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Bioware wishlist

By thescian on March 5, 2009.

Here's a list of things I want to be able to buy in the near future:

Better eyes. Check this news at beebs on a man with bionic eyes. I am very hopeful. Spectacles suck, contact lenses suck. I want a pair of bionic eyes.

Better memory. No news on this. Cognitive enhancement drugs will not cut it. I want a prosthetic that adds to the sorry excuse of a memory that evolution has endowed me with. If we can interface with the optic nerve (above), we can interface with any nerve, the brain included.

i-455c91ef8a48bfaf6a8a9bda48cf7b0a-200px-Oscar_Pistorius-2.jpgBetter legs - so I can run to the office a dozen miles without breaking a sweat. Sitting inside a box of steel and meddling with large turnable knobs and slippery pads to travel is as stupid as it gets and I want to be done with it. Perhaps, the prosthetic legs could get wheels as add-ons. If you can get cheetah legs, why not wheels.

What else. A stomach that digests everything thrown at it, titanium teeth...

Bioware clearly brings tremendous benefits for those who need it the most: like Oscar who uses prosthetic legs to compete at Olympic level and Ron who can see again after 30 years. These early adapters are paving the way for the rest of us as we push the boundaries of human experience. As history amply demonstrates, experiencing the world in new ways is not just a gamely thing to do, but an essential activity for surviving into the unknown future. If earth's climate changes drastically - and we are certainly on track, who knows, we may be wearing breathware and living under water...

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Don't forget to include cochlear implants! They've been around for 20+ years now and are a pretty successful "artificial sense". There are also auditory brain stem implants now too.

Mind you, they won't give you "super-hearing" or run the two-minute mile.

By Heraclides (not verified) on 09 Mar 2009 #permalink

I salute the man with steel legs because in spite of this, he did not end his athletic career but was more determined to continue on running no matter what. In your wish list, I go for the bionic eyes because it is very useful especially now that we tend to face the computer more than the allowed time. But nevertheless, nothing can beat the normal eyes. Lets take care of of it and it will take care of us till we can no longer walk -- but luckily can still appreciate the beauty of all things.