Phil Cook wrote:
> And lo on Fri, 02 May 2008 09:32:41 +0100, Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> did 
> spake, saying:
> 
>>>> Seriously... WHAT THE HELL ELSE DO YOU WANT?!
>>>  The ability to use my nipples to tune into JazzFM and control my 
>>> temperature.
>>
>> ...the hell...? 0_0
> 
> Red Dwarf reference (see Kryten)

Is that the episode with the two photographs?

Post a reply to this message

And lo on Fri, 02 May 2008 16:00:05 +0100, andrel  
<a_l### [at] hotmailcom> did spake, saying:

> Phil Cook wrote:
>> And lo on Fri, 02 May 2008 09:32:41 +0100, Invisible <voi### [at] devnull>  
>> did spake, saying:
>>
>>>>> Seriously... WHAT THE HELL ELSE DO YOU WANT?!
>>>>  The ability to use my nipples to tune into JazzFM and control my  
>>>> temperature.
>>>
>>> ...the hell...? 0_0
>>  Red Dwarf reference (see Kryten)
>
> Is that the episode with the two photographs?

Yep the famous double polaroid.

"It was a triple-bag easy-glide vac with turbo-suction and a self-emptying  
dustbag" waggles eyebrows.

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

Post a reply to this message

On Fri, 02 May 2008 09:32:41 +0100, Invisible wrote:

>> rewiring of our eyes
> 
> You can rewrite your eyes if you want. :-P

Oh, good, my wife will be pleased to hear this....

(She's got ocular albinism, which means the rods and cones aren't fully 
developed, she lacks pigment in her iris, and the wiring to her brain is 
different than everyone else's - what this means is that she has very 
poor depth perception and the combination of the wiring problem and the 
lack of pigment in her iris results in high contrast changes (usually 
dark->light) will literally blind her for anywhere from 10 seconds to 2 
minutes.

Which makes driving at night a real pain the ass for her.

Not to mention the nystagmus - though for many this is a problem, my wife 
actually has managed to harness this somehow and as a result reads very 
fast.  But she wonders how other people actually see words on the page 
because she knows she's not reading the text linearly.

Jim

Post a reply to this message

Mike Raiford wrote:
> Eero Ahonen wrote:
>> Orchid XP v8 wrote:
>>>
>>> Seriously... WHAT THE HELL ELSE DO YOU WANT?!
>>
>> Adjusting sensitivity of the optical sensors (the sensors itself, not 
>> just the iris). 
> 
> Isn't that what dark adaptation is? 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_purple

 > Essentially your brain increases the
> amount of gain when there are low levels of light.

No. It's actually a photosynthetic chemical in your retina that builds 
up as long as light isn't strong enough to break it down. It's what 
microbes used before chlorophyll. It's not something in your brain.

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     "That's pretty. Where's that?"
          "It's the Age of Channelwood."
     "We should go there on vacation some time."

Post a reply to this message

Phil Cook wrote:
> An enhanced EM sense would be nice, 

http://www.wired.com/gadgets/mods/news/2006/06/71087

You can also add absolute direction sense in a similar way.

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     "That's pretty. Where's that?"
          "It's the Age of Channelwood."
     "We should go there on vacation some time."

Post a reply to this message

>>>> - 0-maintenance on all components. (!)
>>> Just a couple of words: hairdressers, toothpaste, the gym.
>>
>> Non-essential cosmetics. ;-)
> gym <-> cosmetics ?

Going to the gym isn't necessary. [E.g., I've never been to one in my 
entire life.]

>>>> - Most non-fatal injuries automatically repaired while unit remains 
>>>> operational. (!!!)
>>> The two major mission critical systems (the heart and brain) can not 
>>> repair damage.
>>
>> I was under the impression that your heart *can* recover from damage. 
> No, if you loose a heart muscle cell e.g. because of an infarct it is 
> lost and won't be replaced by another muscle cell but by fibrous tissue 
> or fat. Though some reports exist that might indicate that sometimes 
> cells are replaced, but never enough to make the piece of tissue 
> contract again.

Interesting. I didn't know what.

Does anybody know *why* normal muscle can rebuild itself, but the heart 
can't?

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

Post a reply to this message

Mike Raiford wrote:

> Resistance to ionizing radiation would be nice, too.

Well, the human body is already pretty *resistant* as it is. (You know 
you're currently surrounded by the stuff, right?) Higher resistance 
would obviously be nice, but hey...

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

Post a reply to this message

Orchid XP v8 wrote:
>>>>> - 0-maintenance on all components. (!)
>>>> Just a couple of words: hairdressers, toothpaste, the gym.
>>>
>>> Non-essential cosmetics. ;-)
>> gym <-> cosmetics ?
> 
> Going to the gym isn't necessary. 
I meant it as an example of exercise.

> [E.g., I've never been to one in my entire life.]

The fact that you don't do maintenance on your muscles and skeleton does 
not imply that it is not necessary. Some people don't maintain their 
cars and in general those cars don't live as long and healthy as other cars.

>>>>> - Most non-fatal injuries automatically repaired while unit remains 
>>>>> operational. (!!!)
>>>> The two major mission critical systems (the heart and brain) can not 
>>>> repair damage.
>>>
>>> I was under the impression that your heart *can* recover from damage. 
>> No, if you loose a heart muscle cell e.g. because of an infarct it is 
>> lost and won't be replaced by another muscle cell but by fibrous 
>> tissue or fat. Though some reports exist that might indicate that 
>> sometimes cells are replaced, but never enough to make the piece of 
>> tissue contract again.
> 
> Interesting. I didn't know what.
> 
> Does anybody know *why* normal muscle can rebuild itself, but the heart 
> can't?
> 
Skeletal muscle can also grow by increasing the size of the muscle cells 
(as can the heart cells). I should know if skeletal muscle cells can 
still divide in adults or not, but I don't. GIMF, but I don't feel like 
meeting a friend now, perhaps later.

Post a reply to this message

Jim Henderson wrote:
> On Fri, 02 May 2008 09:32:41 +0100, Invisible wrote:
> 
>>> rewiring of our eyes
>> You can rewrite your eyes if you want. :-P
> 
> Oh, good, my wife will be pleased to hear this....
> 
> (She's got ocular albinism, which means the rods and cones aren't fully 
> developed, she lacks pigment in her iris, and the wiring to her brain is 
> different than everyone else's - 

I always found it fascinating how two seemingly unrelated things as how 
the eyes connect to the left and right brain and pigmentation defects go 
hand in hand. But that is as a scientist with an interest in 
development. For the person involved it is probably slightly less 
fascinating.

> what this means is that she has very 
> poor depth perception and the combination of the wiring problem and the 
> lack of pigment in her iris results in high contrast changes (usually 
> dark->light) will literally blind her for anywhere from 10 seconds to 2 
> minutes.

I think that is mainly the lack of pigment, that makes light enter the 
eye via other paths than the lens and not being able to regulate the 
amount of light. So she has to rely on slower chemical processes to 
adjust the rods and cones to the level of light.

> Which makes driving at night a real pa in the ass for her.

So, just like me, you are the one that drives home after parties?

> Not to mention the nystagmus 
Wikitime
> - though for many this is a problem, my wife 
> actually has managed to harness this somehow and as a result reads very 
> fast.  But she wonders how other people actually see words on the page 
> because she knows she's not reading the text linearly.

Less serious a problem, but I always wondered how the world would look 
if it was out of focus. Whatever trick I used I was never able to not 
focus. Well, time solved this one. Now to find out how the world looks 
if you have a dominant eye. Possibly like walking with one eye closed, 
but I guess it may be subtly different.

Post a reply to this message

In article <481ace9d$1@news.povray.org>, voi### [at] devnull says...
> I was under the impression that your heart *can* recover from damage. 
> Similarly, you can't regrow brain cells, but the brain has an impressive
 
> capacity to reassign functions and regain normal functioning after 
> fairly serious injury.
> 
Well, actually, the brain can grow new cells, it just doesn't do so 
much, and it wouldn't help in some cases, since the *data* is encoded 
into the existing cells. It might, in theory, repair itself with new 
tissue, but the result would tend to be a blank slate, with no means to 
relearn the correct responses. Its likely that there is some genetic 
markers that strongly inhibit new growth, precisely due to how it could 
destabilize the existing pattern.

> >> - Central nervous system with cognative abilities unrivalled by any 
> >> organism on Earth, as far as we know.
> > You forget the mice.
> 
> Is this a Douglas Adams reference?
> 
Yeah.

As for unrivaled. In scope yes, in function.. Not so much. A lot of 
animals have recently proven to have "some" of the same key capacities 
we do, and some may even have ones we don't, but our unique mix of the 
ones we do have give us the abilities we do. Things like a single gene 
knocked out, like one group in the UK, and the capacity to form symbolic 
links in speech is greatly impaired, resulting in badly slurred speech 
and comprehension issues. A single gene whose mutant form (very few 
species, including other primates "have" a version like ours) also 
exists in parrots, who *have* the same symbolic capacity we do, while 
missing other things.
 
> > But the question 
> > was not what I want but if there is improvement planned but not 
> > realized. Just to decide whether we are in alpha or in early beta.
> 
> Heh. Well, that would depend on who the "designer" is, no? ;-) Let's not
 
> even get into that one...
> 
Not even mentioning that the genetic code is such a bloody mess that.. 
Well, its almost like, if someone designed it, they let it start out 
real simple, then rewrite itself over billions of years, without any 
intervention. lol 

-- 
void main () {

    if version = "Vista" {
      call slow_by_half();
      call DRM_everything();
    }
    call functional_code();
  }
  else
    call crash_windows();
}

<A HREF='http://www.daz3d.com/index.php?refid=16130551'>Get 3D Models,
 
3D Content, and 3D Software at DAZ3D!</A>

Post a reply to this message