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Cybernetics
October 29, 2007
by Anonymous,
2 years 4 weeks ago
Comment: 25713
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I find the idea very interesting, however I wonder how they would explain our current exploitations of the human nervous system which rely on the presence of electrical impulses.
Hearing implants are designed to use electrical impulses to allow subjects to crank up amplification the same way you turn up the volume on a TV. Nerves have also been exploited in the brain so much as to allow for the replacement of eyes (http://www.mobilemag.com/content/100/102/C7184/) and elsewhere as in the addition of a bionic arm (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/13/AR200609...). In any case, electrical devices are being used by subjects almost as intuitively as the organic parts they're meant to replace, which suggests that they are functioning in a similar way.
On the one hand, the human nervous system may adapt somewhat to the devices, but if it only functioned by way of mechanical waves, why would it provide electrical impulses just out of the blue?
If it weren't for these innovations, I would find their heat discovery fairly convincing. As it is, it seems to be yet another unexplained mystery of the life. Still, I'd love to hear more about the sound theory. Maybe they actually use a combination of sound and electricity. Maybe it's much more complex (or simple) than we ever imagined.