Full-blown natural prostheses - how long?

Molyneux · Post by **Molyneux** » 2005-07-13 12:40am

Inspired by a thread on the Keenspot El Goonish Shive forum...

Does anyone on this board have the relevant expertise to give a good minimum estimate on how long until we're able to grow/build limbs, organs, etc. as needed for patients?

I'm talking about full-blown, hand-chopped-off-and-replaced-with-vatgrown-new-one limb growth...preferably matched with the person's physiology, so they don't have to worry about their immune system attacking it.

Tasoth · Post by **Tasoth** » 2005-07-13 01:10am

Currently, they're working out the ability to wire a mechanical limb into the nervous system, and recenlty(a year or so) managed to get a monkey to move a robot arm over long distances to pick up I think it was nuts. That's a nice step in the right direction.

As for my estimate, a decade or two at the minimum.

Post by **Broomstick** » 2005-07-14 03:55am

I don't feel comfortable speculating on how long until we have such prostheses, but I'm pretty sure that once we develop the technology the next big obstacle is going to be cost. It ain't gonna be cheap, and if you can't afford to buy the medical tech you need, it might as well not exist from your viewpoint.

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2005-07-14 04:58am

Decade at minum, they need some long range usability tests with mechanics first before they start cloning your arm and grafting on an extra one on to improve your tennis game.

SyntaxVorlon · Post by **SyntaxVorlon** » 2005-07-14 10:56am

Tasoth wrote:Currently, they're working out the ability to wire a mechanical limb into the nervous system, and recenlty(a year or so) managed to get a monkey to move a robot arm over long distances to pick up I think it was nuts. That's a nice step in the right direction.

As for my estimate, a decade or two at the minimum.

As for the bionics, there was a story I heard recently about a man with a fully working prosthetic hand that works like a normal hand, but is mechanical and connected to his nervous system. So they've got things rolling on cybernetics.

We'll be seeing arms like the protagonist of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress had.

Drooling Iguana · Post by **Drooling Iguana** » 2005-07-14 09:04pm

Molyneux wrote:Full-blown natural protheses - how long?

As long as you want it to be.

Molyneux · Post by **Molyneux** » 2005-07-14 10:02pm

Drooling Iguana wrote:
Molyneux wrote:Full-blown natural protheses - how long?
As long as you want it to be.

*grooooan*

I'm just going to go ahead and mentally assume you were talking about a prosthetic tail, there.

Lord of the Abyss · Post by **Lord of the Abyss** » 2005-07-14 10:06pm

Drooling Iguana wrote:As long as you want it to be.

Wouldn't " as long as she wants it to be " be a better idea ( if you're straight ).

LauraG · Post by **LauraG** » 2005-07-26 12:49pm

SyntaxVorlon wrote:As for the bionics, there was a story I heard recently about a man with a fully working prosthetic hand that works like a normal hand, but is mechanical and connected to his nervous system. So they've got things rolling on cybernetics.

That would be awesome. Where did you hear this?

Last I heard, they were still taking microvoltaic signals from the skin surface and using them to control rather simple movements, and looking for a temporary interface to the nervous system.

In any case, the level of complexity of a hand is very high and not likely to be duplicated in a pretty long time. Even after they manage to wire the prosthesis directly to the nervous system, there's the whole issue of control, sensation, power, size...