RANDOM: Na'Vi Teeth and Hair

[ZombiezuRFER]

what if the servos broke themselves?  Like when your going to be you lie down and CRACK! you tail is chopped in half!  Why not just get the wire on your head and have the tail be nice and soft.... unless you feel like having a real one like me tee hee 

[Robert Nantangä Tirea]

Small servos in a fake tail controlled by slight head movements is how I would do it.

and wear it 24/7, sounds bothersome.

Actually, have you ever heard of nerve mapping? They do it for people who for instance have lost their arm. Doctors will spread the muscle nerve bundle in the shoulder out and after repeated trials eventually map which nerves react when you attempt to move your arm. Then they can attach a prosthetic arm and link it to those nerves.

This is what I would do with a tail. After getting a prosthetic tail I would have it linked to muscle nerves in my thighs that way with muscle therapy training I could move the tail by flexing certain muscles on the back of my thighs ( and txìm   )

[ZombiezuRFER]

Ill do that to, only I wish my tail was made out of flesh

[Motxokxen]

Small servos in a fake tail controlled by slight head movements is how I would do it.

and wear it 24/7, sounds bothersome.

Actually, have you ever heard of nerve mapping? They do it for people who for instance have lost their arm. Doctors will spread the muscle nerve bundle in the shoulder out and after repeated trials eventually map which nerves react when you attempt to move your arm. Then they can attach a prosthetic arm and link it to those nerves.

This is what I would do with a tail. After getting a prosthetic tail I would have it linked to muscle nerves in my thighs that way with muscle therapy training I could move the tail by flexing certain muscles on the back of my thighs ( and txìm   )

but your not replacing a preexisting limb, your making an entirely new limb, not sure if neural mapping would do the trick.

[Teio]

The following is the reply I got from a surgeon about the facial surgery I described earlier:

"This would not be a recommended procedure for purely cosmetic purposes. The orbital bones as well as cheek bones can be surgically widened / narrowed, but these can be associated with complications. Typically they will be performed in cases of cancer, tumor, trauma or birth defects."

[Ftiafpi]

Eeek, that sounds painful and scary.

[Motxokxen]

The following is the reply I got from a surgeon about the facial surgery I described earlier:

"This would not be a recommended procedure for purely cosmetic purposes. The orbital bones as well as cheek bones can be surgically widened / narrowed, but these can be associated with complications. Typically they will be performed in cases of cancer, tumor, trauma or birth defects."

so it can be done, just not usually for cosmetic purposes.

[Teio]

so it can be done, just not usually for cosmetic purposes.

Meaning, "It can be done if one is willing to pay enough." 

[fkeua vrrtep]

sounds interesting but your going to need your fingers for other uses.

as for a real tail, i know that when you're still a fetus, you have a very small tail, that, as you grow merges into one bone. perhaps if you stopped that from happening and encouraged the tail to grow, you might have some results.

That's right , we all had tails some time ago and our tailbone is one left over that proves it .

I think the nerves that controled our tails once are still there , you would just need to grow one , there are still some people whose DNA seems to "remember" it's past and they develope tails .

[ZombiezuRFER]

Why couldn't they just grow a tail like they do a heart, we could be big blue people in no time!  Just one thing to remember is your still human, you just look like Na'vi after your surgery.

[Teio]

Well, I'd also like to point out the difference between simian and feline tails. The Na'vi tails are described as "panther-like" while a human tail (if grown to a Na'vi-ish length) would be much more monkey-like. That said, if I managed to grow a tail, I don't think I'd care if it was perfect or not.  

[Teio]

Why couldn't they just grow a tail like they do a heart, we could be big blue people in no time!  Just one thing to remember is your still human, you just look like Na'vi after your surgery.

I love that sort of organ-growing...but remember the limitations of connecting actual bone and complex musculo-skeletal structures to the body...not to mention nerve endings!

[ZombiezuRFER]

The nerve endings could be artificial, but they would act like nerves, or they don't need nerve ending but make the tail controlled by a chip in the brain.

[Teio]

Brain chips? I was hoping to come up with how this could be possible using current technology...

[ZombiezuRFER]

Brain chips are yesterdays tech so why not?

[Teio]

It's fairly impossible to control organic tissue this way, though, isn't it?

[ZombiezuRFER]

Not Really

[Teio]

I suppose I mean to ask: Has it been done? Theoretical neuroscience is of no use to most people...even the brain electrodes currently treating certain mental disorders are a glorified form of shock-therapy.

I do think, however that the methods used to detect motion in modern prosthesis could be applied to a tail of sorts...These mechanisms sense flexing of other muscles in what remains of the limb and use these to direct their motion. Prosthetic hands made this way are dexterous enough to play piano. Applied to a tail, however, the receivers would need to be attached to muscles in the lower back...I don't imagine the movement being very controlled.

[ZombiezuRFER]

It has been done before with a paralysed man who was hooked to a computer by John Kennedy

[Teio]

Oh, I've seen the pictures. 

I was hoping for the whole scientific method thing...but...hey 

Then again, ALL of this thread has gotten a bit ridiculous, considering it started out as a simple question about hair and teeth, then launched into drastic cosmetic surgery then to true science fiction. Heh...I feel silly for posting so much here now 

Still, the speculation is exciting.