Technology today is amazing. Look around us at computers, cell phones, cars, and pretty much everything else we interact with compared with even 10 years ago, and the difference is night and day. Society is advancing at an incredible rate, mainly due to new thinkers, designers, and innovators.
The purpose of technology and technological advancements is to help make life easier. This video clip from Ted Talks shows a guy, Eythor Bender, explaining his companies new advancement in something they call "exoskeletons."
These robotic skeletons can enhance the strength of humans, and allow them to do otherwise impossible tasks. It shows examples of military use, but I think more importantly, of the use of these systems to enable paralyzed individuals to walk again. It shows a women who was paralyzed in a freak skiing accident, and was told by doctors she would never walk again.
19 years later, due to this incredible technology, she has proved them wrong.
Technology and design are critically important to bettering our lives. To see the look on that women's face when she walked across the stage really put into perspective the incredible good that design can accomplish.
This video impressed me, not only because of the incredible advancement it represents, but mainly because of the good that it can bring about. Since the dawn of time man has sought to make better his situation, and through modern miracles of technology and design, we can do just that.
Mark Israelsen - Group 5
It just goes to show you that there is no standing still when it comes to technology. The woman in the video, Amanda, was told by her doctor that she would never walk again, and as she said, that diagnosis robbed her of hope. In a world that is constantly changing, there is always hope for the future.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/17163/?a=f
Here is a technology that I learned about in my Cognitive Psychology class. Through the use of a neural connection, individuals are able to control different elements in their environment. Now imagine the integration of the exoskeleton with the neural implantation. This could allow quadriplegic individuals use control the exoskeleton by just thinking. The possibilities are limitless. No more should doctors tell individuals that they will never be able to accomplish something because of a disability, there is always hope for the future.