No, there are no real insects that exchange their legs, but an interesting suggestion is made in this iconic little comic by illustrator Schwantz. Of course it's just a joke, but it very much suits today's 'Zeitgeist', and it's interesting to think about the interchangeability of body parts isn't it.
This is an excellent mini-documentary to give you an idea of the current possibilities in bionic enhancement of the human body. It features prosthetic eyes, arms, legs, even fins, all for the celebration of the release of the new Deus Ex game "Human Revolution," and transhumanism in general.
We are indeed entering an era where modifying our own body is becoming more accessible and acceptable. To think that we're all going to have prosthetic body parts is an exaggeration though. That could be based on the idea that technology will somehow 'save' or improve us, or just on an attachment to new technologies. Of course for people who lost a capability of their natural body such technologies are wonderful, plus they open up new exciting and interesting niches for embodied human explorations and operations. But all in all, if we are to physically alter our bodies for the sake of transgressive exploration -not unlike many people are currently doing through plastic surgery, we should as well try to become more deeply connected to that body. We might be able to get beyond seeing it mostly as a physical thing, and discover an energy, an underlying intelligence. Technological modifications like shown in the movie might be very interesting and promising, but they may also tend to blind us from a deeper connection with our own embodiment.
I always thought it was pretty silly to put wheels under a pet animal who misses a part of his hind legs. Here's the solution in the form of a pair of prosthetic paws for a cat named Oscar. Apparently it was not so simple to get the skin to grow onto the artificial limbs. In the end, it all worked out wonderfully, and Oscar can continue his jolly frolicking. If you want to know more, watch the BBC documentary 'The Bionic Vet'.
One new morphological identity coming up, digitigrade legs sure why not! Two months waiting after your order at kimgrahamstudios.com, and you'll look like Pan himself. I wonder when the first person is actually going to decide growing his bones in such a radically different way.
This is exactly what it looks like; people having motorized robot legs to help them walking. More Japanese crotch-robotics. I wonder what happens when these things get a will of their own, and start evolving their own ways of walking. So your 300 pound bearded boss might suddenly start hopscotching around the office like his 7 year old granddaughter.
Anyway, this is the next development by Cyberdyne, and the 'hybrid assistive limb' suits are for rent for 2,200 USD in Japan as from last Friday.
No question about it, but it's now really evident that we are already post-human.
This blog reports and reflects on intellectual and technological developments that can give rise to a liberated feeling of oneness with the whole of being, and an awakening of creative intelligence that empowers people to feel and act as inextricably linked with their lifeworld.
Special attention in this blog is paid to embodied intelligence, complex emergent behavior, applied behavioral economics, technology for physical behavior modification, and the merging of digital and physical experiences.
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The author
Ralph Zoontjens is a product designer from Tilburg, the Netherlands. He has graduated with a Master's Degree from the Industrial Design program at the Eindhoven University of Technology with an interactive jacket that gives feedback for yoga practitioners. He has worked for the Philips Design Probes group and currently does product design for Motio Development in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. In his spare time he pursues his many interests, does yoga and distance-running, and tries to immerse himself into creative processes as much as possible.
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