Mind Control

by Richard Martin Wired Magazine, March 2005 Matthew Nagle is beating me at Pong. "O, baby," he mutters. The creases in his forehead deepen as he moves the onscreen paddle to block the ball. "C'mon - here you go," he says, sending a wicked angle shot ricocheting down the screen and past my defense. "Yes!" he says in triumph, his voice hoarse from the ventilator that helps him breathe. "Let's go again, dude." The remarkable thing about Nagle is not that he plays skillfully; it's that he can play at all. Nagle is a C4 quadriplegic, paralyzed from the neck down in a stabbing three years ago. He pilots a motorized wheelchair by blowing into a sip-and-puff tube, his pale hands strapped to the armrests. He's playing Pong with his thoughts alone. Read the article