The Free Geek sent me a heads up an article on his site titled "The DIY Guide to Becoming a (Real) Cyborg". It's a nice mix of real/existent technology, things on the horizon, and the first steps in other directions. I love these types of articles, and had a [warning: confession ahead!] Extropianism obsession when I was in High School. Now I'm more cynical, but I like to support that sort of unrelenting optimism. I'm what Robert Anton Wilson called an 'angry optimist'.
This little ditty uses a variable resistor to infer the position of the arm, and sends the info to a bunch of servos. Sure it looks like anything heavier than a dime would cause it to collapse, but what a fun little weekend project that would make. I could think of a million non-BCI uses for something like this. For instance, if you happen to be in some sort of Feng Shui decorating, pepper the tree branches outside with these potentiometers, and tie them to ceiling mounted fake or artistic renderings of tree limbs. This would look great in a house with lots of windows because every time the wind blows outside, the internal fixtures would mimic the direction and magnitude. I so need to patent that. Guess who watched too much HGTV this week?
