Futuristic gifts for the nerd who wants to be a cyborg
And finally, we come to my favorite section of the gift guide: gadgets and devices that will make you (or whoever you’re buying a gift for) feel like they’re not quite one of us — like they’re currently living in 2024, rather than 2014. I’m talking about technology that is so advanced that it changes how you perceive and interact with the real world. Tech that, for all intents and purposes, makes you transhuman.
At-home USB gene sequencer – $1,000. Due to advances in nanotechnology and microfluidics, DNA sequencing devices have got a lot smaller and faster over the last few years, ultimately resulting in the MinION USB stick, priced at around $1,000. With your genome sequenced at home — by your laptop! — you could theoretically proceed to develop your own gene therapies, to provide enhancements and modifications akin to comic book superpowers.
A ‘gamer’ wearing the new Foc.us tDCS headset
tDCS headset – $200. tDCS, or transcranial direct current stimulation, is a technique thatreportedly boosts your brain’s performance — both in terms of learning new skills, and faster reaction times. As you might imagine, this apparently makes tDCS rather powerful for gamers — or for people learning a new language, perhaps. If you want something that’s almost ready to go, the Foc.us V2 is probably your best bet. Most tDCS headsets require some amount of DIY self-assembly, however. Just like those magnetic ball bearings, don’t buy tDCS equipment for a child — and make sure you do lots of reading before you actually try it out on yourself.
Google Glass or Samsung Gear VR – $800 and up. Google Glass, which puts a small display above your right eye, is probably the closest thing we have to a working, usefulwearable computer that augments reality. They’re still reasonably expensive, but you can pick one up second-hand on Ebay for around $800. If you know someone who already owns the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, it’s worth looking at the Gear VR — a $200 attachment that turns the Note 4 into something close to the Oculus Rift. The Gear VR seems to be quite hard to find in the US at the moment, but I think it should be fully available before Christmas.
Body hacking – $???. Body hacking, and more generally quantified self, covers everything from wearing a Fitbit exercise tracker ($100) — which you wear as a wristband — to embedding computers like the Fitbit underneath your skin. For the ultimate transhumanist Christmas gift, you could arrange an appointment with Steve Haworth, a body modification artist who will do subdermal implants for other people. If Haworth isn’t available, your local tattoo parlor might offer similar services, too.
Obviously, you should think quite carefully about this one — though, to be honest, thanks to the recent popularization of subdermal piercings and other body modifications, it is fairlysafe to implant a computer under your skin. If you don’t want a computer under your skin, I’ve heard that simply having small magnets implanted in your fingertips can give you a rather awesome “sixth sense” — and allow you to pick up paperclips more easily, of course.
If you have your own nerdy, geeky, or downright futuristic gift suggestions — or if you’re a futurist or transhumanist yourself, and there’s something you’d love to receive as a gift this holiday season — let us know in the comments below
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