Kara Platoni's Blog - Posts Tagged "biohacking"
Bay Area December appearances!
December 9: The big night! Please join me at Book Passage at the San Francisco Ferry building for my very first official reading, as the hardcover edition of We Have the Technology arrives hot off the press.
Address: 1 Sausalito, San Francisco Ferry Building #42, San Francisco.
Time: 6 pm
December 10: J-Book Party at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism. Free to the public, with special opening musical guest The Phony Platonis and a Q&A hosted by Eric Simons (Author of The Secret Life of Sports Fans).
Address: North Gate Hall Library, UC Berkeley.
Time: Reception at 6:30, event starts at 7 pm.
Map, directions and more here.
Address: 1 Sausalito, San Francisco Ferry Building #42, San Francisco.
Time: 6 pm
December 10: J-Book Party at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism. Free to the public, with special opening musical guest The Phony Platonis and a Q&A hosted by Eric Simons (Author of The Secret Life of Sports Fans).
Address: North Gate Hall Library, UC Berkeley.
Time: Reception at 6:30, event starts at 7 pm.
Map, directions and more here.
So ... what's We Have The Technology about, anyway?
Hi everyone!
With my book only 2 weeks away from publication, I thought this would be a good time to share a little about what it's about and how I reported it.
My book is about sensory perception -- how the brain constructs your version of the world, or the experiences that make your life ... yours.
Each of the 11 chapters is about a lab, company, biohacker or other explorer out on the cutting edge of the science of perception. For example, in the chapter on vision, we meet one of the first people on the planet who has ever re-learned how to see. He was born with normal vision, lost it as an adult to a genetic disorder called retinitis pigmentosa, and then volunteered to become one of the first people in the world to try the retinal implant, a neuroprosthetic device surgically implanted at the back of his eye that now restores some degree of his sight. Here we'll find out: How does the world look to him?
But not all of the chapters are about such clinical forms of technology. To research the chapter on scent, I explored the connection between loss of smell and Alzheimers' disease, spending time in a Parisian hospital where a group of perfumers are using "olfactotherapy" to help people recall lost memories. For the chapter on taste, I raced through labs, kitchens and vats of pickles to meet the people who are on the hunt for a sixth taste ... something beyond the five we already know: sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami, or savory. To explore time, I met the makers of some very special clocks -- both of them designed to alter our perception of what time is and where we are in it.
Then again, I did get to nerd out about some pretty high-tech gear. For the touch chapter, I sat in on a robotic surgery, to learn how next-generation telerobotics may one day give us the ability to to control robot arms (or heck, prosthetic limbs) with not only the grace of a surgeon, but the sensitivity of their hands. (No, they did not let me drive.) To learn about virtual reality, I went to a military base where researchers are trying to harness the power of VR to create wartime scenarios so real that they could be used to prevent post-tramautic stress disorder. And to explore whether humans can ever give themselves a true sixth sense, something beyond the built-in five (touch, taste, sight, smell, hearing) I hung out with a group of biohackers who are ... well, you'll just have to read to find out!
To write this book, I took a year off from teaching journalism at UC Berkeley, and sofa-surfed the world, headed for any lab, museum, base, start-up or biohacker basement where I could get in on a good experiment in sensory perception. I met robots, piercers, soldiers, chefs, transhumanists, engineers, surgeons and perfumers -- and each one had a story better than the last.
The book is out December 8, and can be found in any of these places .. and more, too! I'd love to hear what you think, either about the book or about the technologies and issues it encompasses.
Amazon
Powells
Barnes & Noble
Kepler’s
Indiebound (a way to find an independent bookstore near you)
With my book only 2 weeks away from publication, I thought this would be a good time to share a little about what it's about and how I reported it.
My book is about sensory perception -- how the brain constructs your version of the world, or the experiences that make your life ... yours.
Each of the 11 chapters is about a lab, company, biohacker or other explorer out on the cutting edge of the science of perception. For example, in the chapter on vision, we meet one of the first people on the planet who has ever re-learned how to see. He was born with normal vision, lost it as an adult to a genetic disorder called retinitis pigmentosa, and then volunteered to become one of the first people in the world to try the retinal implant, a neuroprosthetic device surgically implanted at the back of his eye that now restores some degree of his sight. Here we'll find out: How does the world look to him?
But not all of the chapters are about such clinical forms of technology. To research the chapter on scent, I explored the connection between loss of smell and Alzheimers' disease, spending time in a Parisian hospital where a group of perfumers are using "olfactotherapy" to help people recall lost memories. For the chapter on taste, I raced through labs, kitchens and vats of pickles to meet the people who are on the hunt for a sixth taste ... something beyond the five we already know: sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami, or savory. To explore time, I met the makers of some very special clocks -- both of them designed to alter our perception of what time is and where we are in it.
Then again, I did get to nerd out about some pretty high-tech gear. For the touch chapter, I sat in on a robotic surgery, to learn how next-generation telerobotics may one day give us the ability to to control robot arms (or heck, prosthetic limbs) with not only the grace of a surgeon, but the sensitivity of their hands. (No, they did not let me drive.) To learn about virtual reality, I went to a military base where researchers are trying to harness the power of VR to create wartime scenarios so real that they could be used to prevent post-tramautic stress disorder. And to explore whether humans can ever give themselves a true sixth sense, something beyond the built-in five (touch, taste, sight, smell, hearing) I hung out with a group of biohackers who are ... well, you'll just have to read to find out!
To write this book, I took a year off from teaching journalism at UC Berkeley, and sofa-surfed the world, headed for any lab, museum, base, start-up or biohacker basement where I could get in on a good experiment in sensory perception. I met robots, piercers, soldiers, chefs, transhumanists, engineers, surgeons and perfumers -- and each one had a story better than the last.
The book is out December 8, and can be found in any of these places .. and more, too! I'd love to hear what you think, either about the book or about the technologies and issues it encompasses.
Amazon
Powells
Barnes & Noble
Kepler’s
Indiebound (a way to find an independent bookstore near you)
Podcasts!
Howdy, everyone!
I've been doing a ton of radio and podcast interviews recently, and I wanted to share two of my favorites so far. I really enjoyed speaking with the interviewers and thought they had great, thought-provoking questions.
Here's the Inquiring Minds podcast interview, hosted by Kishore Hari for Mother Jones.
Listen to the episode for free on SoundCloud.
And here's the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast, hosted by David Barr Kirtley for Wired magazine.
Listen to the episode for free on the Wired website.
Both podcasts are also free to download or stream on iTunes. I hope you'll enjoy them!
I've been doing a ton of radio and podcast interviews recently, and I wanted to share two of my favorites so far. I really enjoyed speaking with the interviewers and thought they had great, thought-provoking questions.
Here's the Inquiring Minds podcast interview, hosted by Kishore Hari for Mother Jones.
Listen to the episode for free on SoundCloud.
And here's the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast, hosted by David Barr Kirtley for Wired magazine.
Listen to the episode for free on the Wired website.
Both podcasts are also free to download or stream on iTunes. I hope you'll enjoy them!
June readings and events
Hi everyone,
I'm very excited for two events coming up -- if you're in the San Francisco Bay Area or Denver, Colorado, I hope you'll join me!
On June 4, I'll be participating in the enormous, wonderful Bay Area Book Festival. I'll be joining author Abby Smith Rumsey ("When We Are No More: How Digital Memory Is Shaping Our Future") for a conversation on the future of consciousness, memory and sensory perception. The discussion will be moderated by Berkeleyside founder, journalist Lance Knobel, and will be a preview for "Uncharted, the Berkeley Festival of Ideas." Our talk goes from 3:15 to 4:30 pm and we're in the Berkeley City College auditorium. More information and advance tickets here.
And on June 8, I'll be giving a talk at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, which some of you might know as the setting for my Chapter #1. The museum is one of the world's leaders in the quest to find a sixth basic taste -- something beyond salty, sweet, sour, bitter and savory (umami.) Through a vast citizen science project, they're testing whether people can also taste ... fat. I'll speak about what happened when they put me through their experiment, as well as some of my other adventures with biohackers, engineers, surgeons and others exploring the cutting edge of sensory perception.
The talk is at 7:00 pm at the museum's Ricketson Auditorium and is $10 for the public or $8 for museum members. More info and tickets are here.
Please come on by if you can, and help me spread the word!
Next stops in my summer book tour: Los Angeles and San Diego in July!
I'm very excited for two events coming up -- if you're in the San Francisco Bay Area or Denver, Colorado, I hope you'll join me!
On June 4, I'll be participating in the enormous, wonderful Bay Area Book Festival. I'll be joining author Abby Smith Rumsey ("When We Are No More: How Digital Memory Is Shaping Our Future") for a conversation on the future of consciousness, memory and sensory perception. The discussion will be moderated by Berkeleyside founder, journalist Lance Knobel, and will be a preview for "Uncharted, the Berkeley Festival of Ideas." Our talk goes from 3:15 to 4:30 pm and we're in the Berkeley City College auditorium. More information and advance tickets here.
And on June 8, I'll be giving a talk at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, which some of you might know as the setting for my Chapter #1. The museum is one of the world's leaders in the quest to find a sixth basic taste -- something beyond salty, sweet, sour, bitter and savory (umami.) Through a vast citizen science project, they're testing whether people can also taste ... fat. I'll speak about what happened when they put me through their experiment, as well as some of my other adventures with biohackers, engineers, surgeons and others exploring the cutting edge of sensory perception.
The talk is at 7:00 pm at the museum's Ricketson Auditorium and is $10 for the public or $8 for museum members. More info and tickets are here.
Please come on by if you can, and help me spread the word!
Next stops in my summer book tour: Los Angeles and San Diego in July!
