Inflation turns The Bionic Man into The 6 Billion Dollar Human

[mandy]

he 1970s gave us the six-million-dollar man. Thirty years and quite a bit of inflation later we have the six-billion-dollar human: not a physical cyborg as such, instead an umbrella term for the latest developments in the growing field of technology for human enhancement.

Helping the blind to see again, being able to carry enormous loads without the prospect of backache and a prosthetic robotic hand that works (almost) like a real one were some of the ideas presented at a recent meeting of engineers, physicists, biologists and computer scientists organised by the American Association of Anatomists.

Seeing through walls or zooming in on faraway objects were among the special talents of six-million-dollar man, Steve Austin. For his modern equivalent, scientists are working on ways to restore functional sight to those who have become blind...

full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/...56,00.html