An obvious element of our society is an emphasis on technology. Every time you get your hands on the latest gizmo, Apple manages to launch something better. But what happens when people become technology, and vice versa?
The people featured in National Geographic's article were either born with their physical flaws, or endured some kind of trauma that stole their once-"normal" capability, like a car accident or diving mishap. To compensate, they sought medical attention in the form of robotics that ring true with the image of C3PO sans metallic exterior.
Amanda Kitts, a woman featured in the article, lost the majority of left arm in a car wreck several years ago. She now wears a bionic arm to act in place of the one she was born with. What is truly impressive though, are the links between the machinery and her own brain. When Kitts lost her arm, she did not surrender the transmissions in her brain that told her arm how to move. Scientists have managed to bridge the gap between man and machine to such an extent that when Kitts' brain tells her bionic arm to move, it obeys.
While the article is rather technical in parts, it strikes a chord in the imagination where we fathom such feats. Bionics are giving people back what they never should have lost. I have to wonder, however, how far is too far? At what point do robotics and bionics and other things ending in -ics reach their greatest height? Where do the wires halt, giving way to the most advanced piece of technology to date: the perfectly hideous human brain.
To read the article and see the pictures for yourself, visit:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/01/bionics/fischman-text
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