One million dollar Rex – short for robotic exoskeletons – was built using the most advanced artificial limbs and organs from across the world.
And he shows that from bionic arms and legs to artificial organs, science is beginning to catch up with science fiction in the race to replace body parts with man-made alternatives.
In the 70s TV series The Six Million Dollar Man astronaut Steve Austin, played by Lee Majors, was left horribly injured after his craft crashed and was given a bionic arm and legs and an artificial zoom-lens eye. 6ft Rex also raises ethical dilemmas, as research on advanced prosthetic arms and legs, as well as artificial eyes, hearts, lungs – and even hybrids between computer chips and living brains – means that scientists can not only replace body parts but may even be able to improve on human abilities.
This has led scientists to warn against creating a modern Frankenstein. Leading UK roboticists Richard Walker and Matthew Godden build Rex using $1 million-worth of state of the art limbs and organs – the products of billions of dollars of research – borrowed from some of these world leading laboratories and manufacturers. Dr Meyer, whose £30,000 bionic hand is the most advanced on the market, said he had a “personal interest” in the “explosion of innovation” which has occurred in the last six years.
“I think we are now at a point where we can build a body that is great and beautiful in its own special way.” “When I was growing up I hated wearing artificial hands. The plastic hands always looked fake and the metal hooks were useful in some circumstances, but they just looked scary and frightened people. Now that I have this one I feel that the hand is a part of me. If I don’t wear it I feel that there is something missing.”
Technology is advancing so fast his bionic hand will soon be obsolete.
Rex’s components include an arm with 26 degrees of movement, one less than a human arm, which teaches itself to work, glasses which send images to a microchip in the retina which then sends electrical impulses to the brain, and a battery powered heart which is currently being used for temporary donors. Rex also has bionic ankles, which use a motor and spring system to mimic the actions of the human calf muscle and Achilles tendon, invented by Professor Hugh Herr who lost both legs to frostbite. “I was climbing better with artificial limbs than I achieved before my accident with biological limbs,” he said.”Technology has this extraordinary capacity to heal, to rehabilitate and even to extend human capability beyond what nature intended.
“I think having normal bodies is boring…I have legs, you have shoes. If a fairy came and tapped on my shoulder and granted me a wish, would I wish my legs back? Absolutely not.”
One organ that science cannot yet match is the human brain. Made up of a hundred billion neurons, it is the most complex structure in the known universe. But scientists at the University of Southern California are studying the electrical signals in rats’ brains to develop microchips that may one day be able to restore memory and even cure Alzheimer’s by working with living brains.
While Dr Meyer’s search shows just how far science has come, it also asks questions about what it means to be human and where this technology could lead in the future. “The things I have seen have left me with kind of a weird mix of feelings,” he said.
“There’s optimism that I might live to get an arm that is far more advanced than this one, but then you get developments that augment the healthy human body which I still find it a little bit scary.
“We might be at a point in science and technology where we see first glimpses of the possibilities to go beyond the limits of evolution. I think that really is a double-edged sword.”George Annas, Professor of Bioethics and Human Rights at Boston University agrees: “I think when it comes to our bodies, the danger is we might change what it is to be human.
