Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Woman's experimental bionic hand passes major test

gizmodo.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 50 posts

Re: Woman's experimental bionic hand passes major test

#41

Post by vGPU »

Dig1t wrote: post #15
autoexec wrote: post #6

I've seen some amazing prosthetics on the internet, I've been seeing them for decades, but none of them get wide use. They're either all "experimental" or so insanely expensive that nobody can get them. These kinds of articles can make us feel good about science and hopeful about our future, but the reality is that the people who need these things are basically never going to have one or anything close to one.

You’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t. Look how much hatred there is for Neuralink. A company actually trying to productize and bring to market a device that will allow quadriplegic people to move and walk again, which could restore life for so many people who need help and have no other options. So if you do try to bring it to market you’re pilloried by the press and everyone online and if you don’t…

Neuralink is incredibly sloppy. A great example would be the “whoopsie-daisy, we spilled toxic glue on your brain” fiasco.

Re: Woman's experimental bionic hand passes major test

#43

Post by southernplaces7 »

tspike wrote: post #28
Dig1t wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree there are things to be wary of, all new tech is a double edged sword. But the pro’s obviously outweigh the cons in the same way the internet and smart phones have. You’ll find very few people who will say they would prefer to live in a world where all humanity’s collective knowledge is not instantly accessible to everyone. You used to have to drive to the library to look things up! Is that old world better? H…

> in the same way the internet and smart phones have I think the jury is very much still out on that one. I just got on Facebook for the first time in almost 10 years, and the comments on 'suggested' content have made me seriously question whether society was ready for these technologies. The corrosive impact of the falsehoods that are being thrown around has only begun to take effect.

People have always thrown around corrosive falsehoods like you wouldn't believe. At least modern social networks also let others spread corrections and counteractions to common myths and bullshit political beliefs.

I'd love to see some modern polyannas about "misinformation" hop into a time machine and then spend even a few days talking to any average group of people about their general beliefs in the mid 20th century on downard, or just take a look at the kind of utter invented garbage and hyperbole that was constantly peddled and regularly sold to wide swathes of the public by government and media organizations of all kinds so much more easily in previos decades and centuries.

Humans love to invent stories based on tribal notions and biases, so falsehoods never go away even in the most advanced communication age in human history, but historically, we're not doing so bad, simply because the cost of spreading any idea is now lower than ever previously and the means for doing so are more widely available than they've ever been, letting things average out much more rapidly towards message dilution. Anything in the opposite direction, and any centralized "vigilance" of supposed wrong ideas will only take us back to a place where a small number control more narrative than they ever should, and that small number will always tend towards dictating based on selfish interest.

Re: Woman's experimental bionic hand passes major test

#45

Post by NoahKAndrews »

eichin wrote: post #29
autoexec wrote: post #6

I've seen some amazing prosthetics on the internet, I've been seeing them for decades, but none of them get wide use. They're either all "experimental" or so insanely expensive that nobody can get them. These kinds of articles can make us feel good about science and hopeful about our future, but the reality is that the people who need these things are basically never going to have one or anything close to one.

I thought the DEKA arm was shipping, but apparently https://www.unionleader.com/news/scitech/dean-kamens-new-luk... it's finally coming to market this quarter - "testing by nearly 100 amputees for more than 10,000 hours of use" now that it actually has FDA approval; earliest demo that turns up in a quick search was 2007 ... so it's the kind of success that makes your point :}

That article is from 2016.

Re: Woman's experimental bionic hand passes major test

#46

Post by barrysteve »

Dig1t wrote: post #26
mikem170 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Look how much hatred there is for Neuralink. A company actually trying to productize and bring to market a device that will allow quadriplegic people to move and walk again People are wary of Neuralink because of how big tech manipulates peoples and pollutes society for profit, not because they are opposed to helping quadriplegics.

I agree there are things to be wary of, all new tech is a double edged sword. But the pro’s obviously outweigh the cons in the same way the internet and smart phones have. You’ll find very few people who will say they would prefer to live in a world where all humanity’s collective knowledge is not instantly accessible to everyone. You used to have to drive to the library to look things up! Is that old world better? H…

Generating knowledge and novel concepts requires privacy and control over the concept.

Instant access to knowledge has cheapened and diluted the process of creating new concepts.

The guys who put knowledge on the 'internet shelf' are not the guys who made the valueable knowledge in the first place.

The best way to create knowledge is to isolate concepts, structures and relationships into the human mind.

As soon as a concept stops being literally secret, it becomes infintely less worthwhile. Nobody works on hard intellectual problems any more because they've been massively cheapened by CTRL C, and CTRL V functionality.

The James Bond-ian culture of spies fighting over a hidden concept, is not just a flight of fancy at the movie theatres, it is one of the best culturally visible examples of how to develop and keep secret, aka. a new concept.

Spying, duplicating and publicating knowledge into instant-access platforms, is way more dangerous than anyone publicly admits.

Re: Woman's experimental bionic hand passes major test

#47

Post by snapcaster »

lo_zamoyski wrote: post #16
altruios wrote: post #8

in a 'perfect' future: we would cut off our own limbs to get the nimble-tron 5000 with magnetic finger extensions and predictive AI that totally doesn't strangle anyone even a little. I joke... but I unironically can't wait for replacement limb tech to be that desirable. Imagine the upgrades people would get...

This is not an "upgrade". A replacement is a concession, a patch, a crutch, a mere instrument. It doesn't matter if the crutch can crack open Brazil nuts or turn your TV on or allow you to fetch the keys that fell behind the fridge. Metaphysically, it is always an inferior, if sophisticated, instrument. Ridding yourself of perfectly good limbs to replace them with an instrument is not only a "downgrade", but gravely…

Why don't you see the arms you were born with as an "instrument"?

Re: Woman's experimental bionic hand passes major test

#48

Post by failrate »

roarcher wrote: post #39
failrate wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then transdermals as popularized by Steve Haworth. They go through skin and are mounted to flesh and bone.

I'd have the same question about them. I'm not disputing that it works, I just don't understand how the body isn't constantly fighting it. Or leaking.

In the case of the Metal Mohawk, it actually was difficult for the owner to maintain. He kept bumping the spikes on things and eventually had them removed. Granted, his was a cosmetic change and not a functional one. I would be willing to put up with extra care to effectively replace a hand. Additionally, consider that people who receive donor transplants will use immune suppressants for the remainder of their life. That said, material selection is also important.

Re: Woman's experimental bionic hand passes major test

#49

Post by eichin »

NoahKAndrews wrote: post #45
eichin wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought the DEKA arm was shipping, but apparently https://www.unionleader.com/news/scitech/dean-kamens-new-luk... it's finally coming to market this quarter - "testing by nearly 100 amputees for more than 10,000 hours of use" now that it actually has FDA approval; earliest demo that turns up in a quick search was 2007 ... so it's the kind of success that makes your point :}

That article is from 2016.

ugh, you're right, I'd seen a bunch of older articles but thought that one had a September 2023 dateline. I haven't found anything else with usage numbers either, sorry.

Re: Woman's experimental bionic hand passes major test

#50

Post by tycho-newman »

kwhitefoot wrote: post #9
elil17 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure why you're downvoted here - in the video they show at least one non-hand attachment, a computer terminal which lets her control a virtual hand for training purposes. Two wires run from her implants to the terminal.

People probably thought that they had a particular kind of attachment in mind. One that can't be mentioned in polite society.

Why not a leatherman attachment?
Post reply on HN