This one's been linked from all over the net: A Sixth Sense for a Wired World.
The idea is that by implanting a magnet in your fingertip, you're endowed with a "sixth sense," which enables you to detect magnetic fields. Useful for determining if a wire has electric current running through it, or if a hard drive is spinning.
The magnet works by moving very slightly, or with a noticeable oscillation, in response to EM fields. This stimulates the somatosensory receptors in the fingertip, the same nerves that are responsible for perceiving pressure, temperature and pain. Huffman and other recipients found they could locate electric stovetops and motors, and pick out live electrical cables. Appliance cords in the United States give off a 60-Hz field, a sensation with which Huffman has become intimately familiar. "It is a light, rapid buzz," he says.
So, is Wired's claim of a "sixth sense" true? After all, it does give people the ability to detect magnetic fields, something they can't ordinarily do. However, it relies on ordinary tactile sensations. What's the difference between this and implanting, say, a compass in your arm? Using your sense of vision, you can read the compass, and so possess a "sixth sense" of direction.
None of this is to say that the idea isn't cool. It might be a convenient way for electricians to monitor an important aspect of their job. But calling the magnet a sixth sense is probably taking things too far.
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Uhm. I could forsee some problems with this -
- Magnatizing the shadow mask of your TV while changing channels. (Get an LCD screen)
- You have given up using floppy disks, right?
- It would seriously complicate your next MRI.
And just imagine how pissy the people at the bank will be with you after coming in to have the strip on your debit card re-coded for the hundredth time... in a week.
What if, over time, the person with the implant started having different subjective sensations as a result of it, distinct from tactile? E.g., along the lines of this device for "seeing" with your tongue? Wouldn't it count as a "sixth sense" then? (And don't we have more than five senses anyway, if you count proprioception?)
From the article:
People with magnetic implants can't erase hard drives or credit cards. They don't set off airport metal detectors or get stuck to refrigerators. The magnets are small, and once encased in skin, all they do is react next to nerves, conveying the presence of sufficiently strong electromagnetic fields.
While it may not be a true "sixth sense", it is allowing an old sense to do something novel and experience a whole new kind of phenomenon. It's more like a 5th and half sense.
That said, once these people work out the kinks, sign me up. I have many friends who are into body modification, and they've always asked why I don't have any tattoos or piercings. My honest response has always been that I'm waiting for body modifications that do something useful.
A really interesting project, and a very interesting question. I love environmental perception, and my answer got a little long for a comment so I posted it on my own site. Click my name to read it.
I think the boundaries between the 5 senses are somewhat overbaked. Where exactly do the subjective experiences of taste and smell divide? When does one stop hearing low-frequency bass and only feels it instead? Why does heat perception fall in with touch, even when it is radiated?
There's more to senses than simply sight, taste, touch, smell and sound. Sight: color, brightness, patterns, etc. - there are different modalities.
What this experiment does is add a new modality. It might be communicated through an existing senses, but it will be learned by the users' feedback mechanisms and understood as a different channel, in the same way that (for example) reading can convey far more than just a set of repeating patterns on a page or screen.
PS: IAMB: you need surprisingly powerful magnets to wipe credit cards. These little guys almost certainly won't do it.
A similar project that looked for long-term changes in subjective perception has been done at the University Of Osnabrück, Germany (where I study Cognitive Sciences).
They attached a belt to some participants which made directions feelable through vibrations. The participants wore that belt almost all of their waking time, for several weeks.
Although the researchers say in their report that the results were diverse, they saw amazing improvements by their subjects on some of the training tasks as well as interesting subjective reports.
(The website of the project seems to be down right now...)
Perhaps they won't wipe a credit card or floppy disk - but an MRI would still yank them right out of your finger!
Ouch!
I am sorry - the report is available here. I posted that broken link twice...
Here is a picture of that belt, too.
The idea is cool from a science fiction book perspective, but where, if anywhere, will we begin to draw a line of what is inappropriate when it comes to merging man with machine simply for the purpose of "enhancement?" This is a small thing, but it's not for medical purposes. It's for enhancement. This is to man's wants, not needs, just as cosmetic surgery is often just for vanity. It's one of those "got to have its" that really is more about "I want to be better than [that person]." Still, interesting to a degree.
In my opinion, this is not an extra, or sixth, sense, because it isn't really our sense. It'd be a combination of us and a machine, just like you gave the example with the compass. This isn't a natural, biological change that gives us heightened awareness; it's us, once again casually tampering with ourselves and nature.
Whether anyone believes such body modifications are "right" or "wrong," I find it funny how we believe adding to ourselves will make life better, considering we already are well aware that bringing new technology into life does not always equal stress reduction. Quite often, in fact, it equals heightened stress levels. Look at computers. I love them, because I've grown up with them. They are a part of my life. However, it's increased the speed of humanity and put a major decrease on our little patience meter.
So what if you can feel things at the wave of your index finger? New functions equal new responsibilities, equals more stress. As humans, we haven't even learned how to handle ourselves without modification, so why would we want to add on to an already uphill battle?