by Ernest Capraro

Created on: June 28, 2009

Nerve impulses race down the spine, branch off at the shoulder and travel down the stump of an arm. Electronic sensors pick up the signal, and convey the impulse along wires to the mechanical hand, allowing the amputee father to give the "thumbs up" to his Little League son who has just caught the third out.

Such technology exists today, though constantly undergoing research, development, and improvement, to integrate circuits with the human nervous system. Beyond mere replacement parts (like Teflon knees), mechanical parts that can integrate with the human body offer many potential future options. While mechanical add-ons or replacements might certainly be modeled on normal functional parts, there's no reason that a person could not take a part that served a specialized function. Perhaps a window washer would opt for extensible legs (reminiscent of Inspector Gadget, perhaps). A handyman might "upgrade" to a multi-tool hand, with the ability to summon screwdriver, hammer, wrench or flashlight without the need to rummage in his toolkit. An overworked executive could even "install" that second pair of hands she always said she needed.

Similarly, as the interface between nerves and circuits is fine tuned, the idea to hook computer applications up to the senses, or even the brain itself, becomes an option. News feeds or stock prices could be fed directly to the optic nerve. A radio link to the internet could be maintained, allowing eye movements, or even pure thought, to navigate and locate that puzzling song lyric, and then to send a message off to a friend. Math co-processors might be installed, allowing everyone to be good at algebra and calculus. Inventors might connect to recording devices so that they'd have a record of their thought processes (for the patent office).

In the long term, one could imagine that people would be as customizable as a new car or a personal computer. There would be ethical and legal concerns. Who decides what implants a person gets? (Government, parents, or individual? If the person, at what age may they begin to choose?) Are special laws needed to regulate implants? Do half-man, half-machine cyborgs have the same rights as regular people? What if they are only one tenth machine? Such questions make for interesting consideration, but are still a concern of the future.

A fear shared by some people is that implementing machine parts somehow dehumanizes the person. If machines are cold and calculating,

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