from Hacker News

Orphaned neurological implants

by cunidev on 12/13/22, 8:09 AM with 68 comments

  • by pannSun on 12/13/22, 11:44 AM

    While 'bricked' is inaccurate (they are merely unsupported, with no way of fixing them when they fail), think of this case when someone says insisting on free software and the right to repair is merely "ideological".

  • by Sakos on 12/13/22, 10:58 AM

    1) People here will cry murder, but regulation is the only real solution for something like this.

    2) I'm surprised a company like this isn't being at least partially funded by the DoD or DARPA.

  • by fonky on 12/13/22, 10:24 AM

    > Having a bricked eye implant doesn't just rob you of your sight – many Argus users experience crippling vertigo and other side effects of nonfunctional implants. The company has promised to "do our best to provide virtual support" to people whose Argus implants fail – but no more parts and no more patches.

    How can it be legal to do this to people, couldn't the implants just keep working with the existing firmware? Why did the company have to deliberately brick them all?

    This is absolutely horrifying.

  • by DoreenMichele on 12/13/22, 11:23 AM

    Yes, this is sort of sensationalizing the situation and making it sound intentionally nefarious. Regardless, the reality is people spent a lot of time, money and energy on having tech embedded in their body and adapting to it only to find themselves up shit creek without a paddle.

    And we seem resistant to learning any good lessons from it. We go for the "ooh, shiny" solutions that grab headlines, even for medical stuff where we should be more concerned about things like health and reliability.

    Being upset on behalf of these people most likely does nothing for them. Humanity would be better served by us wondering how to stop doing this kind of thing to people.

  • by reflexe on 12/13/22, 10:54 AM

  • by dncornholio on 12/13/22, 11:15 AM

    Bricked? No no no. Devices still working but just don't get updates.

    I don't know how people think devices need updates to keep working. No they don't and no they shouldn't.

  • by bearmode on 12/13/22, 11:04 AM

    And here's exactly why I wouldn't ever choose to get some implant from a tech company.

  • by isaacfrond on 12/13/22, 11:29 AM

    TL;DR: Startups fail often, leaving users of their products in the lurch, and investors often try to make back some losses by selling user data and patents. Data leakage is permanent and data breaches can be expensive. People with neural implants can be left with failing hardware permanently wired into their nervous systems and no way to maintain it. The only humane solution is for research and development to be funded publicly and for the technology to be standard, open, and replicable. [by gtp3]

  • by poulpy123 on 12/13/22, 10:32 AM

    Thanks absolutely inssne