Technology is always a two-edged sword. Every new technology can be put to good and bad uses. The prime example was the invention of dynamite, by Alfred Nobel, which was heaven-sent for the mining industry and road construction projects, but deadly when used in warfare. One of the beneficial uses of modern technology is in bionics.
Some of the more interesting television shows of my middle age had to do with the introduction of computer technology into the human body. Some of you may recall programs such as Bionic Woman and The Six Million Dollar Man. They were my favourites. They were also at the leading edge of biomedical engineering, or bionics. They seemed a little far-fetched at the time, but today they are part of modern reality. Surprisingly, bionics can be traced as far back as 1797 to Alessandro Volta’s discovery that hearing could be restored by electrical stimulation of the auditory nerve, which led to cochlear implants. However, it wasn’t until 1978 that the first successful multi-channel implant was made – nearly two centuries after discovery of the principle. Although the principle was well known and tested, it had to wait the arrival of microchips to be applied.
Five decades ago, knee and hip replacements were at the experimental stages; now they are routine procedures that are performed on a daily basis in hospitals all over the world. Artificial hands are the most common form of prostheses and have come a long way in the last few decades. In the early 60s, a family friend lost a hand in an industrial accident, and a few years later he was fitted with a facsimile of a hand. It had three stainless steel prongs that allowed him to perform only the most basic daily tasks, but movement and flexibility were very limited. It wasn’t much more advanced than the one used by the infamous Captain Hook. Today, he has a hand that looks and feels like a normal hand, and can do almost everything with it.
Similarly, in the past, people who lost a leg could be fitted with an artificial one, but still needed crutches to move around. When we bought our house, in 1973, our nextdoor neighbour, who had lost his right leg during World War II, was still struggling to learn to walk with his new leg. Eventually, he mastered it, but he always dragged his right leg. Today’s artificial legs are so advanced that crutches are a thing of the past. Amputees can now go up and down stairs easily and almost run with them. Motorized exoskeleton devices can now be strapped to the bodies of people with spinal chord injuries allowing them to move. For wheelchair-bound people, that’s a miracle come true.
Recently, researchers at John Hopkins University announced the development of bionic arms that can be controlled by the thoughts of the amputees wearing them! Similar advancements have been made for other parts of the human body, including feet, eyes, ears, and pancreas. The bionic kidney is next in line. The dialysis machine was actually invented in 1945. Seventy years later, we’re on the verge of giving people artificial kidneys so they don’t have to be tied to an external machine. The progress in this field has been spectacular.
The miniaturization of electronic components, spawned by the microcomputer revolution, has changed bionics in ways that were unimaginable half a century ago. When I look at reruns of my favourite shows, they don’t look as futuristic as they used to. Interestingly, the 1972 book by science fiction writer Martin Caidin, entitled Cyborg, was the basis for The Six Million Dollar Man television series. This was only fourteen years after the first human pacemaker implant, and about the same time as contact lenses were commercialized.
Bionic advancements have had profound effects in people’s lives. Imagine being able to see your family, for the first time after many years, with special glasses and eye implants that convert the signals from the glasses into neuro-impulses that the brain converts into images? That’s the stuff that dreams are made of!
Bionics is making a lot more dreams come true. Whether it’s restoring functional arms to amputees, sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, or controlling sugar level for diabetics, microchips are behind it. These are the truly remarkable and valuable technological achievements of my lifetime because they are effective life changers and there are no alternatives to them. And a lot more is in store for the future. It makes me wish I had gone into biomedical engineering!
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