Bionic Limb

[Mike]

Hiya I read a news article in the height of chic Metro today. Apparently a crash victim has had a bionic arm fitted that is controlled by her thoughts and allows a degree of feeling. The arm has bio-amplifiers fitted to allow a link with the patients nervous system.

It sounds like a really good idea for the patient and I suppose is only a step away from scene's such as i-robot. . . ..

[BarcelonAl]

Sounds good to me. Anything that would help me recover a majority of mobility and function after losing a limb would make me happy!

[Fez]

it was going to happen eventually, but there's a long way to go before we end up fighting self-conscious artifical intelligence

[mr_e]

It does raise the question as to how much of someone's sensory or physical elements you can replace before they become "non-human". In the short-term, it's kinda cool for people who've lost limbs. The degree of feeling possible shows how far the technology has come.

[Andy]

If I had lost a limb I would be all for it. If someone close to me had lost a limb I would be all for it. Therefore, I have to be all for it because it is a good medicinal/technological advancement. I just hope it doesn't escalate into the first non-human/frankenstein.

[Mike]

The bionic limb seemed a little bit bulky and Kryton esq but I think it shows sign of good improvement given the recent advancements in chip technology.

[mr_e]

Hmm...this technolgy would almost allow some kind of gun arm to be fitted. Might be a bit dangerous whilst learning to use it, though. Then there are the Firefox parallels (fictional book about a thought-controlled Russian uber-plane that the Americans try to nick, also a film).

[Chrissie]

It also says a lot for the human brain that thought control is used to power the new arm, the mind is a truly remarkable tool which its potential we may never fully understand.

[mr_e]

It possibly says more about the surgical techniques in this case: all they have to do is find which nerves the relevant electric signals are coming down, but the wiring up's the hard bit. The brain's just doing its thing as normal the whole time.

That said, I consider the understanding of the human brain one of the last great frontiers to be explored and understood (the other being space, plus possibly deep oceans and natural cave systems). Will we ever be able to holistically model a dynamic system with so many variables? Possibly, but I think chaos theory, along with compound/cumulative error, limits the usefulness of doing so. Ask any weather forecaster, they have similar issues.

We already understand many of its physical mechanisms, but try explaining why we are conscious, what it is to be alive. If you're wondering what I use my brain for (God knows it isn't work), those last two questions are a couple of examples. I may be posting a new thread sometime, methinks.