Robotic Prosthesis:
A Downside for Soldiers
When some people hear of anyone losing a limb they immediately feel sorry for them and wish them to find some sort of comfort knowing they are still alive. But to amputees this feeling of pity is seldom wanted. How many would like to know they can replace that limb and function just as before? There is a downside to immediate replacement and life-like prostheses because everything, regardless of its magnificence, has flaws. Too much food and you become overweight; too much water and you can drown; too many restrictions and you have a revolution; the same can be said for technology. The problem we have today is the dangerous speed at which technology advances and point at which our government no longer sees us as unique fragile beings.
There are many positive things artificial limbs would and will bring to those who are missing a part of their former selves; even those that never had every appendage from birth are going to get a chance. These leaps into the future sound amazing but, and there is a really big one here, the downfalls are enormous in the scope of our society when it comes to military and politics. To them, our value is based off of how needed and unique we are to society and when things like robotic body parts come into play, our worth goes down while the price of artificial body parts go up.
The world is getting faster at almost everything including food services, how business deals are handled, barter and trade, information gathering and sending; it only seems natural that it will continue to do so. With these obvious facts in hand, where does the government see the advancement of electronics in the not-too-distant future?
Many companies that are already employed by the military have begun taking the first few leaps into the future of artificial limbs and have made astounding devices. Take for instance the “Luke Arm” developed by Dean Kamen at Deka in...