Where to focus on human improvements


created: Fri 20 October 2017; status: published;

Semi-organized notes on a decision-making process for deciding which areas of human augmentation are a useful focus for the different capabilities of the amateur and professional augmentation communities.

Things Humans Can't Sense

  • Altitude
  • Direction
  • Electric/Magnetic Field
  • Infrared / Heat
  • Ultraviolet
  • Presence

Things Humans Sense Inexactly

  • Wind Speed and Direction
  • Temperature
  • Vision (at night)

Sensory Input

  • Sound - auditory tones or actual speech
  • Pressure (physical pressure on skin)
  • Temperature - hot or cold applied to skin
  • Sight - augmented reality overlay or frequency-shifted vision
  • Vibration
  • Taste - not feasible so far
  • Smell - no feasible so far

Problem: Electronics require power and can't be easily carried on the body

Very flat, flexible batteries could be good for short periods stuck to body, but will irritate skin over period of a few hours. Thicker batteries can be carried in a running belt or generic fanny pack. A "cache belt" would be less conspicuous in everyday wear. Implantable batteries are a bad idea for many reasons. They have to be small on the scale of a finger magnet or RFID chip to be feasible for hobby implantation. The small size means they carry little power, especially given the need for wireless charging electronics taking up that space. It's just not a feasible power supply without jumping to medically-large batteries like in pacemakers.