Society, Technology and Self

Germina Leonce

Instructor: Dr. Diana Mincyte

SOC 2401

5/10/2016

We can live through them

Over the years robotic limbs have evolved, robotic limbs are not only being

used for arms or legs anymore. They are now also being used to save the lives of us, humans.

The Ear of artificial limbs has evolved from, Artificial hands or arms, Robotic legs, Artificial eyes,

Artificial skin, Artificial lungs and one that stood out to me the most was the Artificial heart.

Over the years, robotic limbs have been saving and helping us live our lives. If you lose a body

part or you have an unhealthy organ, because of robotic innovation you don’t have to suffer or

Die. We have found a way to live through technology.

When I found out there was Artificial Skin I had to learn more. The skin has the job of

covering and protecting your whole body, that makes is the easiest organ to get damaged.

Because its job is on the outside of the body. If you get burned or had an accident the first thing

doctors would tell you, is you can take skin from somewhere else on your body to help fix

whatever problem you might have. Now thanks to the scientists at Stanford University they have

created a Synthetic skin replace, called Super Sensitive electronic skin. Zhenan Bao has

developed a super- flexible , super-durable and super-sensitive material that can be used for
synthetic skin (L.A cicero). There are many people out there that have tried to develop synthetic

skin but no one has come close to what Baohas have had. This product has sensitivity to touch

then anything that has ever been had (Zhenan Baohas). This product contains organic

transistors and layers of elastic so it can stretch without being damaged. The coolest part about

this prototype is that it’s totally self-powered. This skin has a series of elastic solar cells that 4

powers it.
I believe that synthetic skin is great for the future our and society because burn

victims won’t have to go through the pain of taking skin from another part of their body they can

use this product. Not only that people with skin cancer can also find a way out. I don’t see any

the negative aspect of this product, it’s a prototype that can help us for years to come. I now feel

the need to buy some just in case something happens to my beautiful skin. Synthetic skin is not

the only product that has evolved over the years prosthetic legs have come a long way.

Even though prosthetic legs have been out for a while, people still have a love and hate

relationship with them. Yes you now have something there to replace you lost leg but you have

no control over it. It just something that’s there to either make you feel better about losing your

legs or something that helps you move around, but still limits the control. They lack the actual

nerve connections to the body. This lead the way for Zac Vawter from Seattle to making the

world’s first thought-controlled leg. A bionic limb that takes signals from your mind and sends it

to the foot. This technology was previously made for arms but he thought it would be more

useful to the legs. This sounds like a great idea but the downsides to this product are if it signals

get intercepted it might send you in front of a moving car or making you jump off a bridge.

That’s why even though it’s the same prototype that was made for arms, this product needed to

be thought out right and be programmed correctly. They have to also make sure that this product

is built with safety. Our future and our society can benefit from this in many ways if you lost

your leg or legs in the war and you really want to go back this is a way you can get back to what

you loved doing. If you had to cut your leg off now it all wouldn’t be for nothing cause you not

have something that can replace your leg using your own thoughts.

Prosthetic hands, unlike the legs they are more useful, they can grasp thing okay and help

you keep some balance in your life. But the lack one thing, the lack of touch, touch is one of our

important abilities that help us go through life. People that use prosthetics can’t detect an object

without looking at it first. And this is what the researchers at the University of Chicago wanted to

solve. They wanted people who lost their arm or hands to have that sense of touch again. They

developed a prosthetic hand that can send electric signals to the brain. They tested this out on

animals they gave monkeys, after a few studies they found out after giving the monkey this

product they brains were responding to touch from this prosthetic. This can help us now and in

the future because there are a lot of amputees that would do anything so that they can hold wife

and feel that or hand their daughters hand taking her to school.

I couldn’t believe would have had Artificial eyes, over the years we have found a way to

restore hearing to the deaf but when it comes to the blind it gets complicated. When people lose

their ability to see, their retinas are no longer sending signals from the photoreceptors to the

Brain. For an artificial eye to be made scientist have to find out how the retina processes those

signals to the brain. The scientist at Weill Cornell Medical college have started testing out this

prototype on mice and monkeys. After testing this artificial retinas on animals the chips were able

to convert pictures electronic signals, that the tiny projectors in the artificial eye turns electronic

signals into light. This would help everyone now and in the future because now if you go blind

there’s something that can make you see again but if you were born blind there’s also something

that can help you see the light of day. I believe that this is very important and can change the lives

of people everywhere.

The artificial limbs that stood out to me the most was the artificial heart. The abiocor was

designed to do the same job as a regular heart. This product is made to withstand the body’s

circulatory system to extend the lives of patients that would die of heart failure. This can change

the lives of so many people suffering from heart problems. In conclusion we can use technology

to help us live our lives. In today’s life we can’t live without technology but sooner or later in the

future we are going to live through technology. They will be apart of us and a part of our daily

lives.

Annotated Bibliography List

Artificial eyes

I wanted to learn more about artificial eyes because i thought it would very beneficial to us now and in the future. This product is great for everyone. Over the years there have been people that were born blind and some that became blind not by choose.

2.Artificial hands

Artificial hand that can give a person the sense of touch once again is amazing. There are many artificial hand out on the market but none that can give you back the sense of touch. Someone that was born without an arm or has some kind of deformity could now have a chance to live a normal life.

3. Robotic leg

Over the years there’s been many different proteic legs , but never any that get their information from the brain. After doing more research i found out that there are robotic legs that speed information from the brain to the leg.

4. Artificial heart

The artificial heart was the most impressive product that was ever invented. This can not only benefit our lives now but it could help us live for many years from now. This product can save the lives of many people that might be dying from heart disease.

5. Artificial Skin

There are many people that suffer from bad skin burns and would have to take skin from somewhere else on the body. This product would be great because it takes off the pain of having to go through surgery. This would be great for us now and in the future.

6.

After doing my research, i came to notice that sooner or later we are going to be living through technology. And need it more than we do now.

6.http://www.texasheart.org/Research/Devices/abiocor.cfm

7.http://www.medicaldaily.com/woman-receives-first-successful-heart-transplant-using-experimental-artificial-heart-341182

8.http://motherboard.vice.com/read/era-artificial-heart-permanent-transplants

9.http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2015/06/02/artificial-heart/#.VzU2n9UrLnA

10.http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/7654742

11.https://www.google.com/patents/US6821297

12.http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1525-1594.2002.07130.x/abstract;jsessionid=06BB5180AC1D0FAB1B63E265B8BB29F5.f04t02?systemMessage=Wiley+Online+Library+will+be+unavailable+on+Saturday+14th+May+11%3A00-14%3A00+BST+%2F+06%3A00-09%3A00+EDT+%2F+18%3A00-21%3A00+SGT+for+essential+maintenance.Apologies+for+the+inconvenience.&userIsAuthenticated=false&deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=

13.http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=370569

14.https://www.google.com/patents/US7147663

15.http://journals.lww.com/asaiojournal/Citation/1959/04000/ARTIFICIAL_HEART_IN_THE_CHEST_AND_USE_OF.40.aspx

16.http://www.techinsider.io/mechanical-hearts-could-replace-human-ones-2015-11