[Cyborg] safe graduated pain administration ?

Eric Boyd mrericboyd at yahoo.com
Thu Sep 30 13:32:30 UTC 2010


Does it necessairly have to be painful?  I'm thinking that maybe 
surprising/jolting would be nearly as effective in your use case.

If so, you could just hack a northpaw so that the motors administer a 
jolt (say 2 motors on full for 2 seconds) when you detect the 
repetition.  You could theoretically mount the northpaw armature almost 
anywhere - arms, legs, waist, head, neck, etc, where-ever you found was 
the most jolting.  The motors can run a *lot* stronger than we use in 
our northpaw code, so you might actually even be able to approach pain 
if you set them full strength on the most sensitive area that you found.

You could also attach little irritants to the motors to amplify the pain 
they cause... think for instance of having some coarse sandpaper glued 
to the motors (or the armature), which then presses directly against 
your skin.  Too many repetitions during the day and you've effectively 
skinned yourself alive :-)

Eric


On 9/30/10 3:22 AM, David Molnar wrote:
> hey,
>
> I've had an idea in my head for a little bit, which was inspired by
> the xkcd irc bot ROBOT9000 and the PainStation[0,1]. Thought I would
> ask here about a question concerning it... Suppose you had a thing
> that could listen to what you were saying, determine if you are saying
> a phrase that you had already said in the past. If you are in fact
> repeating yourself, administer pain.
>
> The idea is to encourage original speech and to discourage idle talk.
>
> Let's leave aside the tricky questions of how to understand human
> language exactly or how to exactly chop up phrases to quantify
> originality. For now.
>
> What method should be used for pain administration?
>
> Electric shock is the classic, but I'm not sure if that will be safe
> when applied repeatedly through the day. In particular, I'm worried
> about heart arrythmias. I have some family history here that makes me
> specifically cautious.
>
> The PainStation uses heat and flogging in addition to electric shock.
> Flogging is ok but kind of bulky and requires some mechanical
> engineering. Heat may have a problem if the thing is worn under
> clothes, and I expect it is not energy efficient.
>
> The requirements that come to mind
>
> 1) Noticeable pain -- you need to realize that you said something unoriginal
> 2) Graduated pain -- if you continue to be unoriginal, you can
> experience more pain
> 3) Safety --  if you administer pain at all unoriginal utterances
> during the day, you will still be alive and healthy at the end of the
> day, no long term ill effects
> 4) Hidden or overt -- works both in a thing that announces the pain
> administration and in a thing that is hidden from others
> 5) Cost effective -- can be incorporated into a thing for a reasonable price
> 6) Mobile energy friendly -- will last all day in a thing that has
> some ``reasonable" battery
>
> Thanks much for any thoughts!
>
> David Molnar
>
> [0] http://blag.xkcd.com/2008/01/14/robot9000-and-xkcd-signal-attacking-noise-in-chat/
> [1] http://www.painstation.de/peu.html
> _______________________________________________
> Cyborg mailing list
> Cyborg at lists.noisebridge.net
> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/cyborg
>



More information about the Cyborg mailing list