Summary Of Chip Placed In His Brain By Benedict Carey

The New Technological Hand

Benedict Carey, Wrote “Quadriplegic Gets Use of Hands from Chip Placed in His Brain,” published in 2016 in the New York Time, on his article Carey elaborates on the use of technology to transmit new sense of control. Carey begins building his credibility with a story and successfully employing emotional appeals; however his attempts to appeal to reader’s emotions strengthen his credibility and ultimately, his argument.
In the article Carey first sets the stage by describing a scenario of a college student named Ian Burkhart that dived into a wave at a beach and accidently, broke his neck on the sandy floor, permanently losing his hand and legs, and then Carey outlines how the field of engineering is advancing quickly. Most likely knowing that his audience is theoretically sympathetic, Carey builds a bond with his audience by showing similarities in some way and triggering their emotion positively. Ian Burkhart, someone who was implanted a chip in the brain uses appeals like pathos to convenience the audience emotionally how he felt when realized that he lost his sensations stating “It's crazy because I had lost sensation in my hands, and I had to watch my hand to know whether I was squeezing or extending the fingers”.
Carey understands that his audience is not only likely sympathetic, but
probably also uninformed gives examples of how scientists can decode brain signals and match them with specific movements dividing up tasks based on skills and ability, accepting that the bypass approach can make restore of critical skills to the limbs no longer directly connect to the brain.
Throughout his piece, Carey uses strong references that strengthens his credibility and appeal to ethos, as well as build his argument.
These references include, Dr. Ali Rezai, the surgeon and director of Ohio State’s Center for Neuromodulation and Scientists at Battelle Memorial Institute. Mentioning these sources boots Carey’s credibility by showing that he has his work by providing facts, as well as expert opinions to support some of his claims. Carey uses Burkhart’s personal story to introduce and support the issue of having a chip placed on the brain, which shows that he has a personal stake and a first-hand experience with the
problem.
Adding to Carey’s ethos appeals, Carey also used ethos appeal; Carey also uses strong appeal to logos, with facts and logics of ideas. He pointed out facts and comparison about people having to learn how to guide a cursor on a screen with their thoughts, monkeys learning skillfully how to use robotic arm through neutral signals and scientist having taught the monkeys who were partly paralyzed to use an arm with a bypass system. This fact introduces and supports the idea that the bypass approach can restore critical skills to limbs no longer directly connected to the brain.