Procrastinet

For Your Personal Collection of NEUROPROSTHETIC IMPLANTS

filed under: Stuff you never, ever needed to know

Via craigslist (well, really, where else) you have the once in a lifetime opportunity to buy this guy's neuroprosthetic implant:

(The implant is in the guy on the right, not Bob Dole)

The man, a quadriplegic named Gustavo Limon, is trying to raise either $9,999 or $99,999, depending on whether you believe the title of the ad or the body (and really, how can you criticise the typing of a guy who's using a NEUROPROSTHETIC IMPLANT to type AT ALL) to fund his movie, A Quad In Africa, which will be a documentary about him making a trip across sub-Saharan Africa as "a demonstration of struggle, determination, good will, and the trust of others and technologies (old and new)." To do so, he is selling the ownership of the implant which helps him move his arm:

The catch is, the lucky buyer won't get the device until Mr. Limon's demise. He does not indicate a prospective time frame.

Mr. Limon is appropriately philosophical about the fate of his implant. Quoth the ad:

This sale includes legal fees to ensure extraction of implant. Selling to fund my documentary as I need funds and implant does me no good upon dying.

In what may be considered a fit of optimism, he suggests that the sale would be of interest "for inclusion into a museum or private collection of neuroprosthesis." Which leads naturally to the question of how many private collectors of neuroprostheses regularly troll Craigslist, you know, just in case.

The first page of the Quad in Africa site bears the unfortunately-formatted title "What is a Quad in Africa?" which sounds like a joke I don't really want to know the punchline to.

I have to admit - I started writing about this as a bit of a sideshow post, because, you know, the guy is SELLING AN IMPLANT ON CRAIGSLIST... but the more I think about it the more it's actually kind of amazing. You go, Mr. Limon.

Posted by rjt at January 27, 2005 12:59 PM