note: Years and years ago, when the earth was new, I was an undergrad at MIT and then-Media-Lab-graduate-student Mann spoke in a class I was taking. At the time, I believe he was trying to recruit people to do heavy-duty graphics work (i.e. when he moves his head side to side, his camera is taking discrete pictures of a room/building/whatever at different angles. He was working on algorithms to put them all together and make them coherent). Anyhow, the point is, I distinctly remember him saying that he got nauseous when he removed his visor. The reason was very simple. He spent all of his waking life (outside of the shower) in a 2D world. His body was so used to it, that living in 3D took some serious getting used to, and he would feel sick. My guess is that this is what happened. Ever feel like your eyes need some adjusting after staring at a 2D object (such as a movie theatre screen) for hours at a time? Now image doing that 24/7 for years and trying to re-adjust to the real world.
swalsh 14y ago
whoa, this thing is actually integrated into his brain? Does anyone have any more details on that part of the system?

by alex_c 14y ago

TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago

Wow, that's dreadful. Having security guards rip electrodes off someone's skull making them bleed is no way to treat somebody.

gcb 14y ago
you say that until some terrorist screw a bomb to his head and kill YOUR CHILDREN!!!!1!!
- writetoalok 14y ago
  calm down, more people have been killed on roads than due to terrorism.
  - vertr 14y ago
    That comment was clearly sarcasm.
    - gcb 14y ago
      And i thought leaving the 1 among the !s was overkill here on HN... Little do i know.
  - Tuna-Fish 14y ago
    I'd like to point out that this is a huge understatement. Roughly 10 times more people are killed on the roads in each year than have died as a result of terrorism on us soil (or us airplanes) in the past 50 years.
- leviathan 14y ago
  Just a note, I have show dead on, and your comments are showing up as dead.
- Kronopath 14y ago
  It appears you've been hellbanned for this comment. My condolences.

polyfractal 14y ago

I'm trying really hard to understand why these glasses cannot be removed from his body. They are glorified video goggles...not an EEG connected to his brain. There is no good reason that they need to be bolted to his head. Hell, even gluing them on is excessive. Until someone can provide a good reason why this would be chronically implanted into him, I think this all smells like hype to me. And why no pictures of the guy trying to grab his goggles off his face? Surely there would be a snapshot somewhere of that?

jlgreco 14y ago
Of course it's hype. It's Steve Mann... he bills himself as the first cyborg iirc. I don't get the point you are attempting to make. Are you doubting that he has in fact done this to himself?
SilasX 14y ago
>And why no pictures of the guy trying to grab his goggles off his face? Surely there would be a snapshot somewhere of that? I think because of the "polar bear in a blizzard" problem: you don't actually see anything informative. "And here, ladies and gentleman, is a blurry hand covering up most of the camera's view! I promise it's someone trying to rip my glasses off!"
alex_c 14y ago
I stand corrected - it seems it was electrodes rather than implants. Some interesting comments on the old Slashdot story: http://it.slashdot.org/story/02/03/14/2051228/airport-security-vs-cyborg-steve-mann http://it.slashdot.org/story/02/03/14/2051228/airport-securi... From reading the New York Times article, it doesn't sound like Mann had any "implants" "forcibly removed". It sounds like they tore electrodes off his body. In other words, they pulled tape off his skin, and it caused bleeding. Unpleasant, sure, but it's not like they strapped him down and used a drill to extract chips from his brain. More like they pulled off a Band-Aid too fast. The reason that he ended up in a wheelchair was that since he no longer had his cyborg navigation gear, he supposedly got confused while walking around the airport and hit his head on a pile of fire extinguishers. I don't even know where to start with that one. And another comment, which may explain the doctor's note: Years and years ago, when the earth was new, I was an undergrad at MIT and then-Media-Lab-graduate-student Mann spoke in a class I was taking. At the time, I believe he was trying to recruit people to do heavy-duty graphics work (i.e. when he moves his head side to side, his camera is taking discrete pictures of a room/building/whatever at different angles. He was working on algorithms to put them all together and make them coherent). Anyhow, the point is, I distinctly remember him saying that he got nauseous when he removed his visor. The reason was very simple. He spent all of his waking life (outside of the shower) in a 2D world. His body was so used to it, that living in 3D took some serious getting used to, and he would feel sick. My guess is that this is what happened. Ever feel like your eyes need some adjusting after staring at a 2D object (such as a movie theatre screen) for hours at a time? Now image doing that 24/7 for years and trying to re-adjust to the real world.

swalsh 14y ago

whoa, this thing is actually integrated into his brain? Does anyone have any more details on that part of the system?