Good news for handicapped

[dmytryp]

This is so cool
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091104132708.htm
In one sense, our hands define our humanity. Our opposable thumbs and our hands' unique structure allow us to write, paint, and play the piano. Those who lose their hands as a result of accident, conflict or disease often feel they've lost more than mere utility.

A new invention from Tel Aviv University researchers may change that. Prof. Yosi Shacham-Diamand of TAU's Department of Engineering, working with a team of European Union scientists, has successfully wired a state-of-the-art artificial hand to existing nerve endings in the stump of a severed arm. The device, called "SmartHand," resembles -- in function, sensitivity and appearance -- a real hand.
Robin af Ekenstam of Sweden, the project's first human subject, has not only been able to complete extremely complicated tasks like eating and writing, he reports he is also able to "feel" his fingers once again.

[AncientEagle]

This really is outstanding news.

[icerose]

That is so awesome! I love this sort of stuff.

[backslashbaby]

I wanted to do this as a career! So very, very cool :)

Now as a nerve damage sufferer (so chronic pain in my case), I'm waiting for the day I can be a cyborg, too!! :D

[Zoombie]

One step closer!

ONE STEP CLOSERRRRRRRRR!

[Plot Device]

Um ... has anyone here seen the new Bruce Willis movie Surrogates (http://chooseyoursurrogate.com/) yet???

[Zoombie]

Actually, no, but from what I've read, it sounds less of a clash between good and evil and more a clash between techno-philes and the neo-luddites.

And guess what? I'm with the techno-philes. Plug me into the surrogate please. Stick to your flesh-form if you want too, loser, I'm gonna go off and have fun.

[Plot Device]

When you watch the movie Surrogates, the opening credits have a pretty thorough back-story explaining the details of how our future society gets to the point of EVERYONE has a surrogate. And I honestly believe this movie is very plausible.

How plausible??

Well .... Consider botox. Botox started out as a noble medical breakthrough for helping CP sufferers get better control of their constantly tight muscles by relaxing their muscles. And then botox strangely morphed from noble breakthrough to vanity treatments for women who want to remove facial wrinkles.

The movie Surrogates shows us a hypothetical future where the initial intention of the scientist who invented surrogate machines was to help spinal cord injury people have a better life by allowing them to live vicariously through a human replacement body. And from that well-intended beginning, surrogates soon became the vanity preference of people who simply didn't like their TRUE bodies and wanted something more.

I have not seen a more chilling prophecy of what our future may very well hold since Gattaca.



.

[Zoombie]

Hey, everyone can be what they want to be rather than what they are forced to be by biology. We can all be prettier and stronger and faster and indestructible! What a grim and chilling future!

[aruna]

Crime writer Dick Francis has a series character, Sid Halley, who has just such a hand.
Sid is a jocker who lost the use of his hand when it got crushed during a race fall, became a PI, and an evil villain smattered what was left of it.
Sid gets an artificial hand he can operate merely by thought, using nerve endings. I wonder if those books -- they've been out for years -- were the inspiration? ;)
Ther're good, btw, and worth reading. One of them is Whip Hand; forgotten the names of the others. But because of that book I always thought it had already been invented!

The nephew of a close friend of mine had a baby born without hands and only one foot. I do remember the distress of that birth well. He's now about 19 and managing well, but this could change a lot for him. Though I wonder if you were born without hands, and never learned to use your fingers at all, if it would work?