National Geographic: The Bionic Age
I’m probably going to regret posting about this when some of my friends start hacking off their limbs, but! This month’s National Geographic has a fantastic article on bionics. We are officially living in the future. We might not have flying cars, but my god, we have cyborgs. Legit cyborgs.
This is completely awesome. I’m having trouble expressing just how much glee this brings to my life. The Editor’s Note of the issue, I think, states it well:
But the bionics of modern medical engineering has little to do with enabling someone to run 60 miles an hour or use an eye like a zoom lens. It is more about the quiet miracle of holding a fork or seeing the silhouette of a tree. [...] “It made me feel I was just Ray again”
I know what it means to lose part of yourself. Perhaps not in the physical, corporeal sense, but in no way less painful and traumatizing. It’s really difficult to regain that footing, that sense of “this is me.” The fact that these new technologies are giving some of that back to people is simply beautiful.
In some ways it is a touch creepy. Reading about the rewiring of nerve-ends gives my skin the crawlies. I couldn’t read the section on how bionic eyes work. The details are gross, but the big picture is amazing. And I hope that this doesn’t become corrupted in too quick a fashion. I know some of my cyberpunk fanboys are drooling over the idea of that arm with a weapon attached. In the technological dream, such fantasies are cool and fun. I just hope they never enter reality.
Photo courtesy of Mark Thiesson via National Geographic.
Tags: cyberpunk, magazines, National Geographic, science, science fiction, technology
January 11th, 2010 at 5:58 pm
Technically I’m already a cyborg, and we’ve had them for hundreds of years.
My personal modification are my glasses, without which I’d be blind. Even simpler, replacement limbs have been around for ages, even as basic as a stump for a leg.
I think the real change in the terms recognition will come about when these devices aren’t used to return a person to ‘normal working condition’, but to enhance themselves.
This is already becoming an issue with certain prosthetic legs in the Olympics:
http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/17/prosthetic-limbed-runner-disqualified-from-olympics/
Personally, if they ever introduce a sleep regulator, I’m getting one. It’s a theoretical device that basically “sets” you into deep REM sleep, significantly cutting down on the amount of sleep a person needs each night by cutting out the wasted minutes or hours getting to productive sleep.
Of course, no one will be able to get one… or most of these proposed prosthetic limbs already in existence, because no one can afford it and most insurance will only cover the most basic prosthetics if any.
January 12th, 2010 at 12:24 am
Cyborg as you might be, most wouldn’t classify glasses as a true modification. Case in point: you can remove your glasses without any difficulty whatsoever.
What I find so exciting about this is how integrated these prosthetic are. These things are giving sight back to the seriously blind (not how you are blind, anyway). They’re working on giving sensation and feeling back to lost limbs. I find this incredible. It’s light years away from traditional prosthetics.
As for the sleep regulators, I’m with you there. Though I’ve got to say, I’m banning you from them for life if all you’re going to do is use that extra time to work more and only work more.