Re: Dermal Display animation


The animation suggests that the dermal display (a video monitor
embedded e.g. in the hand) could display a wide variety of information,
some of it biomedical status information presumably derived from
implanted nanosensors as well as general data, email, a calculator,
etc. Doubtless this is true, but presumably the biomedical data could
just as easily be relayed by short-range rf or another link to external
displays which by the anticipated time frame should also be cheap and
ubiquitous; for example, displays the size and weight of a credit card
could be carried or would be cheap enough to be an item found scattered
in the home, office, and public environments.

We are left, therefore, with what seems like a pure fetish: the desire
to have this technology needlessly integrated with the body (in a
purely symbolic sense, since the technology thus spatially integrated
with the body remains inorganic, nonhuman), the desire to project
technology and its symbols onto, or, in this case, from within the
body; the desire, that is, to merge the image (or imaging) of
technology with the image of the body.

Is there any other credible motivation for such a project?

One predictable response is that the dermal display will be convenient,
not requiring that the user remember to carry an external device. But
this strains credibility, again, since at the projected time that such
a technology may be available, such displays could as easily be
embedded in clothing, in furniture, or be available ubiquitously in the
occupied environment. The availability of such alternatives at a
minimum neutralizes or reduces almost to the vanishing point any
claimed advantage or convenience of having the technology implanted in
the body.

The only remaining plausible explanation for the clearly strong appeal
of such a concept to some people is the fetish to merge with
technology.

Gina Miller wrote:
> I am pleased to announce that after months of working with Robert A. Freitas
> Jr. (author of the Nanomedicine book series) my animation of his Dermal
> Display screen is finally complete and available for download.
>
> Visit the Dermal Display webpage and download the movie here:
> http://www.nanogirl.com/museumfuture/dermaldisplay.htm
>
> Read more and post your comments regarding this animation here:
> http://maxanimation.blogspot.com/2005/09/dermal-display.html
>
>
> Kind regards,
>
>
> Gina "Nanogirl" Miller
> Nanotechnology Industries
> http://www.nanoindustries.com
> Personal: http://www.nanogirl.com/index2.html
> Nanotechnology Advisor Extropy Institute http://www.extropy.org
> Email: nanogirl@xxxxxxxxxxx
> "Nanotechnology: Solutions for the future."


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Relevant Pages

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