Why couldn't you build a "read only" connector? I mean sure, wires conduct both ways obviously, but diodes and other one-way conductors are a thing right?
The other point of only putting the implant in the place it's needed and where it can't make you see and hear things seems valid too.
I'm not saying there wouldn't be other risks and issues with the whole thing, but I feel like the "they'll put ads in your brain" thing is kind of a ridiculous fear.
I just took a look at one of the most popular recent "mutiny posts" and wow, it really has gone to shit. I get that some people might not care about the API mess, but they actively hate the mods there. Half the comments are just unhinged and are still upvoted.
There was even an unabashed antivaxer comment from some guy drawing some sort of insane comparisons between mrna and r/Piracy mods and even that was upvoted lol
I don't know if the numbers back this up but I hope that the reason for this is just that the reasonable people moved to Lemmy and it's just the crazies left there...
To give an update, I did end up getting a Shield because I really want enough horsepower to have a proper, smooth experience. I got the non-pro version and saved a little bit with that, since I mainly just need it for streaming media from a NAS.
So far it's been good, though I did also find out that some of the stuttering was probably caused by having subtitles on and using the LibVLC player instead of exoplayer (or automatic selection that was apparently choosing it?). I still had stutter on the Shield when using LibVLC in combination with subtitles, though I think it might have been less pronounced. As soon as I either disabled subtitles or changed to exoplayer, the stutter was gone. It's still a little early to say for sure, though. The general UX and lack of UI navigation lag has been great.
I will also say that I feel like the image is just... different. I think the contrast is bigger and blacks are darker, despite making sure I'm on the same picture mode (from TV settings). I can't really say that it's better, just different. Might just be in my head too, honestly. I should compare the two at some point...
I might come back again even later to do another report. :)