Bionic limbs like in Rimworld

[MGs551]

Hey. I'm new here and wanted to know what others thought about having bionic limbs and if you guys are more of a prosthophile or prosthophobe.     

[sadpickle]

I have the Prosthophile trait IRL. I've worn glasses my whole life and one of the biggest rushes I had was getting a new prescription after using the same pair for ~8 years. The clarity of vision it gave me was tremendous. I was in awe of how well I could see for days.

Now, I don't know if I would purposefully undergo surgery to replace my eyes. But if the technology was advanced enough and there was no (statistically significant) risk of prosthetic rejection or hardware failure, I would seriously consider it. However, the people that will benefit the most from bionics are involuntary amputees. Hugh Herr is one such individual. An avid rock-climber, in 1982 he was in an accident that resulted in amputation of both legs below the knee. According to Wikipedia he is the first person to develop a powered ankled-foot prosthesis, or what we might call a rudimentary bionic limb. If you want to see it in action, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDsNZJTWw0w

[Ser Kitteh]

The biggest issue with prosthetics is you can't feel crap. Doesn't matter if you've got Adam Jensen bionics, you can't feel textures with your fingers. This might not be an issue for legs or eyes, but RL prosthetics are simply not advance enough to ever be worth it.

[Canute]

Ser Kitteh, thats count for prostetic only.
But not true with Adam jensen bionics. They master or at last improve the neuronal/bionic linkage to give the proper feedbacks.
Basicly with bionics you should have the same or improved sensoric like with your original limbs

[sadpickle]

There is no telling what the future holds. The sensation of touch is not magic though, neither are human bodies. They are organic machines that obey principles. It's only a matter of time before that function can be replicated artificially.

[ruddthree]

The biggest issue with prosthetics is you can't feel crap. Doesn't matter if you've got Adam Jensen bionics, you can't feel textures with your fingers. This might not be an issue for legs or eyes, but RL prosthetics are simply not advance enough to ever be worth it.

Scientists actually did a trial on humans with a prosthetic arm capable of sensing touch. I think it was just a basic tactile response, not anything advanced (like the difference between soft and hard objects), but it's one step closer.

[BasileusMaximos]

Honestly I think we'll have vat grown limbs and organs before we have robotic limbs. We know how to transplant everything from arms to faces and are already growing organs in pigs and such. And I think people would ultimately prefer having a real arm than a cold robot one.

[sadpickle]

And I think people would ultimately prefer having a real arm than a cold robot one.

Some people, yes. Probably most people. But I can think of all sorts of reasons one might want a superior, synthetic alternative. Embedded multi-tool functionality. An arm with dampeners to cancel out essential tremor, giving a person fine motor control they might otherwise never achieve. Sensory organs so acute they can detect things that are essentially invisible to humans. A respiratory system that can filter out airborne toxins and pathogens. A liver that never fails.

Eventually, given enough time, the field of biomechanics will create superior alternatives for almost every part of the body. Of course, the ultimate end-goal of such a discipline would be the elimination of organic material entirely, to cheat death. Biological immortality, without the biology.

[Canute]

Why does a bionic limb need to be a cold robot one ?
If you just replace the naturals bones with a stronger material and the muscles with a synthetic stronger ones you allready got a basic bionic limb.
And even the skin can be more robust at serveral ways, and still feels soft on the surface.
Bionic don't mean robotic.

[BasileusMaximos]

And I think people would ultimately prefer having a real arm than a cold robot one.

Some people, yes. Probably most people. But I can think of all sorts of reasons one might want a superior, synthetic alternative. Embedded multi-tool functionality. An arm with dampeners to cancel out essential tremor, giving a person fine motor control they might otherwise never achieve. Sensory organs so acute they can detect things that are essentially invisible to humans. A respiratory system that can filter out airborne toxins and pathogens. A liver that never fails.

Eventually, given enough time, the field of biomechanics will create superior alternatives for almost every part of the body. Of course, the ultimate end-goal of such a discipline would be the elimination of organic material entirely, to cheat death. Biological immortality, without the biology.

Frankly I think all those improvements will be biological in nature rather than mechanical.

[Vlad0mi3r]

As long as it is Rimworld level. So performs better than the standard human part, does not require an external power source and is self repairing. Sign me up.

[cyberian]

And I think people would ultimately prefer having a real arm than a cold robot one.

Some people, yes. Probably most people. But I can think of all sorts of reasons one might want a superior, synthetic alternative. Embedded multi-tool functionality. An arm with dampeners to cancel out essential tremor, giving a person fine motor control they might otherwise never achieve. Sensory organs so acute they can detect things that are essentially invisible to humans. A respiratory system that can filter out airborne toxins and pathogens. A liver that never fails.

Eventually, given enough time, the field of biomechanics will create superior alternatives for almost every part of the body. Of course, the ultimate end-goal of such a discipline would be the elimination of organic material entirely, to cheat death. Biological immortality, without the biology.

Frankly I think all those improvements will be biological in nature rather than mechanical.

Yeah mainly because of energy source.
I am not scared of the Terminator if I can push him over with one hand or even when hes strong if he looses power or overloads 10 seconds into a wrestling match.
If you had unlimited budget you could probably build a pretty good robotic arm with todays technology but there is just no energy source that can give high output, duration and low weight and tiny form factor to even start to rival regular human performance not to speak about trained athletes. We would need something multiples category above what is used in todays consumer electronics.

Then even if we had that do we want peoples to walk around with small bombs in their body?
So its probably hybrid solutions or all grown/cloned body parts.