parts. This can be seen now, in 2010, with the world's first successful fake heart, although not entirely a permanent solution, it gives the patient time to function until a heart is found. The idea with a mix between human and robot will more certainly mean that most body parts will function with digital computing and communication supplements. Perhaps even in the end the only thing that will not be artificial will be your brain... until they find a way to replace that of course!
The current news story that reflects my research can be seen with the example of the mechanical (fake) heart transplant.
Artificial heart transplant first
16 August 2010 | 07:41:15 PM | Source: AAP
A 50-year-old from the Sydney suburb of Fairfield has had surgery to implant a mechanical heart, making him the southern hemisphere's first recipient of the breakthrough technology.
Angelo Tigano is living proof you can remove a man's heart, but he'll still love his mum's cooking.
Speaking to reporters at a press event in St Vincent's Hospital on Monday, Mr Tigano said he was "feeling great" and looking forward to some home cooking.
"Just going home and getting back to my own environment," Mr Tigano said when asked what he missed most.
"... we'll get together at mum's place for pasta, we'll make sure we do that."
Mr Tigano has lived with a degenerative heart condition for more than ten years and, before his successful surgery, was expected to live for only two more weeks.
His new SynCardia Systems temporary Total Artificial Heart grants him several more years in which a suitable donor heart must be found.
It has replaced his failing heart, and is now pumping up to 9.5 litres of blood per minute through his body.
The device is connected by cables to an external, and slightly noisy, pump and power supply that can be either mounted on a trolley or in a backpack.
Dr Phillip Spratt, head of the hospital's heart transplant unit, said it was a significant advance on conventional heart pumps.
"It means we take the whole heart out and put this artificial heart in and the patients get better a whole lot quicker," he said.
"You can see looking at Angelo, this was a man who was nearly dead two weeks ago."
Dr Spratt said the new mechanical heart was "not a permanent solution, it's a bridge to transplantation" and such technologies allowed more patients to survive the nine to 12 month waiting list for a donor heart.
Australia has one of the world's lowest rates of organ donation and there were 82 heart transplants undertaken in 2008, followed by just 60 last year.
"Obviously we need more organ donation and we hope the organ donate programs the federal government put in place will improve that situation," Dr Spratt said.
"But our patients are so sick when they come to us that we will always require some form of mechanical support."
The $120,000 cost of Mr Tigano's mechanical heart was covered by benefactors of St Vincent's Hospital, and Dr Spratt said talks were underway to secure government funding.
Mr Tigano is just one of the 1,700 Australians now on an organ donor waiting list and, in the meantime, he is coming to terms with his new pneumatic heartbeat and lease on life.
"It is unusual because of the noise and there is a clicking in your chest which is the pump that keeps going," Mr Tigano said.
"There's a few different things to get used to but other than that it's wonderful."
Here is now my version of the news story;
Artificial heart transplant first
17 September 2010 | 12:45 PM | Source: AAP
A 50-year-old from the Sydney suburb of Fairfield has had surgery to implant a mechanical heart, making him the southern hemisphere's first recipient of the breakthrough technology.
Angelo Tigano is living proof that we are emerging into robots and losing ourselves to electronics whilst still keeping our flesh and brain.
Natural-Born Cyborgs author, Andy Clark says, “cyborgs are very much a reality. The mind is just less and less in the head”.
While speaking to reporters in St Vincent’s Hospital on Monday, Mr Tigano said he was “feeling great” and that he didn’t feel changed at all.
“ I hardly feel like a robot, but let’s hope my wires don’t get mixed up,” he said humorously.
The device which has replaced Mr Tigano’s failing heart is now pumping up to 9.5 litres of blood per minute through his body. Although, he has only at the moment chosen to replace his real heart, Mr Tigano says he is considering replacing his veins with wires in order to make everything else run as smoothly after experiencing a blood clot two years ago.
“We must be careful as I feel we are losing our human nature, and that if people continue to choose mechanic body parts, we might all end up losing our humanity and robots will rule the world,” he said.
Reference;
http://project.cyberpunk.ru/idb/cyborgs.html
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1328707/headline
http://resources3.news.com.au/images/2010/08/16/1225906/094219-angelo-tigano.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberpunk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dystopia
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=8JXaK3sREXQC&dq=cyborgs&hl=en&ei=QtWSTLDjM4qlcdbt2dcG&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAA
http://www.springerlink.com/content/n8khf04j7f006718/
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