[Cyborg] Feeling magnetism

[Jorgen Cederlof]

On Wed, Jul 29, 2009 at 00:31:40 -0700, quinn wrote:
> On Tue, 28 Jul 2009 10:29:28 -0800, Jorgen Cederlof <jc at lysator.liu.se>
> wrote:
>> Hi cyborgs,
>> 
>> I just read the comments to the Slashdot article about the compass
>> belt:
>> 
>>   http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/18/163223
>> 
>> and some were pretty interesting. A lot of people have implanted
>> small passive magnets in their fingertips, which makes them able to
>> feel magnetic fields (and move metallic things). Examples:
>>
>>   http://www.wired.com/gadgets/mods/news/2006/06/71087
>>   http://feelingwaves.blogspot.com/
> 
> Can I just say tee hee hee because I'm actually very immature?

Aren't we all? http://xkcd.com/616/

Anyway, cool! I didn't realize you were on the list.

>> I like the fact that they are so low-tech and passive, but I
>> wouldn't want anything implanted. Especially not something that
>> would rip through my skin and break a multimillion dollar machine
>> if I ever had to have an MRI. Some people seem to talk about using
>> glue or gloves instead of surgery. That sounds like something worth
>> exploring.

> As I pointed out many times- it's not like anyone was going to sneak
> up on me with an MRI.

I'd assume that the times you would need an MRI you were more likely
than at other times to be unconscious, but yeah, that might be a too
small risk to have to consider.

A larger risk, for me, is that is will probably affect my rock
climbing negatively? Rocks are hard. Fingertip bone is hard. What's in
between is usually soft, but magnets are not.

Have you tried or heard of anyone trying any less invasive method,
like glue or gloves?

> The surgery to get it removed so that I could eventually get an MRI
> was fairly trivial, a CT works for almost all purposes nearly as
> well, and it's not like a steel plate in your head. Even the worst
> case is unlikely to kill you or destroy the machine.

OK, good.

  Jörgen