DARPA develops tiny implants that treat diseases and depression without medication

by
in science on (#2SFB)
story imageSo, how y'all feeling? We can fix that.

DARPA, on the back of the US government's BRAIN program, has begun the development of tiny electronic implants that interface directly with your nervous system and can directly control and regulate many different diseases and chronic conditions, such as arthritis, PTSD, inflammatory bowel diseases (Crohn's disease), and depression. The program, called ElectRx (pronounced 'electrics'), ultimately aims to replace medication with "closed-loop" neural implants, which constantly assess the state of your health, and then provide the necessary nerve stimulation to keep your various organs and biological systems functioning properly.

The old joke is that there's no need to study biology since eventually it's all just chemistry anyway. But maybe behind the chemistry it's actually all just electrical? If that's the case, I'd like a USB port wired in, please.

Electrical (Score: 2, Insightful)

by zafiro17@pipedot.org on 2014-09-17 10:42 (#2SGC)

It occurs to me this would be a pretty good plot/subject for a science fiction movie - some kind of obligatorily-worn mood changer. The risk of abuse is obvious too: imagine a totalitarian society that has dealt with the problem of pedophilia/etc by making anyone convicted of it wear the helmet that dulls that urge by electrically stimulating some nerve center in the brain. What would those helmet wearers do? What would that say about society? Repeat for other crimes - thought crime, etc.

That's a great story; I think I'll write it.
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