I opened the article and saw an aging muscleman with a prop straight out of The Lawnmower Man on his head. I thought, this is going to be the most Silicon Valley thing I've ever seen on Hackernews. (Whether you're talking about the place or the TV show.)
> But at the end of the visit, I happened to mention the time I underwent a mental healing ritual that involved a Chilean shaman burning holes in my arm and pouring poisonous frog secretions into the wounds. (I do mention this a lot.) Excited, Johnson replied that he had a personal shaman in Mexico and doctors in California who guided him on drug-induced mind journeys. Based on this common ground, he decided to tell me more about Kernel’s work and his own adventurous health practices.
>Over the next few weeks, a company called Kernel will begin sending dozens of customers across the U.S. a $50,000 helmet that can, crudely speaking, read their mind.
Then it’s not really a $110M helmet is it, it’s a $50k helmet
> Devices are also going out to Harvard Medical School, the University of Texas, and the Institute for Advanced Consciousness Studies (a California lab focused on researching altered states) to study such things as Alzheimer’s and the effect of obesity on brain aging, and to refine meditation techniques.
> Once their Kernel helmets arrive, Boas and his colleagues plan to observe the brains of people who’ve had strokes or suffer from diseases such as Parkinson’s. They want to watch what the brain does as individuals try to relearn how to walk and speak and cope with their conditions.
As far as I understand the whole thing, the helmet is supposed to replace existing, clunky, not mobile version of brain scanners.
A few hours later, Johnson went into one of the treatment rooms with Grossman to get a stem cell injection straight into his brain. Earlier he’d provided 5 ounces of his blood, which had then been spun in a centrifuge so Grossman could separate out the plasma and put it through a secret process to “activate the stem cells.” Now, Johnson hopped onto a reclined exam table, lying on his back with his head angled toward the floor. Grossman pulled out a liquid-filled syringe. Instead of a needle at the end, it had a 4‑inch‑long, curved plastic tube, which the doctor coated with some lubricating jelly. He pushed the tube into one of Johnson’s nostrils, told the patient to take a big sniff, then pinched Johnson’s nose shut. They repeated the process for the other nostril. The procedure looked incredibly uncomfortable, but again, Johnson was unfazed, pulling in the stem cells with determination and excitement.
> But at the end of the visit, I happened to mention the time I underwent a mental healing ritual that involved a Chilean shaman burning holes in my arm and pouring poisonous frog secretions into the wounds. (I do mention this a lot.) Excited, Johnson replied that he had a personal shaman in Mexico and doctors in California who guided him on drug-induced mind journeys. Based on this common ground, he decided to tell me more about Kernel’s work and his own adventurous health practices.
Wellp, suspicions confirmed.
This guy FUCKS!