The unplanned obsolescence of our body parts is a major concern of our times.
The unplanned obsolescence of our body parts is a major concern of our times. Fortunately there is a convergence between electronics, synthetic substances and micro-skills leading to a steady progress in the spare parts scenario. Not always so...
When grandma's failing eyesight became a seriousu00a0 handicap she wore soda-bottle spectacles, till one of her children gave her a magnifying glass.u00a0 She hesitated to go in for cataract surgery because it was a long and laborious processu2026 entailing bed rest, and weeks away from strenuous work, from kitchen fires and smoke. And a risk of losing ones failing sight completely, (how Gran would have loved today's slick treatment. Check in the morning and check out at noon, after a few hours of magic repairs with laser tools, foldable lenses and basic sensible precautions). No eye patches, nou00a0 weeks of resting the eye and immobilizingu00a0 the whole body!
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Mechanical man: We will increasingly rely on devices when our ageing body parts fail us |
When father's hearing began to fail, he acquired a hearing aid. It was less clumsy than a ear trumpet but he hated it. It was frustrating to hear just a babble of voices when his children or friends visited us all at the same time. Smiling passively in agreement when they burst in to peals of mysterious laughter. 'Use your hearing aid', we coaxed him but after trying it on one day he burst out, 'Iu00a0 don't want to hear the crows and buses on Mosque Road. I want to hear what you'll are saying.' He was right. Deafness creates a ghetto of silence round its victims almost as devastating as failing eyesight.
William Shakespeare had described it graphically in the seven ages of man. He describes the aging man (women included), as unable to see clearly because of their dim orbs blear with rheum'.u00a0
Now all that is old hat: from wigs, to false teeth, transplants to face lifts.
But what can one say about failing of memory. There are limits to what science can do to arrest the diminishing power of memory.
We can 'see through another person's eyes' thanks to cornea transplants, live through another person's nourishment with blood transfusions. But memories are very 'dedicated' systems only functioning optimally in the brain for which they are the storage system and the software. We understand, or think we do, left brain functions and right brain. But where in the brain do our memories exist?
Here, scientist medicos have been forced to settle for an external spare part, now compressed in the mobile telephone. It not only remembers names and numbers, which was what it was created to do; but also takes pictures, short videos, music clips and an FM radio. It can also be used on occasions as a mobile telephone, to keep in touch with the rest of the world!
The miracle of the coming century will be implants (like pacemakers which keeps hearts ticking steadily).
Imagine a memory chip, not necessarily implanted in the brain, but somewhere in the body, sharing its programming by emitting unseen electrical impulses.
Or does one already exist... I forget!
