Using Technology to Deepen Democracy, Using Democracy to Ensure Technology Benefits Us All

Friday, May 25, 2012

Bring On the Hypospray!



My horror of needles is so great that I will momentarily risk the hypocrisy of futurological fantasizing myself, de rigueur Star Trek reference, slick CGI presentation treated as if it is real, developmental costs be damned futurological symptoms all included. (Did you know, by the way, that the Star Trek series introduced the hypospray not because of its many potential medical advantages as a treatment delivery system but because NBC standards and practices prohibited the depiction of the use of hypodermic syringes on air?)

5 comments:

jimf said...

> Did you know, by the way. . .

Where did I first read that? _The Making of Star Trek_, by "Stephen E. Whitfield"
[Stephen Edward Poe]? Yep, that's the reference, according to Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypospray#cite_note-0

I got that Ballantine paperback in the fall of '68, while the show was
still on the air.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-L39kX2vsYCo/Tw-EEeS8h_I/AAAAAAAAbuk/4aIqsOBwIns/s1600/281px-The_Making_of_Star_Trek%252C_Ballantine_10th.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2327/2048543080_112505fe75.jpg

> My horror of needles is so great. . .

I was **utterly** terrified of needles when I was a kid, I mean
really, really scared of them. When I started elementary school,
they were still giving the Salk polio vaccine by needle; it was
only after the first shot or two I had to take that they switched
to the Sabin vaccine given orally on a sugar cube.

These days I have a counterphobic reaction to needles. I can joke
with the dentist while he pumps me full of Novocain. But once,
a couple of years ago, as I was leaving my dentist's office, I
caught a glimpse of a grown woman lying in a different chair from
the one I'd just vacated, who was whimpering in terror
while her hand was held tightly by an assistant as the doctor
was injecting her. That's a terrible burden to have to live
with as an adult.

jimf said...

> Bring On the Hypospray!

Or as they say on Vulcan,
Brrringk forrt de leerpa!

Scott Tyrell said...

holy crap, finally.

i've been waiting for this since i was a child and had to get a shot in my scalp and vomited and momentarily blacked out!

so when do we get the mind uploading nanopills again?

Dale Carrico said...

For the nanopills all you hafta do is REALLY... TRULY... BELIEVE!

jollyspaniard said...

Colour me skeptical, this could be the one but we've had prototype needle less injection systems being trumpted for the past two decades.