science

Tim Cannon

Tim Cannon is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Tim Cannon rather than just read about it. In short: Tim Cannon is an American software developer, entrepreneur, and biohacker based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is best known as Chief Information Officer of Grindhouse Wetware, a biotechnology startup company that creates technology to augment human capabilities.

Key takeaways

Tim Cannon belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Tim Cannon to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Tim Cannon from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Tim Cannon is an American software developer, entrepreneur, and biohacker based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is best known as Chief Information Officer of Grindhouse Wetware, a biotechnology startup company that creates technology to augment human capabilities. Grindhouse was co-founded by Cannon and Shawn Sarver in 2012. Cannon himself has had a variety of body modification implants, and has been referred to in the media as a cyborg. Cannon has spoken at conferences around the world on the topics of human enhancement, futurism, and citizen science, including at TEDx Rosslyn, FITUR, the University of Maryland, the World Business Dialogue, the Medical Entrepreneur Startup Hospital, and others. He has been published in Wired and featured in television shows such as National Geographic Channel's The Big Picture with Kal Penn. Cannon has been featured on podcasts including Ryan O'Shea's Future Grind and Roderick Russell's Remarkably Human.

Implants Cannon has had a variety of body modification implants, including a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag in his hand and magnetic implants in a finger, wrist, and tragus, causing him to be labelled a cyborg by media outlets including Business Insider, Newsweek, The Awl, and others. Because of legal and ethical restrictions on the types of surgery that can be done on humans, most of these modifications cannot be done by doctors or anesthetists. Instead they are done by body modification experts or on a "DIY" basis. In May 2012, inspired by Lepht Anonym, Cannon had finger magnets implanted to give him an "extra sense", the ability to feel electromagnetism. In October 2013, Cannon became the first person to be implanted with the Grindhouse-designed biometric sensor known as Circadia, a procedure which was performed by body modification artist Steve Haworth in Essen, Germany. The device, approximately the size of a deck of playing cards, automatically sent Cannon's temperature to his phone, was powered wirelessly through inductive charging, and mimicked bioluminescence with subdermal LEDs. After a few months as an initial proof-of-concept test, a series of panic attacks led to the device's removal. Cannon is currently working to design an improved, consumer-friendly version of his Circadia implant that measures additional biometrics such as blood glucose, blood oxygen, blood pressure, and heart rate data. In November 2015, Tim had a prototype of Grindhouse's Northstar device implanted into his right forearm during a procedure at the “Cyborg Fair” in Düsseldorf, Germany. A little larger than a coin, Northstar contained five LED lights, creating a bioluminescent effect when touched with a magnet (such as the ones implanted in Cannon's fingertips.) Its purpose is solely aesthetic. Capable of blinking around 10,000 times before the battery runs down, the device has been presented as a way to "light" tattoos.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Tim Cannon

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Tim Cannon claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Tim Cannon before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Tim Cannon ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Tim Cannon

In research: Tim Cannon appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Tim Cannon in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Tim Cannon is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1979 births, American futurologists, American transhumanists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Tim Cannon outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Tim Cannon” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Tim Cannon in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Tim Cannon means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Tim Cannon out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Tim Cannon in simple terms?

Why does Tim Cannon matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Tim Cannon?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Tim Cannon.