Prosthetics: they're cool until they kick able-bodied ass

[kestrell]

(Kes: irony 1alert)
"When amputees participate in sports, they call it courageous. Once you become competitive, they call it cheating." Hugh Herr
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/1214/breakthroughs-mit-herr-robotics-step-beyond-human.html

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

You are an awesome middle feeder, snagging this great mainstream coverage. Is "h plus" short for transhuman?

[kestrell]

Not sure if H+ technically refers to transhuman --I think of transhuman as he folks who believe in being able to upload their consciousness to computers, an idea with which I disagree on technical terms. I think of H+ as posthuman, or the idea of human which is replacing the traditional humanist idea of humans as biologically complete at birth, self-contained, every man is an island, ec. I think of H+ as augmented, whether with technological devices, biotech medications and eengineered body parts, or collaborative efforts such as crowdsourcing. The ceremony for he opening of the Augmentation Lab at MIT was called H2.0, which is probably where I get my definition (John Hawkenberry used the term in his accompanying speech and introductions).

[jesse_the_k]

Ah. That makes sense.

It's not a surprising error for a raptor like yourself, but the first syllable of John's name is spelled like "dock", not "hawk"

[kestrell]

Ah, I knew I was misspelling Hockenberry even as I did it, bu my Internet connection has been wonky lately and I just wanted to post while it was up. Also, apologies for my misbehaving t key--the most frequenly used keys on my six-year-old laptop are definitley worn out.