Beyond bionics: how the future of prosthetics is redefining humanity

use your arm in a second oh woe is me, life sucks six years later. Here I am, hopefully, I've developed some of the best technologies for people, evolution hasn't stopped just because we're here, we're probably becoming the first species to exist. able to influence its own evolution I could make this hand look however I want What if I don't want a hand? What if I want a tentacle? Modern advances in the world of

prosthetics

are changing lives around the world where amputees stigma previously existed. Now they are powered and improved, from low-cost 3D printed designs to high-tech innovations.

I wanted to see how access to these technologies has changed. What

future

developments are around the corner and what ethical battles await us. This is the bionic actor Angel Giuffria Angel is a congenital amputee she was born without her left hand we met at her home on Louisiana's Pearl River my mother was put on bed rest a few weeks before I was born I had no idea I was going to having one she saw a show on TV no joke about the first children's myoelectric brought to the United States she cried the whole thing because she's pregnant these babies are giving them arms that's cool right and then two weeks later, she is missing a baby.

I ran, I'm almost Wow great, I know where I can get her one and everyone thought she lost it, right? They were like these little robot hands. I have seen them in babies around the world to receive a myoelectric. Surprisingly, many doctors are still in the There is no information about current prosthetic technology, only with ultrasound they thought his arm was in Shannon, so we didn't know until that moment. I was told I would have to put a harness on our little girl that was controlled by a pulley and then open the hook. the

prosthetics

that technology has made from hooks like this to the hand would live in it movement like this in the

future

will look and move like this and I'm going to tell you this kind of heavier weight on the first day of school that we would get up from class from when I was five years old and then he would talk about my arm and I would take it off and show it to him and I thought it was so cool that I never thought there was a problem with my arm and then I met kids and I met other adults and I started to realize that not everyone thinks this is as cool as I do.

You know, I had kids who were afraid of me. I had a child who cried when I cut my arm. What kind of toll? Do you think that confronted you? I have a hand. A great thing was this. I was tired of telling people I had a hand. We're having a conversation. Say we just met. All the time in my head I would be going. Have you noticed yet? Have you noticed yet? Have you noticed yet? and then they go, they realize. Okay, I should probably pick him up like you see them do this and say, Okay, something's wrong with his head, right, this was the first of multiple joints.

I had a glove on my hands and I didn't like it so I took it off. Look how big it is. Yes, this was the first hand that came out with an arm like this. I imagine it is much more powerful, this is now. I designed mine, it looks the way I want it to look, so I think it helps a lot with wanting to use the device, wanting to learn how to use the vise, this is available and it's fine, and I think that eliminates a lot of the stigma attached to it because the stigma implies that it is something to be ashamed of and we are not a cutting edge bionic arm like angels.

It may cost over twenty thousand pounds, but even people without access to those funds have options thanks to the revolution in 3D printing. I visited Callum and Jamie Miller at their home in County Durham at the time with a 3D printer printing on mostly plastic, except for the part where it connected all the fingers, which helps me move them. I can't move unless you put it there, so when I do, mention it after finding out the waiting list for a printed prosthetic arm was 18 months long. Callum had an idea: an advert has just appeared on my Facebook page about 3D. printer 3D technology I've never dealt with it I've never done anything with it oh it's fascinating you just sit there watching it do something watching it you just printed something out of nothing how long do you find yourself using that if I'm comfortable? the first hour, then I'll probably feel comfortable for the next five hours, really sir, it excites me when I see you do things for the first time.

Creating your own prosthetic arms at home means an inevitable fusion of the ordinary with the extraordinary. It's been three months since you got the printer, so what's next? We have analyzed Mayo's electronics that work with muscle movements, those sensors input ooh, do you think she has brought them closer? I don't think we'll really close and open. Where is Balu? McDonough Georgia I met up with musician Jason Barnes hi Jason hey I'm fine thanks we heard the drums and kept playing oh yeah unlike Angel and Jamie Jason is an acquired amputee who lost his hand in a work accident, in the wrong place.

The temporary stage transformer overloaded and shot a bolt of electricity into my back when it happened. I was standing in a puddle of water with rubber boots on, so the electricity wasn't grounded, so it couldn't pass through me, and that's what I did. The damage you received on my left side then came out the right side of my body and I woke up in the hospital and had no idea what happened. I just remember being burned and the sound of the explosion sounds like it's something like exploding or like you know something happened you know and they say no they electrocuted you you know exactly what I had no idea Jason doesn't remember anything we didn't even know what hospital he was at I didn't even know where he was working that day and it was totally funny you know the eyelashes and eyebrows were burned the doctor said okay we're going to take him to surgery and I said surgery why Amy said good, because we have to open his arm, it was horrible.

We talked and you know, when we made the decision to amputate his arm, he just collapsed in my arms and said mom, I'm never going to play drums again and my life is over. You know, that's what he thought. I was depressed beyond the normal person at that time I was finally like here recovering and I got so bored that one day that's when I drugged the drums and I thought, you know, I'm going to tape the drumstick to my arm and they started playing and I'll do it . Never forget that feeling, but when I went out to play and it was like I can still do this, you know, I mean, like this goes on forever, there's no point and trying to stop Jason took me to Georgia Tech University in Atlanta, where it has been We worked with musician and inventor Gil Weinberg on several limitations that push the boundaries of the music he wanted and created the wrist movement so he can hold the stick tightly, but then I ask him if he's willing to play with my butt and do it. something different and more by having a second stick on our Jason we can create all kinds of polyrhythms because one of them can play 19 beats per second, the other can be 20 beats per second and Cueto, sophisticated rhythms that no human can make and This unites largely the biological and the technological, then we discovered that with ultrasound we can have a lot more control, we can try to predict finger by finger and continue to control each finger based on how their muscles move on the Vigilante, so that would be my pinky and then this would be my index for the image to look completely different on the ultrasound.

How does ultrasound technology work compared to the traditional electrode approach with ultrasound? It allows individual finger control and continuous monitoring in addition to what you are currently doing. To improve what's here, all the hardware integrated into the arm - it doesn't have to be connected to a computer and everything is smaller so that we can eventually replace the more traditional EMG technology. There is a lot of research going on at the moment in this field where robotics, science and medicine are all sorts of media, but a lot of this work is perhaps a little more invasive but can potentially produce even greater results.

I'm not in a position to ask Jason, although I'm sure you'd say yes to injecting something into his body or implanting something into his brain. If anyone would like to do it, it's probably Jason, but I'd like a doctor to do it and I'll be excited to see what the scientists come up with. At Duke University in North Carolina they are working on this type of research with profound implications for the future of our species, which is why these are small sensors, these are microwires that are They are implanted in the brain from where the electrical signals produced by the neurons can be recorded.

They are the electronic components that I connect on top to basically amplify the future in the transmission signals. Miguel Nicolelis is a Brazilian neuroscientist who rose to fame in 2014 when his mind-powered exoskeleton helped a paralyzed man take the first kick of the World Cup and we were showing the world that his hope of getting a paraplegic to move here we were using science in the human spirit to do it and he did it, It was a humble kick, it was a small thing compared to what will come in the future, of course, but the symbolism in that moment for me I will never forget, I mean, it was incredible Miguel invited me to his laboratory where he recreated an example of his current research for our camera, we have here a wheelchair driven by the monkey who is trying to get to the place in the room where he can collect the reward this monkey is imagining the kind of trajectory he has to produce together how necessary is it for us to do This animal research introduced this concept in 1999-2000 with two papers, one on rats and one on running monkeys, describing what is now considered the modern configuration of a brain-machine interface.

About 14 years later we got eight paraplegic patients walking again for the first time in a decade. I think the rationale is pretty obvious, very clear as soon as we start doing it. We realized that brain-machine interfaces could be very useful for a new generation of prosthetic devices. other dangers around this technology. I am much more concerned that we imitate our digital machines. We are probably becoming the first species able to influence our own evolution by what our technology produces because we are creating completely new constraints on how humans socialize and communicate, so we are actually creating a new path without even knowing If

humanity

is an increasingly complex evolutionary process that got it in a neighborhood Science and Technology what kind of arm, do you think you could have it within 10 years?

It's not realistic. I would like to see a hand. It is almost completely functional. You know, since we feed back heat and cold, we are sensitive to the pressure in the tire. Space balls that will send attention. In the 21st century we are rapidly approaching the edge of the cyber nests of the genetically enhanced and modified. This is transferable. There is definitely a positive. Every bad or negative thing that happens. There is something good that comes out of it. You just have to find it. Sometimes you fancy a proper bionic arm where you can feel everything just like your other hand, it has sensory feedback.

I'm not sure, really because I want to know how it is achieved and if you need to do anything else, do your honor well. I guess you'd need maybe even some implants in your brain and things like that. I'm an idiot about that, yeah, pretty good, looking at Angel now, could you have imagined that she would be sitting here with all Bionic? member with flashing lights we were told that one day she would have all the fingers and you know what would happen. I am very, very proud of her, as I said when I grew up, I want to be like her because she was just the way I asked her to be.

She was perfect, how does that make you feel? I say it all the time when she's not around her, right? Could I talk about how much the median did? Know? I don't say it enough to her face. I guess it matters. important and I am very happy that you are my mother and that she has had you encouraging me and making me feel proud of being different and not so different. It was bad in my life. I have people who say things. Wow. I like your arm better than mine. or oh I could get one of those when you start thinking if someone is right voluntarily replacing their limbs ethics when it comes to

bionics

robotics AI all these things are going to be huge I can't act if I want to do it yeah I need it to make sure that we are prepared for these types of problems because we are not going to be prepared for it and then it will happen, how do we handle this?

Eventually there will be restrictions and they will say you can't. Do that, why don't you? Do you know why I can't do the things I want? People who have the need to make these modifications to their bodies again, but have the option.