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Scarification Chips

Jesse Walker | 5.23.2003 2:57 AM

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Will the tattoo-and-piercings crowd add high-tech implants to their arsenal? Body modification guru Shannon Larratt thinks not.

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NEXT: Liberating Liberalism

Jesse Walker is books editor at Reason and the author of Rebels on the Air and The United States of Paranoia.

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  1. Joe L.   22 years ago

    I am reminded of Clarke’s Third law of Science, “When an old and distinguished scientist says that something is flatly impossible, he is more than likely wrong.” The whole thing was funny, he needs to explain to me why an pierced eye brow is a thing “…that it recognizes and glorifies human biology” or a geometric pattern around my arm is such a thing but an implant is not. Plus, the line, “Do we want something that’s going to be “neat” for 15 minutes” was a real hoot! Like piercing and tattoos aren’t a fad that will fade out in a few years… Hey dudes, it’s “pop” culture, by its very definition its ephemeral. So, any “expert” in it is simply an over-inflated ego hyping his pay cheque.
    I’d say bio implants WILL become cool and in demand. Not yet, who needs to be tracked like “Rover” save, Robert Downey Jr.? But, like PC’s as they grow in power and utility they will grow in appeal.

  2. Warren   22 years ago

    never mind the chip, bring on the Jack (Matrix style) I want to plug into the collective

  3. Madog   22 years ago

    I doubt that the modern primitivist strain of body modification would adopt tech implants, but I could see others who are not so philosophical about their peircings and tattoos happily adding chips and gizmos to their bodies.

  4. joe   22 years ago

    If you really want to piss off the Religious Right, get your social security number bar coded on your hand.

  5. bago   22 years ago

    Having had an eyebrow peircing, I removed it because it got in the way. However having a useful implant that did something (like told time) would be supremely cool. It would not be popular in the tribal clique, but quite popular in the industrial one.

  6. Billy Oblivion   22 years ago

    This guy may be an expert at twisting and distorting flesh in new and displeasing ways, but is really lacking in the prognistication department.

    Over the last 50 years Moore’s law has had several collaries [sp?]. One is that the cost of processing collapses in half every 18 months, that the useful size of a processor shrinks by 50% every 18-36 months, and that *THE AMOUNT OF ENERGY IT TAKES TO RUN A USEFUL COMPUTER* is cut in half during the same time periods.

    You can currently buy processors that do 250MIPS and use less than 1 watt of power. This is not cutting edge stuff, this is off the freaken shelf, and an entire computer made of this level of technology would fit in couple matchbooks.

    In 10 years? Who knows (reference the Nanotechnology. [old joke] If we’re luck we’ll have useable nanotech in 60 years. If we’re unlucky it’ll be here in a decade).

    No, implanted computing devices that *augment* our current feature set are on their way.

  7. Borg   22 years ago

    Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.

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