These 18th century ways of thinking are holding us back:
It's time to embrace our cyborg future!
YESTERDAY, I visited a cyborg. Sort of.
Okay, I will admit that perhaps I'm using the nomenclature incorrectly - no, the person I visited will not have bio-electronic, or bionic limbs.
He will not be able to lift an automobile over his head, he won't be able to run faster than a galloping horse, he will not be able to see in the dark or long distances, nor will be able to jump over walls and fences with accompanying metallic, echoing "nanana-nanana-nanana" sound effects.
Instead, I visited a man with a new stomach.
My good friend, RH - the initials changed, as they say on a thousand TV cop shows, to protect the innocent - is currently in the hospital with ulcerative colitis and has had a big chunk of his large intestine surgically removed.
RH now has to use a colostomy bag, and as unnerving as thinking about it, let alone actually seeing it, is, that's okay. With his new - as I perfer to call it - cybernetic appendage, he will be able to live a life, instead of being a shut-in, like RH has been for the past 18 months.
He will finally be able to get a good night's sleep without interrupting and frequent rushes to the toilet. The pain of his gut collapsing on itself, feeling like a knife in the belly, will be gone.
LONG LIVE THE NEW FLESH
It is 2010, we have to get used to living in the future: Science has done more than save my friend's life, it has improved it.
Now RH will be able to accomplish all the things he used to love to do frequently:
go to the movies, attend live music shows and eat food that is not bland or watered down - but no nuts, it seems those could tear his bag:
As with most things, there is room for improvement.
I joke about my friend being a cyborg because thinking of RH that way is better than thinking of him as being afflicted. I am very happy for my pal, and science via medicine has helped and healed him.
Some people have to take pills, others have prosthetic limbs, some use medical attachments, like RH. A lot of us need to wear lenses over our eyes to see. Too many people never seem to disconnect themselves from their portable computing and communications units.
Nobody's perfect - we're all cyborgs now.
