menometrorrhagia

I know nobody reads this anymore, particularly since I don't write here anymore, so this may be the last post.

Anyway, I have had a few really good ideas over the years only to find that someone else already or very soon thereafter had developed the same or similar idea. Recent examples include bio-solar and modular cars. Bio-solar is genetically engineering plant or other photosynthetic organisms to link their photosensitive enzymes to electron transport chains and produce electricity. That's more or less what these guys have done. Modular cars are a solution to the problem of wanting something tiny like a smart car to drive to and from work but needing something bigger for long trips or hauling anything bigger than a purse in cargo. My wife recently heard a story on NPR detailing this exact product.

So my next great idea is not so much a product, but a prediction. It's 100% accurate. In 50 to 100 years I pray someone digs up this blog post and officially recognizes my prognostication in the appropriate annals of history. Here it is:

Stem cell therapy, especially with regards to neurologic illness, is doomed to failure but cybernetic augmentation/adaptation will legitimately cure neurologic diseases. The reason for this is the incredibly complex cycle of development the human nervous system undergoes. Each step must be completed in order. Try to do step 289 and then go back to step 17 and it just doesn't work. Unless the entire nervous system can be recruited o recreate the milieu of the original step 17 even the addition of stem cells at their individual step 17 would be fruitless. Ontogeny matters. I'm going to make a bunch of shirts with that slogan and start wearing them to presentations on stem cells.

I'm not anti-stem cell research, I just think it's ultimately fruitless.

Cybernetics however are incredibly close to breaking through into real, curative treatments that sound like science fiction. Deep brain stimulators have already proved quite successful in treatment of Parkinson's disease, depression, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. More diseases are being studied all the time. (Personally, I think this is how we will cure obesity -- augment the satiety centers and Li'l Johnny Fatso suddenly eats 1000kcal/day less than he used to.)

Anyway, you read it here first. Oh, and LCD contact lenses that beam the image directly onto your retina.