Business of LifeCyborgs are among us and they are not who you think. Granted there are geeks like Gareth Branwyn, an editor of Boing-Boing , who underwent a total hip replacement to relieve the pain of severe degenerative arthritis and wrote this funny account Borg Like Me
But the people who have the greatest understanding of their relationship with technical augmentation, who understand and appreciate the miraculous technology some of us have in our bodies are
the severely handicapped and the elderly.
While recuperating, Gareth found many fellow implantees on their second, third or fourth replacement in order to live longer and better. His roommate, a man in his 70s, in for a knee replacement called it a "tune-up before we hit the road" or, in his case a trip around the world with his wife, after a host of medical problems (quadruple bypass, ovarian cancer and arthritis)
Read the comments to see what others say and how Gareth is doing. (He now boasts 'that part of me was manufactured by DePuy Industries of Warsaw, Indiana'.)
Four years later, with the perspective of distance and of living with the successful results, I'm here to tell you, it could have been two or three times more painful, challenging, and intense, and it still would have been worth it.
Posted by Jill Fallon at June 28, 2004 12:28 PM | Permalink