I’m quite fascinated by the concept of bionics that will take us into an era where we can literally not just repair and replace body parts like hips and knees or add prosthetic limbs but actually give ourselves physical additions that enhance our performance. Imagine dealing with an active shooter situation, knowing that you have built in ballistic armour or hydrolic legs to respond quickly. Some MIT experts are making real headway. Wired did a great article here:
From peg legs through hook hands and iron fists, for millennia prosthetics were a very poor substitute for our basic biology. No-one would have voluntarily chosen a prosthetic. But, over the past few decades, prosthetics have been improving in functionality. External appendages became internal implants such as artificial hips and knees.
In some areas, prosthetics are beginning to exceed our natural capabilities. For instance, Phonak hearing aids improve not only overall hearing, but can zoom focus on conversations, create white noise, double as a phone and serve multiple functions that our natural ears cannot. Now that six MIT rock stars – Hugh Herr, Ed Boyden, Canan Dagdeviren, Kevin Esvelt, Robert Langer and Joseph Jacobson – have launched the Center for Extreme Bionics, prosthetics may take some extreme leaps. And we may change our notion of who is “disabled” and what a human can do.
In the short term, the centre’s aim is to eliminate human disabilities. Herr is exhibit A of this thesis. As he bounds around his lab, not everyone realises he is missing both legs.
Image credit: Wikipedia