Science

It’s time to wrap up last week’s theme, This Cyborg Life, a look into the future of the machine called Man.

And yes, that even means saying goodbye to Aimee Mullins. She was with us for three essays, all of which dealt with issues of prostheses from unexpected perspectives, that few of us will soon forget. In case you missed any, we’ll list them again right here:

Is Choosing a Prosthesis So Different than Picking a Pair of Glasses?
Racing on Carbon Fibre Legs: How Abled Should We Be?
Normal Was Never Cool: Inception of Perception

Of course, what we really tried to explore is that prosthetics are both around us already (is a smartphone with a Bluetooth headset anything but?) and will continue to be integral in our self-improvement, from implantable computers to programming our body’s biological robots to do our bidding.

A big thanks to Aimee Mullins, Marc Hodosh at TEDMED and all of our contributors to the week:

Michael Specter at The New Yorker
Synthetic Biology: Why Not Pursuing Crazy Biotech Is Dangerous

Anna Jane Grossman
Psychic Powers, Cochlear Implants, and My Bionic Ex-Boyfriend

Dr. Debby Herbenick from The Kinsey Institute
Becoming a Sexual Cyborg (NSFW)

Daniel H. Wilson
Me and My Exoskeleton: The Trick to Super Strength

And in case all of that wasn’t enough, to read all of the stories from This Cyborg Life, use this link.