“I’m sort of inured to pain by this point. Anesthetic is illegal for people like me, so we learn to live without it; I’ve made scalpel incisions in my hands, pushed five-millimeter diameter needles through my skin, and once used a vegetable knife to carve a cavity into the tip of my index finger. I’m an idiot, but I’m an idiot working in the name of progress: I’m Lepht Anonym, scrapheap transhumanist. I work with what I can get.”
Interesting article, but that guy could have avoided some suffering if he knew about ways to lessen pain without anesthetic. A common technique used by body piercers is to numb the area with ice beforehand.
Really though, most of the benefits of those things don’t require any cutting. Why not wear the RFID tag in a bracelet? Why not temporarily glue rare earth magnets to his fingertips? If that guy ever needs an MRI, he’ll have to get the magnets removed from his body. If he’s in an accident and the doctors don’t know about his magnets, the MRI could injure him or damage the scanner.
I think he meant people doing self-surgery on their own. Ie. you can’t go to a pharmacy and buy lidocaine just because you want to implant an RFID chip in your hand. As for why, well, that’s perhaps another point.
Scrapheap Transhumanism:
“I’m sort of inured to pain by this point. Anesthetic is illegal for people like me, so we learn to live without it; I’ve made scalpel incisions in my hands, pushed five-millimeter diameter needles through my skin, and once used a vegetable knife to carve a cavity into the tip of my index finger. I’m an idiot, but I’m an idiot working in the name of progress: I’m Lepht Anonym, scrapheap transhumanist. I work with what I can get.”
Here is more: http://hplusmagazine.com/articles/enhanced/scrapheap-transhumanism
HT:Tyler Cowen
Interesting article, but that guy could have avoided some suffering if he knew about ways to lessen pain without anesthetic. A common technique used by body piercers is to numb the area with ice beforehand.
Really though, most of the benefits of those things don’t require any cutting. Why not wear the RFID tag in a bracelet? Why not temporarily glue rare earth magnets to his fingertips? If that guy ever needs an MRI, he’ll have to get the magnets removed from his body. If he’s in an accident and the doctors don’t know about his magnets, the MRI could injure him or damage the scanner.
Edit: Oh, he has a blog. It’s umm… interesting.
Just a note: Lepht is genderless. It identifies as gender neutral.
Fringe people are associated with defects both mental and physical; like many stereotypes, there’s some truth to it.
Why is anesthetic illegal for “people like him”?
Due to not being an appropriately-credentialed expert, I expect. The article does mention that he got a very negative reaction from a doctor.
I think he meant people doing self-surgery on their own. Ie. you can’t go to a pharmacy and buy lidocaine just because you want to implant an RFID chip in your hand. As for why, well, that’s perhaps another point.