As data becomes more and more extractable from the pores of culture, it should not really be surprising that technologies are being developed to track even our bodies’ internal workings. Meet Proteus Biomedical – the Nike Plus of guts; makers of ingestible technologies and intelligent pills. According to the Economist:
“When one of Proteus’s pills is taken, stomach fluids activate the edible communications device it contains, which sends wireless signals through the body to another chip worn as a skin patch or embedded just under the skin. That, in turn, can upload data to a smart-phone or send it to a doctor via the internet.”
Ummm… wow.
Fascinating, odd, scary, exciting. I could go on, but the Economist still has a point to transmit:
“Various studies have estimated that a third to half of prescription drugs are not taken as prescribed—or at all. This leads to poor health: one study estimates needless hospitalisations as a result of such failings cost $100 billion a year in America alone.”
You can read the full article here. If you’re freaked out, you can watch a video of Bizkit, the sleepwalking dog here, instead.
