• 2 Posts
  • 11 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 12th, 2023

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  • Of course many comments in this threas are exaggerated; there won’t be played any ads into your brain.

    But there are some implications for the usage of Neuralink that are worth thinking about it - especially when it comes to privacy:

    Given that it “just” runs with firmware, so that the implant can function in a way most stable and reliably, and also given that there will be no subscription model involved into all of that, will the user (patient) be able to control the functionality of the implant (e.g. controlling the intensity of the eletric signal sent out from the implant to counteract the intensity of a tremor)?

    And how will that happen? One thing I could think of is to control the implant with a smartphone app. How good will that smartphone app be? Will it be programmed sloppily like these apps we know from Internet-Of-Things-Apps and have a ton of bugs? Are those (medicinal!) apps secure in terms of privacy? What is with the product support? Will the implant be discontinued after a few years (and also the app)? What if your smartphone fails (no power or hardware failure, or after an update it doesn’t work)?

    A friend of mine has an app to monitor her blood sugar. She is not qute satified with the app. Luckily the provider of those diabetes sensors provided a separate device, so that the app is just an addition for measuring when you are travelling, for example. But in their last iteration they tried to omit the separate device, probably in order to save costs. My friend had to explicitly ask for it.

    With that in mind I’m not keen on having control on such medicinal devices with a smartphone only. If the smartphone fails, there would be no backup. Will such similar things be the case regarding Neuralink?



  • I’m sure these implants will give much needed ease to patients who suffer frem tremors like parkinson and other neurological diseases. But the things I’m mostly concerned about are:

    • Will health insurance pay for the implant in a one-time-payment? Will it be a subscription model? What happens when you can’t pay your subscription? Will it be shut off?
    • Will the implant be operated through firmware (like a pacemaker) or software, which reqires frequent updates? If so, will there be - like computer software - “new features” implemented (“With version 2.0 you will be able to share your Neuralink experience with other Neuralink users. Your data may not be leaked, pinky promise.”
    • What if a certain mentally unstable CEO throws a tantrum that will affect the performance of the Neuralink implant negatively? Will there be any legal protection from such thing?



  • It would be a huge contribution to safety if cars weren’t ridiciulusly big, like SUVs. Where I’m from, Germany, once you pass the driving exam, your driver’s licence ist valid for life. There are neither, at least for cars, additional check-ups regarding medical conditions (as pointed out by @piper11), nor any mandatory refreshing lessons regarding changes in traffic rules or the overall ability to operate a vehicle.

    The driver’s license is handed out with a leap of faith. If traffic safety would really matter that much, a general psychological test should have to be performed before obtaining a license. And that’s where the car lobby comes into the game: If people would have to pass a psychological exam, probably half of the drivers would not be deemed fit to be on the road.

    Unfortunately, it’s the reckless drivers who are seen by the auto-lobby as potential customers for new cars. Those who are buying overly motorized cars are more prone to buy a newer model after a couple of years. Police will handle these kind of drivers with kid gloves. You have to be driving *really *recklessy when you would to be stopped by police. On the other hand, drivers of small cars are not to be considered good customers by the auto-lobby - as they are satisfied with what they have. They don’t replace their vehicle often. That’s why overly motorized cars and also SUVs exist: Asshole cars are marketed to asshole people.



  • Someone in the Fediverse (I don’t know where and who) posted that you have to add the following filters into U-Block Origin. When done you shouldn’t see any anti-adblock-warnings :

    youtube.com##+js(set,yt.config_.openPopupConfig.supportedPopups.adBlockMessageViewModel,false)
    
    youtube.com##+js(set,Object.prototype.adBlocksFound,O)
    
    youtube.com##+js(set,ytplayer.config.aras.raw_player_response.adPlacements,[])
    
    youtube.com##+js(set,Object.prototype.hasAllowedlnstreamAd,true)
    

    I might add that I haven’t experienced any anti-adblock-warnings yet, but I added these filters in advance. I might be worth a shot!


  • When I was a student I had almost everything pirated, because of the lack of money and unreasonable pricing. Back then it was easy because in most cases I knew someone who knew someone who already had pirated the program.

    Meanwhile I switched for alternatives (for instance I used to have Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, now I have purchased Affinity Photo and Designer) as the trend leads into the direction of subscribed software (software-as-a-service). I prefer software to be installed locally and not dependent of a stable internet connection. Also, I have no problem with paying for proprietary software, given it is priced reasonably.