Link #69: Flash Drive in Your Finger!

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Transcend USB Flash Drive

 

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Link #69: Flash Drive in Your Finger!

Transcend USB Flash Drive
USB flash drive from Transcend. Image credit: Anton Fomkin cc2.0

The incredible survivability of cockroaches is due to the fact that they’ve had more time to evolve than most other organisms on the planet. As we explained in our last article, they’re not only capable of resisting radiation damage but can also survive on nothing but your fingernails and dead skin cells.

While cockroaches’ strength lies in the level to which they’ve evolved, we humans aren’t far behind either. Our biggest strength is our innovation which has given rise to our technology.

It is through our technology that we progress further and will progress further. We’ve, in fact, begun already. For instance, did you know that a programmer in Finland has a flash drive in his finger?

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Why Put a Flash Drive in Your Finger?

If you lose a finger because of an accident, it’s not a bad idea to try to go for upgrades when getting an artificial finger. Moreover, if you work in the software industry, doesn’t it make sense to make that upgrade a USB flash drive? This was the thinking of Jerry Jalava who lost the ring finger of his left hand in an accident.

Jerry is a programmer from Finland and he crashed his Ducati Monster 696 one week after he bought it. This is how he lost the ring finger of his left hand. When he was brought into the hospital after the accident, his doctors told him that his finger couldn’t be saved.

When they heard about his profession, i.e., computer programming, they joked that he should get a ‘finger’ flash drive. Jerry did exactly that and designed a prosthetic finger for himself that contained a USB flash drive and could store up to 2 GB of data.

His USB finger is very useful, especially for someone in his profession. It is functional too. All he needs to do to access the flash drive is peel back the artificial skin from his nail.

Once attached to a USB port, he can even leave his finger behind to carry on his normal work. Doesn’t this seem like a cyborg like power? He isn’t the only human to have almost become a cyborg either. There are others.


Human Cyborgs on Earth!

Cyborg
Cyborg by Linus Bohman (Bohman) cc2.0

There are a number of people on earth who’ve turned their disadvantage into an advantage like Jerry Jalava. One of them is Neil Harbisson who was born colour blind but can now see more colours than normal humans. In fact, he can hear colours because of his advanced electronic eye that plays a special note for every colour that Harbisson hears in his head.

There is also Kevin Warwick who has a chip embedded in his arm. This chip actually allows Warwick to control electronic devices in his home just by thought! He can walk through a room and turn on or off lights, open and close doors, and even use other electronic devices.

The ability to combine technology with the human body has benefits especially for people who’ve lost parts of their body. Jesse Sullivan is the perfect example. Jesse has an artificial or bionic arm that he can control with his mind. He can control his grip and even feel the temperature of the object he is touching.




Can you Guess the Next Link in the Chain?

What will be the next link in our Chain of Facts? Think you might know? Scroll down to add a comment below with your best guess.

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You can view the full list of links in the chain here.


Sources:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7949018.stm
http://www.pcworld.com/article/161460/storage.html
http://www.mnn.com/leaderboard/stories/7-real-life-human-cyborgs
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5005118/Computer-programmer-from-Finland-has-lost-finger-replaced-with-USB-drive.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1162662/Computer-programmer-lost-finger-motorcycle-crash-replaces–USB-drive.html

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