From Gregory Stock’s The Book of Questions: Would you be willing to undergo a relatively safe surgery to implant a permanent cardiac monitor that would detect the tell-tale signs of an impending heart attack and summon medical help before it occurred?

Let doctors slice you open and implant a bunch of wires and computer chips in your chest cavity? Sounds delightful!

I’m talking, of course, about getting some kind of newfangled permanent cardiac monitors implanted. These nifty little gadgets would supposedly analyze all the electrical signals zipping through your heart in real-time. If it detects the signs of an incoming heart attack, it summons an ambulance to your location. Pretty cool concept in theory!

But here’s the catch – getting a wireless robot surgeon embedded beneath your skin ain’t cheap. I’m no medical expert, but I’d bet my nonexistent life savings that health insurance providers would deem this an “elective” procedure. You know what that means? Cha-ching! Cash money out of your own pocket.

Can you imagine the phone call with your insurance rep? “Hi, I’d like to explore getting an invasive, unnecessary surgery scheduled for when I’m perfectly healthy just in case something may potentially happen in the future.” The hold music alone would probably give me heart palpitations.

Of course, the privileged few with cold hard cash to burn might not blink at the thought of bodymod-ing themselves with a cardiac cyborg assistant. But for the rest of us mere mortals, it’s a tougher sell. That’s a lot of money to gamble on potential future heart problems that may never materialize.

So would I go under the knife for one of these internal alert systems? I’m honestly not sure. I lead an awfully sedentary life blogging away at my makeshift desk. But then again, the meat lovers’ pizzas and sausage McMuffins aren’t doing my arteries any favors either.

What about you, dear readers? If cost was no issue, would you opt for this “sci-fi stitches now or emergency surgery later” proposition? Or does the whole concept make you write it off as an unhealthy level of paranoia? Share your takes below!

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