• indomara@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    What terrifies me about this is that there are no regulations or laws in place that say how long this tech that is implanted into people must be supported. Those poor people who got the bionic eye implants are now left with no replacement parts or support after the company went under, leaving those with implants that still work seeing with borrowed time.

    https://spectrum.ieee.org/bionic-eye-obsolete

    • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
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      9 months ago

      Our right to repair and IP ownership laws are not ready for the cybernetic revolution

      • TheDarksteel94@sopuli.xyz
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        9 months ago

        It’ll be like Cyberpunk 2077: “Why repair when you could just get new stuff?” That’s basically a quote from V too, as you find the possibly last repair shop in Night City. Took me by surprise…

        • Fishytricks@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          I mean, my fridge (hitachi) has a condensation problem and was giving the error code thingy. The guys came down and quoted 1k+ to bring it back and fix it. I’m like. Literally can get a new fridge! At this point really, what should I do?

          Edit: it’s a 9 year old fridge

          • TheDarksteel94@sopuli.xyz
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            9 months ago

            Man, if right to repair laws were better for all industries, I’m sure the costs wouldn’t be this high either :/

          • GamingChairModel@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            That problem will always exist to some degree. We want good access to the ability to repair (in our laws, in how things are engineered or designed, in our supply chains and in industry support, in our cultural expectations, etc.), but there will always be certain types of repairs that will cost more than manufacturing a new one from scratch.

            Sometimes repairing some component will take more work than the entire component is worth. For example, the extreme example of a stripped screw shows us that replacing a stripped screw is cheaper and easier than trying to re-machine that same chunk of metal back into a screw shape.

            Or some types of breakage just can’t be repaired practically. A torn piece of paper can be taped back together, but it isn’t quite the same as a new piece of paper.

            Or the repair might require work done on a particular place that makes that labor more expensive. Welding a leaking pipe might be slower and more expensive than replacing that pipe, if the leak happens to be in a place that is hard to access. Or, as you learned, paying for a repairman to drive from one place to another with the right part might cost more than just the general cost of delivery of the whole thing.

            Often, troubleshooting will take a skilled troubleshooter much more time, and their time is worth more than the cost of replacing the broken thing, perhaps by a less skilled technician.

            As the price of a thing goes down compared to the cost of the labor to fix it, the calculus of whether a particular repair is worth the cost is going to shift towards replacement rather than repair. And that’s not always a bad thing, as it usually means the thing is getting more affordable, or people’s time is getting more valuable.

    • AlexWIWA@lemmy.ml
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      9 months ago

      My car isn’t even getting updates anymore and it’s fewer than ten years old. I’ll never put tech in my body until it’s legally required to be supported, and also open source so I can support it

      • Rikudou_Sage@lemmings.world
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        9 months ago

        With neural implants open source is not the main issue. Sure, it’s nice, but it’s not like I’m gonna do a brain surgery because I did RTFM.

        • tabular@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          There are pacemakers with bugs shocking hearts incorrectly and companies can’t help. They’re bust or don’t have the copyright to the code or just won’t help - buy our new product next year.

          It’s not difficult to imagine malicious brain implants when the users are not in control. Being open source, or rather “free software”, is equally a main issue.

          • Kbobabob@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            There are pacemakers with bugs shocking hearts incorrectly, and companies can’t help.

            Do you have a source for that? I work with these pacemaker companies fairly frequently, and I’m not aware of this, and a quick search didn’t turn up anything.

        • MartianSands@sh.itjust.works
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          9 months ago

          Perhaps not, but it would make it far easier for any sympathetic brain surgeon you managed to find who was willing to try and fix the problem for you.

          The key thing is not needing that specific company to help, but needing generic expert assistance is fine

      • ChrisLicht@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        I wonder if companies should be forced to provide a product’s core tech diagrams, material science, and major code base revisions to a kind of escrow, which is then released when the product is sunsetted.

        • AlexWIWA@lemmy.ml
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          9 months ago

          That would be ideal. If you’re not going to support it anymore, then you shouldn’t be allowed to keep the knowledge of it locked up.

    • Otter@lemmy.ca
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      9 months ago

      We also should have laws on other medical implants (ex. stents etc.), so there is a pathway to getting these regulations in

      We just need them yesterday

    • 1984@lemmy.today
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      9 months ago

      People are not too bright I’m afraid. I feel sorry for them, but it is what it is…

      • indomara@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Not too bright?

        If you lost your vision, would you not consider a bionic eye if it could restore your sight? Your independence?

        Have you ever seen that video of the blind child struggling to learn how to step down a curb into the road? How tense it was watching this adorable little kid struggle to navigate something that we take entirely for granted? Now imagine doing that for everything.

        https://youtu.be/BsXa-mAKDVs

        Learn to cook some basic meals for yourself, burn your finger every time you make a cup of coffee or tea because you put a finger in the lip to feel when it’s full. (Or use the little alarm you hang over your cup that makes a terrible squeal when water hits it.)

        Remember to pin socks together when you take them off so you don’t lose the match in the wash and need to ask someone to help you match them.

        Mark the settings on every appliance from your washer to your microwave because they all use seamless buttons and dials. Mix up your shampoo and conditioner every time you forget to put them in the same place.

        Hire someone to do the most basic tasks for you because you cannot see to properly scrub surfaces or sweep and mop, you can be methodical and keep things mostly ok, but to find the bits that need a scrub?

        Have to take public transport and navigate the endless construction and idiots who leave scooters and cars parked on the sidewalk.

        https://www.tiktok.com/@jemmabrown8/video/7159318917033282821

        A blind person is not “dull” because they took a chance to have their sight restored, rather, we are not too bright for failing to regulate these new technologies to protect those people who depend on them.

        Every safety rule and regulation is written in blood. Those at the forefront of these new technologies will not regulate themselves, it is up to us to keep them in check.