Reply To: Luddite Geeks
i know i’ve read articles about functioning robotic prosthetics, though all i can turn up from a brief search is this. the catch, as i recall it, is that they cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and so are unavailable for use in the public market. i ain’t about to rush out and have my arm chopped off so i can stick one of those bad boys on, but if i lost the arm and couldn’t have it reattached, you bet i’d want one. god’s welcome to have whatever plan he wants for me, but until he sees fit to mail me a copy, i see no reason to sit around and try to guess what it is.
here’s an interesting and possibly amusing hypothetical: suppose a lumberjack loses his arm in a tragic wheat thresher accident. now he’s out of work because you really can’t cut timber one-handed, until a doctor stops by with a prosthetic arm which can be removed halfway down the forearm and replaced with a chainsaw attachment. (for cutting timber, of course.) the doctor is willing to let the lumberjack have the use of this arm in exchange for the data such usage would generate. if the lumberjack accepts, he can go back to work and feed his family.
thoughts? opinions?