iPatch™ InfoDetox

The last few days I’ve been suffering from a sinus infection that’s making it really hard to concentrate or give my full attention to anything because of the constant painful pressure in my head. Perhaps the glut of information we are subjected to in our media-junkie culture is similarly putting dangerous pressure on our mental capacity.  TV, radio, magazines, social networking, gaming, texting, tumblogs and tweets are filling our brains with larger and larger volumes of data at an accellerating rate.  It is unlikely we will attempt to reduce the amount of information we absorb in the future; more likely it will increase.  How could this cerebral overload be alleviated?

Leeches have been used for centuries in medicine and are enjoying a kind of renaissance in mainstream surgical treatment. I came across an article* about how celebrities such as Demi Moore have been undergoing new-age “leech therapy” as a form of detox. In the same way we think of drugs, alcohol and unhealthy food as toxic to the body, some of the information and ideas we absorb could be regarded as toxins in the mind.  How might we rid our brains of this toxic information?

The scenario involves a genetically enhanced “leechlike organism” as a sort of “patch” like a nicotine patch that the patient applies to the skin when they feel the need to detox their brain of useless or distracting thoughts, images or trivia such as a song they just can’t get out of their head. An extreme example in our current culture is the famous “2 Girls 1 Cup” viral video that many people wish they could “unwatch”.

Similar to the way a normal leech releases enzymes into the blood to prevent clotting, the iPatch™ sends nerve signals, enzymes and nanomachines into the brain to seek out the unwanted data which are then absorbed by the organism. It then deactivates itself and can be removed and the patient can go about their day unhindered by useless information.

* It occurred to me that the Demi Moore article could be regarded as useless information. In the world of iPatch it will be important for us to be able to distinguish useless or toxic information from potentially useful information. Another version of the iPatch could be a portable “leech-drive” that would store unwanted information in case we need it. We could keep them in aquariums and feed them useless information to keep them healthy.