[Cyborg] modify vision with electronics or gene therapy first?

Robert Picone rpicone at gmail.com
Mon May 14 21:32:37 UTC 2012


On Sun, May 13, 2012 at 4:48 PM, Christoph Maier <
cm.hardware.software.elsewhere at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Sun, May 13, 2012 at 4:08 PM, Jean Rintoul <jean.rintoul at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>>
>> Gene therapy has apparently added extra color sensitivity to mice &
>> monkeys. Extension of human vision into IR & UV?
>>
>> http://www.neitzvision.com/content/publications.html
>>
>>
> Depends on how comfortable you are having foreign genetic material
> injected into you ...
> http://www.neitzvision.com/content/genetherapy.html#humans
> I'm blown away that they're even trying.
>
> Electrical implants are ridiculously crude ... but not contagious.
>
> Serious question ... where would you find volunteers for gene therapy?
>
>
>
Well, it would go the treatment route before the recreation route.  Those
with colorblindness that they regard as having a negative impact upon their
lives would probably come first.  Someone in a military organization or
artistic profession that thinks their colorblindness is holding them back
and that it was worth the risk would come first, and after it had some
degree of proven safety for non-recreation means, enhancement might start
coming with less risk.

One barrier here though is that the lens of the eye itself blocks out UV we
already are capable of seeing.  Many who undergo cateract surgery
(potentially including Claude Monet), gain UV vision just by bypassing the
lens.  This is sort of awesome, but also means that it's probably not going
to happen from modifying the retina alone.

http://www.komar.org/faq/colorado-cataract-surgery-crystalens/ultra-violet-color-glow/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphakia
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