I like going to the gym, but hate having 2 hours taken out of my night after exercising, since I generally work long hours.

An implant would be helpful in this case; you could program a certain pattern of events to be acted out at a later time.

For example: on a Monday, I would start recording a macro; starting with me leaving home, changing at the gym, exercising, having a shower, coming home, and lying down in bed. I would come home straight from work on Tuesday, spend some quality time with my wife, then go to bed. Once the implant detected my sleep pattern, the macro would start playing. I'd have spare time, get a good night's sleep, and exercise, too.

This would be great for any manual types of labour requiring little thought (e.g. mowing lawns, doing housework, etc.); the implant would need to be sufficiently advanced to allow for flexibility in a routine (for example, it should be able to use a minimal amount of brain power to tell whether an animal is in front of the lawnmower before mowing away).
-- lewarcher, Aug 14 2001

Excellent idea. But your brain needs sleep, and even if the implant replaced your conscious cognitive functions, it wouldn't (I assume) replace the brain functions that regulate the body (homeostasis in various forms: breathing, temperature control, etc.), and provide for input processing. I further assume that the macro implant, to work, would need to use the evidence of your senses, and would not replace the extensive processing your brain applies to raw sense data.

But still an excellent idea. I'd enjoy the (dangerous) ability to arbitrarily and emphatically detach my conscious attention from some tedious task, redirecting my attention to something more interesting. Of course, this is semi-baked, on a continuum from fugue states to concentration to absent-mindedness.
-- protean, Aug 15 2001


I'd love to be able to temporarily shut off the part of my mind that gets bored, at work or when cleaning or such...set a timer and come back when I'm done.
-- StarChaser, Aug 17 2001


Have you noticed that some people put their all into their work; some other people bring you into their fun and pull you along? Which is more productive, and who can think of the stress of the now when involved in that type of work environment?

Your problem with tedium comes from incomplete planning--starting with planning your sleep routine.
-- reensure, Aug 17 2001


My 'sleep routine' is planned as '10.30: Go to bed. 6.30: get up'. Unfortunately, it usually goes '10.30: go to bed. <various random times during the night>: Be awakened by kickboxing cats pounding on wall; badly confused bird singing at 3am; passing freight train, apparently with engineer committing suicide by hanging himself from the whistle cord; brother and/or father in kitchen letting cabinets bang shut; power going off and making fan and VCR 'reboot'; etc. 6.30: get up and be miserable due to not getting any sleep'.

The other part, once I do get to work, is caused by trying to explain to users that 'doubleclick on the icon' is not some arcane process.
-- StarChaser, Aug 18 2001


Someone wrote a novel about this concept. In the book, it was called "turning off". Quite a good story; I wish I could remember the name.
-- Voice, Nov 12 2007


Are you sure this isn't possible? I remember a tribe of Natives that had a sort of zombie mix. It slowly sealed away the person's mind, virtually making them automatons. And I find that I can lock away my mind sometimes, letting my body work without being totally consious. It works, but I sometimes find myself making a presentation with a page filled with stuff like "Must eat. Need asprin. Premium Pack 1. Protein low. Buy Shonen Jump. Sell the wood." I get half a page of work done without knowing it, and the other half has my subconcious ramblings.
-- Shadow Phoenix, Nov 12 2007


I am pretty sure there is a Human Marco. He is an australian rapper, who sang Amadeus.
-- bungston, Nov 13 2007


what about unexpected situations... perhaps a traffic light changing at the wrong time?

However a good side is that it could help with people who a part of their brain is braindead... for example breathing reflex...
-- xxobot, Nov 13 2007



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