A Small Story Of Good News

[filkertom]

In 2007, Austin Whitney did something dumb. He was drinking and driving. And he got into a car accident, and his spinal cord was severed, paralyzing him below the waist.

He stayed in school (history and political science), and now gives motivational talks about drinking and driving. And you'd think that the best you could hope for was the ol' Indomitable Spirit Doesn't Keep Him From Graduating story. Nope. Not this time.

Because this time, he had a professor and a team of graduate students working on a lower-limb exoskeleton for him.

And, at his graduation last week, Austin Whitney walked up to get his diploma.

I'm already bionic -- enhanced vision, both distance and close-up; dental implants; external support for balance; and night-breathing apparatus. I wish I had the bionic legs that let you run 60 mph, but Amazon never says they're in stock. What have you got, and what would you like, if you could get Steve Austin-ish bionics?

Comments

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

I wear glasses and have fillings in my teeth.

What would I like? I shouldn't say this, but I'd like a faster metabolism so that I could be thinner. That would make it a lot easier for me to exercise. I wouldn't mind better hearing and vision, of course.

[kilbia.livejournal.com]

So far it's just the enhanced vision.

Unless you also want to count pharmacy as technology, in which case technology makes me more likely to keep my behaviour within socially agreed-upon parameters.

[stormsdotter.livejournal.com]

I have a severe cleft lip and pallete. I saw a plastic surgeon on Thursday to ask if there was a way he could adjust my nose so I could actually breathe through it, but there's almost no cartilage in my nose and treatment might make things worse.

Thanks for sharing this video. I'm glad that medical technology is advancing. That kid is a lot worse off than I am, but maybe in ten years or so, the technology will exist to let me breathe properly.

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

I had the enhanced vision bionics (I upgraded to a full bio-sculpted solution), and the dentals.

I'd get metabolic adjustment in a heartbeat.

[shockwave77598.livejournal.com]

What all of us old farts want -- bionic bladders! :)

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Cool. The boy learned his lesson, *and* helped the world doing it.

As for bionic powers, limiting to augmenting existing as opposed to adding? ('cause I'd love to have flight, but with our bodies that's just silly. The wingspan to support a human's weight would be ridonkulous... and any other method would be strictly external...) I'd have to say supersight, a la Geordi LaForge. Magnification/telephoto capabilities, different spectra, etc.

Right now it's more medicinal than actual bionic, if you don't count the specs... 8-)

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

Enhanced vision, dual (I am legally blind)
Enhanced audio, right ear
Mastication appliance, top, removable
Alignment appliance, bottom, permanent
Chewing surface replacements
Night breathing apparatus (the Breather)
Carpal stabilization appliances
Patella stabilization appliances

On a high pain day like today, i want knee replacements

[thistlethorn.livejournal.com]

Vision correction lens implants after my cataract surgery last year. Same as you: distance in one eye, not-great reading/close-up in the other (I still definitely need reading glasses).

Ooh, I like the faster metabolism answer -- I want that, too.

[alverant.livejournal.com]

I'd like to have a nanite-based maintenance system. Something that will go through my bloodstream and clean up all the crap they'd likely find and do repairs too. Sure it likely wouldn't fix the afteraffects of too many bean buritoes, but it wouldn't make you fat. All the extra stuff would get flushed away.

[wildcard9.livejournal.com]

I would love to get my eyes and ears fixed. As for what I really want to change about myself physically, bionics doesn't cover that change.

[lizziecrowe.livejournal.com]

I'll have what they're having.

[twfarlan.livejournal.com]

Eh. Everything I've got / had has been corrective in nature as opposed to additive or enhancing. Let them come up with feasible brain in a jar or sentience upload to digital hardware, though, and I'm there.

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't say no to a couple of extra arms, Doc Ock style.

[zibblsnrt.livejournal.com]

The glasses probably count to a point; the medication I occasionally take for asthma certainly does, since when I have to take it it leaves me well beyond my usual baseline for a month or so.

If I could handwave something up, I'd want a HUD and a (one-way) brain/computer interface.

[ashnistrike.livejournal.com]

-Enhanced vision prosthetic (removable)
-Several prosthetic memory devices and other cognitive extensions

Some time when I'm not in a situation where buzzing constantly matters, I would like to try out a directional sense belt. I'm also trying to figure out removable magnetic sense prosthetics--as opposed to the implantable ones that get infected and/or break after a few months.

[smparadox.livejournal.com]

I've got an artificial heart valve, that audibly ticks with each heartbeat, and a CPAP machine that doesn't actually help me breathe, but does help remind me to breathe when I forget. And glasses, a fake tooth/bridge and I am not sure how many fillings I still have. What would I like? Legs at the very least. Actually, I wold consider 16th ventury pegs a step up over these excrescences I am stuck with. Some sort of respiratory bypass, so I don't run low on oxygen when my Central Apnea causes my autonomic system to forget to breathe would be cool too.

[smparadox.livejournal.com]

Actually, I was thinking about Doc Ock tentacles, and then I saw someone else already said them. I like all of the suggestions for bionic enhancements!

[lothie.livejournal.com]

lol, I love the way you put that. I got my eyes fixed so I don't need mechanics, but I do have the breathing assistance for night time. And a few fillings.

But what I'd LOVE would be xray vision. Woo!

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

I've got the standard removable enhanced vision optic...
Me, I think I'd go with the full body prosthesis and neural interface jack. [with buffering and firewalls like crazy!]

I'd settle for admantium skeleton and enhanced healing though...it's been a bad couple of days joints-wise. Pop up blades would be nice, but not essential [and would make airport security a pain.]

[barbarakitten-t.livejournal.com]

I have vision enhancement and dental prosthesis...what I want is
B-R-A-A-A-I-N-S!!!!!

[dysprog.livejournal.com]

I want a Brain-Computer Interface and a functional Exocortex

[hillarysherwood.livejournal.com]

I've always thought that a prehensile tail would come in handy. ;)

[ravenclaw-eric.livejournal.com]

Faster metabolism, bionic vision a la Cyberpunk 2020, (anti-dazzle, microscopic and telescopic capabilities) and, other than that, I can't think of much I could really use now.