Then my answer is "no. I don't." And nobody else does either. You are probably the only person in the whole world who does this, or close enough to be a rounding error. :)
It would be nice to know what the potential long term damage of something like this is. Relate it to exercise. You work out one group of muscles all the time as much as you can, and the rest of the body is near worthless.
At best you have someone who is basically an idiot savant. At worst, you have someone who has forgotten basic life functions, but handles being a soldier like the best of them.
> At best you have someone who is basically an idiot savant. At worst, you have someone who has forgotten basic life functions, but handles being a soldier like the best of them.
From both an industrial and military perspective, this seems like a feature, not a bug.
In fact, it really brings to mind a similar fictional concept, stylized Focus, from Vernon Vinge's Deepness in the Sky. Here, Vinge describes how teams of these "idiot savants", specialized in a certain area, are led by neurotypical managers who direct their output toward broader strategic goals.
If this was repeatably and broadly applicable in human learning, I could definitely imagine this achieving widespread usage, especially in developing countries willing to exchange personal well-being for collective (familial or societal) success.
I did a week long retreat last year using a prototype tDCS device made specifically as a beta for helping mindfulness practice. I found it useful as an aid definitely in relaxation and as a byproduct for focusing. I would do it more often if they figured out a cheap, sustainable way to put the electrodes on the head without all the gels/sponges/etc.
I doubt that's going to happen anytime soon. ECG/EKG/EEG's require the probes to have a good electrical connection to your skin. And dry skin is a pretty terrible conductor.
The gels help the probe adhere to you skin and provide better conductivity. You'd still need something to hold it in place anyway.
Protip for removing the gel: Warm water helps a lot :D
Ah ok I thought you meant using water as a medium for stimulation with gel electrodes. But yeah sadly I know exactly what you mean, I’ve had to clean a lot of gel electrodes.
Title should sound more like this:Increased learning speed in monkeys.
It's also from 2017. As we are now two years later, have these findings been replicated with humans?
Yeah, there's been a bunch of studies published on how this works for humans too. Just a matter of moderation. Only thing is, we don't know about long term effects (if any) yet.
It seems to be following the same path as ECT, LENS, TMS, etc, electric or magnetic stimulation showing improvements in memory, and cognition, especially in those with deficiencies from issues such as severe depression, bipolar, ADD/ADHD, schizophrenia, PTSD, and I want to say TMS helps with autism symptoms too?
In any case, it's purpose is mainly for those with disorders, although I'm sure we'll see plenty of people sell it as a nootropic.
It's worth noting that these improvements from current therapies I mentioned seem to mostly benefit those with disorders and not neurotypical people (don't expect a 40% improvement if you're normal. But if you can't get out of your home because of depression then yeah it might be a bigger improvement)
Frankly, I could never trust the motives behind anyone who made this sort of thing without the most intense scrutiny.
Maybe in the early stages when no one really knows any better, but as things get refined, I have severe doubts that "little tweaks" here and there would not be attempted in search of ways to engineer people\brain matter that agrees with you (the maker/auditor)'s sensibilities.
In fact, scratch that, this reeks of the idea of nerve stapling in the early stages. Hard pass.
Sometimes, it just isn't worth opening the box. Hate coming off as a Luddite, but I've read enough to know where this type of thing inevitably strays into.
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[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 80.4 ms ] threadDoesn't everybody do this today?
Is this some sort of weird fake-question nerd-brag?
No bragging, fake question.
Then, say you're on HN, do you use the back button to go back to HN?
I might be in the minority to use incognito tabs for "random sites", but I've seen a lot of people opening links into different tabs.
To me that's even more important on mobile where we tend to clean our browsers less often.
At best you have someone who is basically an idiot savant. At worst, you have someone who has forgotten basic life functions, but handles being a soldier like the best of them.
From both an industrial and military perspective, this seems like a feature, not a bug.
In fact, it really brings to mind a similar fictional concept, stylized Focus, from Vernon Vinge's Deepness in the Sky. Here, Vinge describes how teams of these "idiot savants", specialized in a certain area, are led by neurotypical managers who direct their output toward broader strategic goals.
If this was repeatably and broadly applicable in human learning, I could definitely imagine this achieving widespread usage, especially in developing countries willing to exchange personal well-being for collective (familial or societal) success.
I did a week long retreat last year using a prototype tDCS device made specifically as a beta for helping mindfulness practice. I found it useful as an aid definitely in relaxation and as a byproduct for focusing. I would do it more often if they figured out a cheap, sustainable way to put the electrodes on the head without all the gels/sponges/etc.
I doubt that's going to happen anytime soon. ECG/EKG/EEG's require the probes to have a good electrical connection to your skin. And dry skin is a pretty terrible conductor.
The gels help the probe adhere to you skin and provide better conductivity. You'd still need something to hold it in place anyway.
Protip for removing the gel: Warm water helps a lot :D
If you ever have a sleep study for example they place them all over your head and it's a little messy, warm water lets it wash right out.
In any case, it's purpose is mainly for those with disorders, although I'm sure we'll see plenty of people sell it as a nootropic.
It's worth noting that these improvements from current therapies I mentioned seem to mostly benefit those with disorders and not neurotypical people (don't expect a 40% improvement if you're normal. But if you can't get out of your home because of depression then yeah it might be a bigger improvement)
Maybe in the early stages when no one really knows any better, but as things get refined, I have severe doubts that "little tweaks" here and there would not be attempted in search of ways to engineer people\brain matter that agrees with you (the maker/auditor)'s sensibilities.
In fact, scratch that, this reeks of the idea of nerve stapling in the early stages. Hard pass.
Sometimes, it just isn't worth opening the box. Hate coming off as a Luddite, but I've read enough to know where this type of thing inevitably strays into.