20/06/2006

Military grade eyesight?

As a long-term reader of this logbook, you will know that I am interested in technology and its wider diffusion. So it won't be much of a surprise to you that I had my eyes checked about two years ago for whether it's possible to obtain a permanent correction of my bad eyesight.

Unfortunately my astigmatism combined with a rather thin cornea seems to not permit that for the moment. Otherwise I would have had it done in the blink of an eye, in a manner of speaking, which obviously is testimony to my confidence in technology. Just the other day, I talked to a guy who said he'd never do something like that. But why post about this now? Well, I just came across this NYT article describing how the US military uses this technology in its personel in a serial manner (via slashdot). Interesting!

P.S. Speaking of medical issues - do you know Dr. House, MD? I like that programme's twisted, cynical & humanistic attitude.

2 comments:

Judge Jonathan said...

Chris - as someone with close connections to ophthalmology - and as the polar opposite of a "technology sceptic" - I should tell you that you can consider yourself lucky that LASIK surgery is out of the question for you.

There are risks involved, and they're severe. Plus, glasses make you look intellectual... :)

Chris said...

Ah - that's interesting! Of course there are risks. There is nothing that is risk free, even wearing glasses involves risks if you are involved in an accident, for instance (I was once). So could you please elaborate a bit (links?) about those severe risks? I am asking because I've been speculating on progress in that technology, too ...