Living in the Future
Where's my flying SUV?
I'm watching 60 Minutes and thinking about my father.
No, that's not an "old people watch 60 Minutes" joke. This particular episode opens with a story about the current state of prosthetic technology. Medical science has made amazing progress in this field. Two of the latest breakthroughs are the sense of touch, and implants that restore the use of paralyzed limbs.
This is the future. Science fiction brought to life. Yeah, we don't have our flying cars yet, (and let's be honest: if presented with a flying car the average American would say they're waiting for one with a third row of seats), but fully functional robotic limbs were superhero origin stories forty years ago. Now they're a news story on old people TV.
What would my Dad think about where technology is now if he was still around?
I've already written about how my father introduced me to science fiction. He was more than just a sci-fi fan, though. Dad was a technologist and worked in industrial sales, in a role we'd probably describe as something like "consulting engineer" or "technical account manager" today. When he proposed something to a client, he designed it on graph paper, with a pencil and slide rule that became a pocket calculator in the mid-1970s.
Dad passed away in 2013, several years after a debilitating stroke. He never owned a computer, but was an audio- and video- phile, and kept up with a lot of the latest home entertainment gear well into the 1990s.
I've mentioned technology that allows a person to control electronics using their minds. It's been around since at least 2005! But the limbs in the 60 Minutes report go well beyond that. The wearer can control and feel them. They could pick up an egg without breaking it. They could hold their significant other's hand! The designers are even close to creating a Bluetooth version, which means less invasive surgery.
What would a man who grew up reading pulp sci-fi and listening to The Shadow on the radio think of these breakthroughs?
My father lost use of one arm, had limited speech, and reduced mobility after his stroke. The 60 Minutes report showed a quadriplegic man moving one of his hands because of implants that replaced the severed connection between it and his brain. This tech is probably a decade or more away from general availability, but I still wonder: would it have helped him? Did the stroke damage too much, or would it have helped? How many more quality years could it have added to his life?
As a former programmer and current technology writer, the only time I'm not taking technology for granted is when I'm complaining about it. I'm tempted to look at the robot limbs and try to figure out where Google will put the GPS chip, or if Apple will offer them in yellow and design the legs to only work with their shoes.
But sometimes it's nice to take a step back and ask myself: "What would Dad say to that?"
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Eric Goebelbecker
Trick of the Tale LLC
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Bergenfield, NJ 07621-9998