- Wirehead
:"For the Marvel Comics villain, see
Wirehead (comics) ."InLarry Niven 'sKnown Space stories, a wirehead is someone who has been fitted with an electronicbrain implant (called a "droud" in the stories) to stimulate thepleasure center s of their brain.In 2006,
The Guardian reported that trials ofDeep brain stimulation with electric current, via wires inserted into the brain, had successfully lifted the mood of depression sufferers. [cite news | first= Alok | last= Jha| url= http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2006/mar/31/medicalresearch.neuroscience | title= When we turn the current on, the patients report the emptiness suddenly disappears | publisher=The Guardian | date= 2006-03-31] This is exactly the method used by wireheads in the earlier Niven stories (such as the 'Gil the Arm' story "Death By Ectasy").In the
Shaper/Mechanist stories ofBruce Sterling , "wirehead" is the Mechanist term for a human who has given up corporeal existence and become aninfomorph .In 2007 a band formed by
Clive Edwards took the name WireHead.See also
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Drug addiction
*Tasp
*Mindkiller Novel bySpider Robinson References
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