geuis

I moved to SF in 2007. I’m turning 40 in a couple days. I live in Lower Haight.

So many questions. What parts of the city did you frequent? What were they like (safe parts, bad parts, where did you sleep, where did you spend your time, who helped, who hurt?)

I know a lot of people that were born and raised here or have spent decades in the city. I frequent a bar in Lower Haight called Nickies. It goes back to 1946 and has a storied history. Did you ever encounter it? There was an old fellow named Henry that used to frequent the area that passed away a few years ago.

Guess I’m generally just asking a wide net of questions here.

He is referring to a general category of technology being researched in many places. The example you gave is one type. Overall, the idea is to be able to read brain activity at a high enough level of accuracy to use the signals to control machines.

Some devices have required physically installing wires into the brain with a cable coming out. There was a program a few years ago where this was being done to research giving sight to blind patients.

Others are less invasive and try to read signals via the scalp. Other techniques require surgery, but it's to re-route nerves that might control a lost limb close to the surface of the skin. A prosthetic arm can then read the neural signals in the nerve and move.

For hummingbird22's case, in the next 10-15 years you may see a hat she can wear that reads her thoughts. She'll be able to "speak" simply by thinking. The computer can interpret if she wants to type something out, or move her chair, order an assistant robot around, etc. Imagine having a robot arm on the chair that responds to thought. This has already been done with research monkeys.

Going further, it should be possible for you to have a lot more independence in the future

That is so interesting. Thank you for sharing the photo. I hope that the wrist procedure goes well. I'm glad we live in a time where an obviously intelligent person has access to technology that enables them to communicate rather than be shut in. Thinking back to your comment about Scooby-doo. I'd love to ask you a million questions but I'll step aside and keep reading your responses to others.

I'm sorry if this is a personal question, but I am curious about your hand. From folks with cerebral palsy that I have seen, their hands are often like that. Is it uncomfortable? Is it a problem with the underlying bone structure, or an effect of muscle constriction?

Is the constant life-long contracting responsible for some of the misshaping of the hand in OP's picture above? Is it possible some treatment with something like botox to paralyze some of the muscles would lead to more flexibility and usage over the years if treated early?