Biological immortality, the colonization of Mars, Amish, EC1863 and copywriting. Chapter 1. And the cyborg's heart beats
Dear readers, this is the first chapter of the story, the plot of which will be organically interwoven with such different topics as, for example, biological immortality, the colonization of Mars, Amish, and a very interesting domestic computer EC1863. How? Do not try to guess, do not guess for anything. You will see everything yourself as you slowly laying out new chapters.
Tonya, switch-sockets and sockets collector, while listening to Radio VOS, drew attention to an unusual announcement. A certain organization invites people recently blinded to an experiment on the neurophysiology. This is just her case. Intuition suggested that
you can trust the ads on such a radio station, and Tonya dialed a number.
She agreed that she would be picked up by car on Friday after work by a representative of the organization. And here she is - in the cabin, judging by the sound, obviously of an electric car. Hardly a Tesla, probably a Leaf. But it is not important.
The office smelled nice of coffee. The specialist asked the guest:
- Recently blinded?
- Yes. It happened ...
- Most importantly, recently. Do you know neuroplasticity?
- Of course. For example, in blind dogs, the sense of smell is exacerbated, and in humans - touch, hearing.
- Great example. At one time, the blind helped the air defense of the besieged Leningrad perfectly. And a person who has recently become blind has a visual cortex, the huge processing power of which is not involved in any way. Not yet involved.
“And you want to organize on it something like GPU computing?”
- It’s too late for you to participate in our experiment. Your neuroplasticity is already irreversibly moving towards telepathy. Just kidding.
- What are you, it's easy to guess. Okay, get me a neural interface.
...
- Tonya, congratulations, all three operations were successful. And on the heart, and on the neck, and on the visual cortex.
- On the heart? And on the neck?
- For your visual cortex there is now a fierce struggle. The rest of the brain tends to gradually grab it for their needs. To avoid this, she must solve some problems continuously. So feeding the neural interface through something like Qi is not an option. They forgot to turn it on, you know. It is necessary that it works without any maintenance around the clock. And the heart ... At school they told you why it beats, although soft?
- I do remember. It knocks on the chest.
- That's it. The amplitude is rather big. Here we are, as in a famous song, and implanted a magnet directly into the heart. And a stationary winding was located nearby. And they passed a cable in a biologically inert sheath through the neck.
- Goodbye, gymnastics for the neck?
- What are you, what are you. Four "squares", stock hoo, what will he do?
You can even shake your head from side to side.
- Yes, I look now, probably ...
- You look the same. The seams are barely visible, sorry, I can’t show you this. Yes, and more. At any time, the neural interface can be checked with the built-in test utility. The idea is taken from Rain Man. Try to multiply a couple of eight-digit numbers in your mind.
- Oh, it turned out. And if divided?
- You can’t. Multiplication only. The utility is simplified to the limit. KISS principle. Okay, ahead of the weekend, now we are going to the first test of our invention. Today there will be a competition between several autopilot developers. We will get a serious
advantage: we have you, participants in the experiment.
- I agree. By the way, do you have a Leaf?
- Let's move on to "you." By the way, I'm Petya. I have a homemade. But the details from the "Leaf" are in it. Only in competition do we use it. Because fifteen participants will fit only in Iveco Daily, which we bought cheaply from Transavtoliz. Instead of the back row of seats, they put equipment for communication with neural interfaces. Fifteen people with live coprocessors on one silicon chest! Well, I'll be in the driver's seat. The organizers of the competition will put a camera there, so as not to try to control. You can only press the mushroom button if necessary, the rest is disqualification. Well, you can sleep, or
think about anything, or chat with a neighbor. This does not affect the work of the visual cortex.
...
- First place! Tonya, you must have heard how some pieces of polystyrene foam scattered among competitors? And with us, no. This is the organizers of the scenery and moving mannequins recreated in the smallest details of the situation in which the Tesla autopilot failed.
“But is our autopilot better, but impractical?”
- Because the programmer wrote this opus in one evening with heavy libraries. Squeezed - and get instead of one autopilot fifteen, even more effective.
- Tell me, am I now considered a cyborg?
- I guess, yes.
“And the cyborg's heart beats.” So romantic!
Historical note: the character of Petit has a real prototype. If he became an IT specialist and visits the Habr, he recognizes himself by reading the next chapter. Well, if he went to neurophysiologists, he probably laughs now, considering everything described impossible. But fiction does not tolerate too
serious an approach.
That's all for now, and in the next chapter we will be transported to 1993 and try to fit the EC1863 computer into the plot.
Tonya, switch-sockets and sockets collector, while listening to Radio VOS, drew attention to an unusual announcement. A certain organization invites people recently blinded to an experiment on the neurophysiology. This is just her case. Intuition suggested that
you can trust the ads on such a radio station, and Tonya dialed a number.
She agreed that she would be picked up by car on Friday after work by a representative of the organization. And here she is - in the cabin, judging by the sound, obviously of an electric car. Hardly a Tesla, probably a Leaf. But it is not important.
The office smelled nice of coffee. The specialist asked the guest:
- Recently blinded?
- Yes. It happened ...
- Most importantly, recently. Do you know neuroplasticity?
- Of course. For example, in blind dogs, the sense of smell is exacerbated, and in humans - touch, hearing.
- Great example. At one time, the blind helped the air defense of the besieged Leningrad perfectly. And a person who has recently become blind has a visual cortex, the huge processing power of which is not involved in any way. Not yet involved.
“And you want to organize on it something like GPU computing?”
- It’s too late for you to participate in our experiment. Your neuroplasticity is already irreversibly moving towards telepathy. Just kidding.
- What are you, it's easy to guess. Okay, get me a neural interface.
...
- Tonya, congratulations, all three operations were successful. And on the heart, and on the neck, and on the visual cortex.
- On the heart? And on the neck?
- For your visual cortex there is now a fierce struggle. The rest of the brain tends to gradually grab it for their needs. To avoid this, she must solve some problems continuously. So feeding the neural interface through something like Qi is not an option. They forgot to turn it on, you know. It is necessary that it works without any maintenance around the clock. And the heart ... At school they told you why it beats, although soft?
- I do remember. It knocks on the chest.
- That's it. The amplitude is rather big. Here we are, as in a famous song, and implanted a magnet directly into the heart. And a stationary winding was located nearby. And they passed a cable in a biologically inert sheath through the neck.
- Goodbye, gymnastics for the neck?
- What are you, what are you. Four "squares", stock hoo, what will he do?
You can even shake your head from side to side.
- Yes, I look now, probably ...
- You look the same. The seams are barely visible, sorry, I can’t show you this. Yes, and more. At any time, the neural interface can be checked with the built-in test utility. The idea is taken from Rain Man. Try to multiply a couple of eight-digit numbers in your mind.
- Oh, it turned out. And if divided?
- You can’t. Multiplication only. The utility is simplified to the limit. KISS principle. Okay, ahead of the weekend, now we are going to the first test of our invention. Today there will be a competition between several autopilot developers. We will get a serious
advantage: we have you, participants in the experiment.
- I agree. By the way, do you have a Leaf?
- Let's move on to "you." By the way, I'm Petya. I have a homemade. But the details from the "Leaf" are in it. Only in competition do we use it. Because fifteen participants will fit only in Iveco Daily, which we bought cheaply from Transavtoliz. Instead of the back row of seats, they put equipment for communication with neural interfaces. Fifteen people with live coprocessors on one silicon chest! Well, I'll be in the driver's seat. The organizers of the competition will put a camera there, so as not to try to control. You can only press the mushroom button if necessary, the rest is disqualification. Well, you can sleep, or
think about anything, or chat with a neighbor. This does not affect the work of the visual cortex.
...
- First place! Tonya, you must have heard how some pieces of polystyrene foam scattered among competitors? And with us, no. This is the organizers of the scenery and moving mannequins recreated in the smallest details of the situation in which the Tesla autopilot failed.
“But is our autopilot better, but impractical?”
- Because the programmer wrote this opus in one evening with heavy libraries. Squeezed - and get instead of one autopilot fifteen, even more effective.
- Tell me, am I now considered a cyborg?
- I guess, yes.
“And the cyborg's heart beats.” So romantic!
Historical note: the character of Petit has a real prototype. If he became an IT specialist and visits the Habr, he recognizes himself by reading the next chapter. Well, if he went to neurophysiologists, he probably laughs now, considering everything described impossible. But fiction does not tolerate too
serious an approach.
That's all for now, and in the next chapter we will be transported to 1993 and try to fit the EC1863 computer into the plot.