Bionics

The possibilities are amazing. I am stunned with how far bionic technology has come. Watching “The Six Million Dollar Man” when I was a kid, I always dreamed that we could do things like this. The reality of this is bringing hope to injured and disabled people around the world. I approve.

What bothers me…and I do not want to diminish the awesomeness of this… but I have to wonder about what will happen if the algorithms are wrong? I am student of human movement and I see a lot of bad movement out there. Even with great athletes and great movers there are faults in basic mechanics. Likewise there is still a lot of debate about what constitutes good movement. Let’s just take an example if scientists were to model running technique, there is a great deal of controversy in what is proper technique. If they build a model on a faulty technique what happens?

As a student of good movement, biomechanics, anatomy and human performance, I see how bad movement can create a lot of pain and physical problems. My concern is that if mechanize and amplify bad human movement we could be have some negative side effects from what should be a great technological advancement.

That being said, I would love a new exoskeleton.

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