Rating: Some-one’s taking this all too seriously
Talk about overreactions of time – Bill Meisel, president of TMA Associates, has sent us his reply to a recent pronouncement from Intel courtesy of consulting firm, Booz Allen Hamilton. Apparently, the pair have concluded that, As convergence continues across device types, functions, and capabilities, the melding of mobile technologies directly into the human body becomes the logical next step.” Meisel also mentions a Wall Street Journal had a feature article. This was written by sci-fi writer, Daniel H. Wilson and entitled, “Bionic Brains and Beyond: High-tech implants will soon be commonplace under our skin and inside our skulls, making us stronger and smarter.” Meisel has taken these guys literally and outlined why brain implants are both dangerous and nonsensical.Meisel leaps straight into this debate by citing defective wires made by St. Jude Medical to connect heart-shocking defibrillators which caused at least 20 patient deaths due to short-circuiting.
So, he argues that people won’t voluntarily opt-in to a connexion between their brains and mobile phones because it is too dangerous.
That’s probably true right now but in many years time, it will probably become a routine operation.
Hence, it might prove the case that parents opt to have the units inserted to their children at birth.
This naturally leads to other obstacles. What form will the input data take? If it is 1s and zeros, how will the brain interpret that data, Meisel asks?
Even if the incoming data is pure image or pure voice, how can the brain send reponses back, Meisel wonders?
GoMobile News reckons that Meisel is taking all of this too literally. Direct input from the phone into the human body doesn’t have to go straight to the brain.
We can forsee the technical capability to insert a Bluetooth headset under the skin (near the ear, perhaps?) which would help improve connectivity.
It would be ideal for fighter pilots and Formula One drivers initially and could then become more commercialised. Taxi drivers might fit one, for example.
Then there are other parts of a mobile device which could be fitted into the body. A GPS receiver, for example, would be extremely useful.
So both parties are probably right. No-one will get a phone planted in their brain as Meisel argues but as Intel predicts – components of a mobile phone might well be implanted.
You can read the Meisel-on-Mobile blog here.
Hans Cett is an established freelance author and consultant specialising in the mobile communications industry. He also writes for Countdown2MWC - http://countdown2mwc.wordpress.com/ 
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