posted on October 25, 2005 10:48:29 PM new
We're assured that it wouldn't be used against a person's will, and that it is intended for fun or non-violent purposes. Somehow that isn't reassuring considering that a defense company is already looking into its usage. The future possibilities for development are positively frightening--and the human race being what it is I have no doubt that less peaceful ways of using it will soon be considered (if they aren't already)...
By Yuri Kageyama
Associated Press
Tuesday, October 25, 2005; Posted: 3:58 p.m. EDT (19:58 GMT)
ATSUGI, Japan (AP) -- We wield remote controls to turn things on and off, make them advance, make them halt. Ground-bound pilots use remotes to fly drone airplanes, soldiers to maneuver battlefield robots.
But manipulating humans?
Prepare to be remotely controlled.
Just imagine being rendered the rough equivalent of a radio-controlled toy car.
Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp., Japans top telephone company, says it is developing the technology to perhaps make video games more realistic.
A special headset was placed on my cranium by my hosts during a recent demonstration at an NTT research center. It sent a very low voltage electric current from the back of my ears through my head -- either from left to right or right to left, depending on which way the joystick on a remote-control was moved.
I found the experience unnerving and exhausting: I sought to step straight ahead but kept careening from side to side. Those alternating currents literally threw me off.
The technology is called galvanic vestibular stimulation -- essentially, electricity messes with the delicate nerves inside the ear that help maintain balance.
I felt a mysterious, irresistible urge to start walking to the right whenever the researcher turned the switch to the right. I was convinced -- mistakenly -- that this was the only way to maintain my balance.
The phenomenon is painless but dramatic. Your feet start to move before you know it. I could even remote-control myself by taking the switch into my own hands.
There's no proven-beyond-a-doubt explanation yet as to why people start veering when electricity hits their ear. But NTT researchers say they were able to make a person walk along a route in the shape of a giant pretzel using this technique.
It's a mesmerizing sensation similar to being drunk or melting into sleep under the influence of anesthesia. But it's more definitive, as though an invisible hand were reaching inside your brain.
NTT says the feature may be used in video games and amusement park rides, although there are no plans so far for a commercial product.
Some people really enjoy the experience, researchers said while acknowledging that others feel uncomfortable.
I watched a simple racing-car game demonstration on a large screen while wearing a device programmed to synchronize the curves with galvanic vestibular stimulation. It accentuated the swaying as an imaginary racing car zipped through a virtual course, making me wobbly.
Another program had the electric current timed to music. My head was pulsating against my will, getting jerked around on my neck. I became so dizzy I could barely stand. I had to turn it off.
NTT researchers suggested this may be a reflection of my lack of musical abilities. People in tune with freely expressing themselves love the sensation, they said.
"We call this a virtual dance experience although some people have mentioned it's more like a virtual drug experience," said Taro Maeda, senior research scientist at NTT. "I'm really hopeful Apple Computer will be interested in this technology to offer it in their iPod."
Research on using electricity to affect human balance has been going on around the world for some time.
James Collins, professor of biomedical engineering at Boston University, has studied using the technology to prevent the elderly from falling and to help people with an impaired sense of balance. But he also believes the effect is suited for games and other entertainment.
"I suspect they'll probably get a kick out of the illusions that can be created to give them a more total immersion experience as part of virtual reality," Collins said.
The very low level of electricity required for the effect is unlikely to cause any health damage, Collins said. Still, NTT required me to sign a consent form, saying I was trying the device at my own risk.
And risk definitely comes to mind when playing around with this technology.
Timothy Hullar, assistant professor at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Mo., believes finding the right way to deliver an electromagnetic field to the ear at a distance could turn the technology into a weapon for situations where "killing isn't the best solution."
"This would be the most logical situation for a nonlethal weapon that presumably would make your opponent dizzy," he said via e-mail. "If you find just the right frequency, energy, duration of application, you would hope to find something that doesn't permanently injure someone but would allow you to make someone temporarily off-balance."
Indeed, a small defense contractor in Texas, Invocon Inc., is exploring whether precisely tuned electromagnetic pulses could be safely fired into people's ears to temporarily subdue them.
NTT has friendlier uses in mind.
If the sensation of movement can be captured for playback, then people can better understand what a ballet dancer or an Olympian gymnast is doing, and that could come handy in teaching such skills.
And it may also help people dodge oncoming cars or direct a rescue worker in a dark tunnel, NTT researchers say. They maintain that the point is not to control people against their will.
If you're determined to fight the suggestive orders from the electric currents by clinging to a fence or just lying on your back, you simply won't move.
But from my experience, if the currents persist, you'd probably be persuaded to follow their orders. And I didn't like that sensation. At all.
posted on October 26, 2005 06:17:19 AM new
Yeah, it would be a terrible thing to find a more or less harmless and non-lethal weapon to replace what police use today. It's obviously so much easier to simply shoot a suspected criminal to death rather than hit them with a "dizzy phaser".
What is it with liberals? Even a good thing like a non-lethal gun is seen as a bad thing.
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Quidquid Latine dictum sit altum sonatur.
posted on October 26, 2005 07:43:49 AM new
You have got to be kidding! Replay - have they been using you as the test dummy?
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An intelligent deaf-mute is better than an ignorant person who can speak.
posted on October 26, 2005 07:49:29 AM new
Yes, at first glance this thing sounds like a great idea, doesn't it? But it also has the potential to go very, very wrong. Especially in the hands of the military and the government. Because basically what it amounts to is a primitive (for now) form of mind control.
But perhaps neocons have no problem with that, as they already don't think for themselves, being ready to mindlessly follow whatever their leaders do. Liberals and independents such as myself prefer to do their own thinking.
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"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." -- George W. Bush
posted on October 26, 2005 08:17:17 AM new
What a horrific idea. It's incredible that some appear to be blind to the fact that mind control slavery is approaching.
posted on October 26, 2005 08:37:16 AM new
You guys are joking, right?
A) Non-lethal law enforcement.
B) Potentially a cure for muscle-control related paralysis
C) Entertainment possibilities
And you guys think it will be used for SLAVERY? What are you guys in the 18th century still?
If there is knowledge to be gained, it's worth researching. I thought you all said it was the Conservatives who are against scientific progress? Looks like the show is on the other foot.
Besides, what do we need mind control for when we have TV already?
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Quidquid Latine dictum sit altum sonatur.
[ edited by replaymedia on Oct 26, 2005 08:38 AM ]
posted on October 26, 2005 08:56:21 AM new
Imagine how this technology can be facilitated with the implantation of id chips, that have the ability to perform some other functions. Better yet, gene manipulation administered through routine vaccinations for the flu. Once in the bloodstream, the human body then begins to create cells that attach to certain nerve networks in the brain. Cells capable of electrically shocking the brain when triggered, cells similar to those in an electric eel. Which can be engineered to activate by various means.
posted on October 26, 2005 09:33:35 AM new
::C) Entertainment possibilities::
That's a good issue - idiots using electromagnetic pulses aimed at disrupting peoples peoples equalibrium and potentially damaging inner ear nerves... as someone that has been dealing with tinitus, I can assure you, there is absolutely nothing entertaining about it.
Or an iPod that has a feature that makes people lose their equilibrium... well that's always a useful feature, especially considering the number of poeple that use them when walking and jogging near traffic. Was that supposed to be the entertainment application?
::B) Potentially a cure for muscle-control related paralysis::
I have no problem with that but it has absolutely nothing to do with firing pulses at the innner ear. What you are talking about is a legitimate medical application that has been in use for years. Nice try, but completely irrelevent.
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An intelligent deaf-mute is better than an ignorant person who can speak.
