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Rob Watts
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Is this genetically enhanced human possible?

No.

Your genetically enhanced human would require a significant amount of handwavium in order to be possible. Generating electricity isn't implausible - electric eels already do this, so you could use them as a basis for how often your enhanced human could generate a shock, and how strong those shocks could be.

The impossible part is the detection side. This resource has some useful information:

Very sensitive measuring devices which can pick up tiny magnetic fields can detect neural activity without needing to poke electrodes directly into neurons, although one is never quite sure what one is measuring with this, as billions of neurons contribute to any signal measured in this way. To try to get a picture of which part of the brain is active, arrays of several hundred magnet sensors are used.

There are some key things to note here:

  1. "Very sensitive measuring devices which can pick up tiny magnetic fields" - it is not trivial to detect the electrical activity in the brain. Also, you do not directly detect the electrical signals, you detect the magnetic fields that the electrical signals produce (in case you are not aware, electricity and magnetism and inseparable. If you generate electrical current, there is also an associated magnetic field). The result - a sensing radius of 1 km is absolutely impossible. GivenIn fact, the Earth's magnetic field is around 2.5*10^-5 Tesla while the brain's magnetic field is around 10^-13 Tesla, so you're trying to detect something that is around one-one hundred millionth of the strength of the background noise, so you'd be lucky to get a detection radius of 1 meter. Using the sharks as a model for electrolocation isn't going to help, because shark's electrolocation is limited to a body length inand relies on electrical currents being carried through saltwater, which conducts electricity far better than air, you'd be lucky if you could get a sensing radius of 1 meter.
  2. "billions of neurons contribute to any signal" - analyzing someone's emotions is not trivial. You'd have to be able to tell quite accurately what parts of the person's brain are active, and even then you'd have to get used to individual differences in how people handle emotions.
  3. "arrays of several hundred magnet sensors are used" - if you have one sensor, you can't tell what direction something is coming from. In order to figure out where something is coming from, you need multiple sensors - that's why we have two ears. However, that only allows you to determine the direction that something is coming from. In order to figure out exactly where it was coming from, you'd need more sensors that are spread out from each other - for example, if you have a sensor in front of something and above it, you can figure out where the thing is. So unless your genetically enhanced human had sensors in his hands and placed them around someone's head, there's no way he could tell which parts of that person's brain were generating signals.

Is this genetically enhanced human possible?

No.

Your genetically enhanced human would require a significant amount of handwavium in order to be possible. Generating electricity isn't implausible - electric eels already do this, so you could use them as a basis for how often your enhanced human could generate a shock, and how strong those shocks could be.

The impossible part is the detection side. This resource has some useful information:

Very sensitive measuring devices which can pick up tiny magnetic fields can detect neural activity without needing to poke electrodes directly into neurons, although one is never quite sure what one is measuring with this, as billions of neurons contribute to any signal measured in this way. To try to get a picture of which part of the brain is active, arrays of several hundred magnet sensors are used.

There are some key things to note here:

  1. "Very sensitive measuring devices which can pick up tiny magnetic fields" - it is not trivial to detect the electrical activity in the brain. Also, you do not directly detect the electrical signals, you detect the magnetic fields that the electrical signals produce (in case you are not aware, electricity and magnetism and inseparable. If you generate electrical current, there is also an associated magnetic field). The result - a sensing radius of 1 km is absolutely impossible. Given that shark's electrolocation is limited to a body length in saltwater, which conducts electricity far better than air, you'd be lucky if you could get a sensing radius of 1 meter.
  2. "billions of neurons contribute to any signal" - analyzing someone's emotions is not trivial. You'd have to be able to tell quite accurately what parts of the person's brain are active, and even then you'd have to get used to individual differences in how people handle emotions.
  3. "arrays of several hundred magnet sensors are used" - if you have one sensor, you can't tell what direction something is coming from. In order to figure out where something is coming from, you need multiple sensors - that's why we have two ears. However, that only allows you to determine the direction that something is coming from. In order to figure out exactly where it was coming from, you'd need more sensors that are spread out from each other - for example, if you have a sensor in front of something and above it, you can figure out where the thing is. So unless your genetically enhanced human had sensors in his hands and placed them around someone's head, there's no way he could tell which parts of that person's brain were generating signals.

Is this genetically enhanced human possible?

No.

Your genetically enhanced human would require a significant amount of handwavium in order to be possible. Generating electricity isn't implausible - electric eels already do this, so you could use them as a basis for how often your enhanced human could generate a shock, and how strong those shocks could be.

The impossible part is the detection side. This resource has some useful information:

Very sensitive measuring devices which can pick up tiny magnetic fields can detect neural activity without needing to poke electrodes directly into neurons, although one is never quite sure what one is measuring with this, as billions of neurons contribute to any signal measured in this way. To try to get a picture of which part of the brain is active, arrays of several hundred magnet sensors are used.

There are some key things to note here:

  1. "Very sensitive measuring devices which can pick up tiny magnetic fields" - it is not trivial to detect the electrical activity in the brain. Also, you do not directly detect the electrical signals, you detect the magnetic fields that the electrical signals produce (in case you are not aware, electricity and magnetism and inseparable. If you generate electrical current, there is also an associated magnetic field). The result - a sensing radius of 1 km is absolutely impossible. In fact, the Earth's magnetic field is around 2.5*10^-5 Tesla while the brain's magnetic field is around 10^-13 Tesla, so you're trying to detect something that is around one-one hundred millionth of the strength of the background noise, so you'd be lucky to get a detection radius of 1 meter. Using the sharks as a model for electrolocation isn't going to help, because shark's electrolocation is limited to a body length and relies on electrical currents being carried through saltwater, which conducts electricity far better than air.
  2. "billions of neurons contribute to any signal" - analyzing someone's emotions is not trivial. You'd have to be able to tell quite accurately what parts of the person's brain are active, and even then you'd have to get used to individual differences in how people handle emotions.
  3. "arrays of several hundred magnet sensors are used" - if you have one sensor, you can't tell what direction something is coming from. In order to figure out where something is coming from, you need multiple sensors - that's why we have two ears. However, that only allows you to determine the direction that something is coming from. In order to figure out exactly where it was coming from, you'd need more sensors that are spread out from each other - for example, if you have a sensor in front of something and above it, you can figure out where the thing is. So unless your genetically enhanced human had sensors in his hands and placed them around someone's head, there's no way he could tell which parts of that person's brain were generating signals.
Source Link
Rob Watts
  • 20k
  • 6
  • 47
  • 84

Is this genetically enhanced human possible?

No.

Your genetically enhanced human would require a significant amount of handwavium in order to be possible. Generating electricity isn't implausible - electric eels already do this, so you could use them as a basis for how often your enhanced human could generate a shock, and how strong those shocks could be.

The impossible part is the detection side. This resource has some useful information:

Very sensitive measuring devices which can pick up tiny magnetic fields can detect neural activity without needing to poke electrodes directly into neurons, although one is never quite sure what one is measuring with this, as billions of neurons contribute to any signal measured in this way. To try to get a picture of which part of the brain is active, arrays of several hundred magnet sensors are used.

There are some key things to note here:

  1. "Very sensitive measuring devices which can pick up tiny magnetic fields" - it is not trivial to detect the electrical activity in the brain. Also, you do not directly detect the electrical signals, you detect the magnetic fields that the electrical signals produce (in case you are not aware, electricity and magnetism and inseparable. If you generate electrical current, there is also an associated magnetic field). The result - a sensing radius of 1 km is absolutely impossible. Given that shark's electrolocation is limited to a body length in saltwater, which conducts electricity far better than air, you'd be lucky if you could get a sensing radius of 1 meter.
  2. "billions of neurons contribute to any signal" - analyzing someone's emotions is not trivial. You'd have to be able to tell quite accurately what parts of the person's brain are active, and even then you'd have to get used to individual differences in how people handle emotions.
  3. "arrays of several hundred magnet sensors are used" - if you have one sensor, you can't tell what direction something is coming from. In order to figure out where something is coming from, you need multiple sensors - that's why we have two ears. However, that only allows you to determine the direction that something is coming from. In order to figure out exactly where it was coming from, you'd need more sensors that are spread out from each other - for example, if you have a sensor in front of something and above it, you can figure out where the thing is. So unless your genetically enhanced human had sensors in his hands and placed them around someone's head, there's no way he could tell which parts of that person's brain were generating signals.