In before commenters mention the singularity

Two electrodes, placed 30 cm apart on a human arm, can transmit data through said arm at about 10 megabits per second, according to researchers at Korea University. (Thanks, Ken Steidle!)

Maggie Koerth-Baker is the science editor at BoingBoing.net. She writes a monthly column for The New York Times Magazine and is the author of Before the Lights Go Out, a book about electricity, infrastructure, and the future of energy. You can find Maggie on Twitter and Facebook.

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technogeek

IBM was experimenting with the “personal area network” a decade or so ago, as a way to link personal electronics that was deliberately shorter range than bluetooth — essentially your own body or someone you touched.
glenn

The human body conducts RF energy. This is not news. Try grabbing a probe on an oscilloscope to see just how much your body is like a big antenna.
Yamara

Trent: Where are the future people of the Earth?

The Glass Hand: In hiding. You are the key to releasing them.

Trent: Where? Tell me.

The Glass Hand: I am unable to answer. My mechanism is not whole.
IMoriarty

I wonder what the packet loss and latency ratio over distance was?

~I
Brainspore

Meanwhile, North Korea University has been experimenting on how many bits said electrodes can transmit through your bits.
Terry

William Gibson unavailable for comment.
mneptok

So, how long until the MPAA and RIAA begin asking for blood samples as part of discovery during filesharing cases?
DM

I used to think how silly it was that the Wachowski Bros. depicted humans as batteries, but I realize it hit home the point of how utterly insignificant our cognition can appear from a higher order perspective.
Anonymous

100 Mbits tingles a bit.
Xenu

As Neo would say, “Whoa.”
I less than three mermaids

Eh, I’ll wait for the IEEE 100Mb standard arm.
- Phikus
  
  In cabling, the speed is determined by the number of twists in each pair of conductors. So it looks like someone will have to twist your arm to get that kind of functionality. ;D
Teller

“Hand, let go of the hammer.”
legion

So, when the Matrix happens, we’ll be used as routers as well as batteries?
- snakedart
  
  Maybe … routers with really mediocre throughput. That’ll give us a leg up on the Machines, I suppose.
Karl Jones

I’d like to teach the world to route /

In packet harmony /

Send B+ trees and public keys /

All up and down your arms …
mrmule

we are borg :)
spocko

The Cylons have a much higher data transfer rate.
Anonymous

I bet using opposing arms and higher current would result in a killer bitrate.