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I'm told that certain birds are able to detect compass directions due to a small deposit of iron in their skulls that lets them sense magnetic north. With my sense of direction, this would be a godsend. It could possibly be done with something as simple as an injection (into the skull between the eyes)
which simultaneously adds the necessary iron deposit, and encourages nerves to grow into said deposit.
If properly formulated, there should be no sign that the procedure ever took place, and the recipient will always know which way he's going.
(?) Neurophone
http://www.neurophone.com/home.htm
Never heard of them before... [zen_tom, Jul 06 2005]
[link]
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...and will always point due north in the
swimming pool. I think your best bet
would be to have one of your inner ear
bones replaced with a magnetized
simulacrum. You'd fall over a lot, but
you'd know which way you were falling.
[+] btw. |
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The sun still exists, that should be a good enough compass. Not to mention the fact that the magnetic north is shifting and will slowly disappear, to be replaced by the magnetic south. Furthermore, how can this injeciton cause nerves to grow into the deposit and have the nerves work to detect the minute shift in direction? |
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[[The sun still exists, that should be a good enough compass.]] In theory. OTOH, west and south look very similar here in Florida at certain times of the year. Also, this doesn't work after dark or on cloudy days. |
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[[Not to mention the fact that the magnetic north is shifting and will slowly disappear, to be replaced by the magnetic south.]]
And everyone with this injection will be long dead, barring radical breakthroughs in medicine -- if not from old age, then from the hellstorm of solar radiation that the collapse of the Van Allen belts and magnetic field will let through. |
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[[Furthermore, how can this injeciton cause nerves to grow into the deposit and have the nerves work to detect the minute shift in direction?]]
Getting the nerves to respond is the easy part; the brain is wired to be programmable. Getting the nerves there is going to require either growing new nerve cells from stem cells, a patient's own tissue (IIRC, there was a study that demonstrated a technique to cause fat cells to turn into muscle cells and neurons), or injecting a hormone that stimulates nerve growth (more) naturally. I'm inclined to go with the hormonal treatment, simply because it requires fewer novel technologies, just application of recently developed ones. |
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The problem isn't getting nerves to
grow to the implant (though getting
them to respond to the movement of
the iron could be tricky).
The real
problem is in getting the neurons to
map onto your cortex in some sensible
way - there's no "vacant port" in your
brain that's waiting for a "compass"
input to be connected. If you connect
at random, you might find that facing
north results in a taste of lemon, a
twitch in your left big toe, or an urge to
whistle "Dancing Queen". |
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You'll need a horizontal place to mount this. May I recommend the earlobe? You won't even need to implant it so much, just design a long, stong magnet as an earring. Earlobes are quite sensitive, and may be sensitive enough to feel a little pull towards north. |
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I'm not convinced that even a strong
magnet would exert a big enough force.
But I'm not sure. Does anyone have any
numbers for the torque generated by a
plausibly-sized rare-earth bar magnet
when it's pointing east-west? |
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A powerful bar magnet in the penis should work, but don’t get too close to the refrigerator. |
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Hmmm. Might be interesting to spend
time near power lines. |
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Consider a nonferrous implant in the tongue. They exist! Mounted on it is a compass needle. The needle is up from the flesh, and does not touch, so it is free to turn on its implant support. From the needle hangs a single nylon filament. The filament is small enough not to drag, but can be perceived by the hypersensitive tongue. |
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To determine direction, one extends the tongue and feels for the filament. It might be necessary to do a full 360 turn to get the filament sweeping along, to remind you where it is. But this could be done today. We have the technology. |
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But imagine what a little needle on the tongue would do to oral sex... |
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[[The problem isn't getting nerves to grow to the implant (though getting them to respond to the movement of the iron could be tricky).
The real problem is in getting the neurons to map onto your cortex in some sensible way - there's no "vacant port" in your brain that's waiting for a "compass" input to be connected. If you connect at random, you might find that facing north results in a taste of lemon, a twitch in your left big toe, or an urge to whistle "Dancing Queen".]] |
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Then why do neurophones work? |
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Methinks there's unused bandwidth in the cranial nerves. |
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I know that the implants that allow blind people to see work by having a microchip put directly into the brain, but that works because A: the chip is put directly into the visual part of the brain (which is very near the surface) and B: brains already know how to process images. |
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Hmmm. Maybe this would work if you
stuck a teeny bar magnet somewhere
into the visual cortex. Its movement
*might* disturb the surrounding cells
enough that you'd see something (like a
spot of blue or a shapeless edge) which
you'd learn to associate with north/
south. Maybe. |
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So, it turns out that birds' magnetic sense is not due
to iron particles - it's much more interesting than
that. |
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They use a light-sensitive molecule in the eye, but
the Earth's magnetic field is sufficient to bias the
way it responds to light, by a quantum mechanical
mechanism. It's fantastically sensitive and very
cunning, although it does mean that the magnetic
sense does require some degree of light. |
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No, polarization sensitivity is a different sense. |
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No, that's Polar bears. Cows use an udder method ... |
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Cows use an udder method? Now you're milking it... |
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