The end of disability will happen because of wearable bionic limbs.
So argued Hugh Herr, an MIT professor who leads their biomechatronics research group, at a recent conference, according to Marketing Magazine.
Recommended Stories
“We will design nature and change nature under our own power. In the future people will be wearing robots … we will give ourselves new bodies,” Herr told the audience.
A double amputee since he was 17 after a climbing accident, Herr holds many patents himself and has pushed the prosthetics industry “into the digital age,” according to Smithsonian Magazine.
Bionics, robotics, and interest from engineers have pushed prosthetics beyond the typical materials of wood, plastic, and rubber to mimic natural limbs.
Herr, however, doesn’t want a simple replacement. He wants technology, creativity, and innovation to push human capability beyond its natural limits.
“Our bodies are plastic and malleable,” he told his audience at DigitasLBi’s New Front conference.
Just as wearable tech like the Apple Watch aims to make life easier, wearable robotics aim to make a person stronger, faster, or improved in some way. Tech is wheedling its way into life.
For veterans and other people who have lost limbs, Herr’s inventions and his approach to prosthetics have been life-changing. He doesn’t envision bionics as limited to those who have lost a limb, however. Changing human capability is a theme of Herr’s. Someday, elective bionics that enhances a person in some way might be the name, if Herr gets his way.
