Does it cost $6,000,000?

You know its kinda funny when you read a factual article on the web, and you instantly remmeber 5 years ago reading Ghost in the Shell, and having one of the middle "episodes" of the manga being a explanation of exactly THIS, the fact that for the most part bionics have to be scaled to humans thanks to the potential of someone to hurt themselves by ripping their arm right out of the socket while lifting something beyond normal human ability.

This was in part why all the cyborgs in GitS where full on cyborgs with just human brain and spinal cord containers, and not part cyborgs.

*ooh...giggle...ooohhhh...oh...wait...oahhhhh..ow...owwww...OWWWWW*

@Falconfire: That was always the caveat with the original Bionic Man/Woman -- fine, you can run real fast and lift great weights, but why hasn't your spinal column collapsed?

I would definitely get one of these, but it sounds like there's no good haptic feedback. This could potentially be catastrophic.

@NefariousNewt: Yeah, you need spine reinforcements, bionic muscles replacing your existing musculature. Whatever, I'm down with it.

That's what always bothered me about having one bionic leg-you wouldn't be running faster, just kinda skipping faster-the other leg wouldn't be able to catch up.

@pkittie: Actually, I think the Six Million Dollar man had two bionic legs and one bionic arm.

Imagine idly scratching yourself and accidentally yanking off your scalp or your pubes. How inconvenient.

It;s all fun and games til someone rips their dick off.

It's the old light saber conundrum: Everybody wants one, but most of us would end up killing ourselves with one by mistake in a matter of minutes. As a wise person once said: "With great power comes the endless potential for hilarious mishaps."

Stuff like this is why I want to become a doctor.
Forget healing the sick, make moar cyborgs!

@Cacafuego: And nose picking... OUCH!!!!!

@Falconfire: I assumed that that was why, in the first Robocop film, they end up getting rid of his surviving arm; it would be the weak spot in his otherwise robotic chassis.

Now that's what I call trolling for a defense contract!

@nutbastard:

ROFL!!!

> ...as it is actually better than a human arm.

Exchange better with stronger, and I can believe it. Faster? While retaining control? I don't imagine anyone playing the piano with one of these anytime soon. It looks impressive, yes, but please go easy on the salesman-speak.

I realized that we have two choice: compute less, or imbed bionic parts to replace our own. Hellooooo bionic parts!

That just makes me want it more. I'll take the over clocked one please!

@pkittie: Nah, you'd just make yourself sick constantly running in circles. It'd be like when you get that cart at the market with one bad wheel that constantly pulls to one side.

Every time you forget something and slap your forehead...

(Well, I guess it would be just the one time, wouldn't it?)

@Falconfire: Yeah, that was the first thing I thought of as well. Shirow actually did a pretty good job illustrating it with a funny 3/4-panel bit. Wasn't a fan of mechanics in physics but I'm guessing it has to do with the amount of torque applied at the robotic limb-human shoulder joint by the robotic arm. If the torque limits at the elbow are greater than what the shoulder joint can tolerate and there's no limiter on the robotic arm, then lifting too much mass would simply snap off the robotic arm from the shoulder joint.

Jesus. Well, here come the illegal, covertly bought mafia body mods. I can see it now, some don(sp?) get's all the dock workers from some comapany at a harbor bionic arms, but in return they're hired goons. Freakin', badass.

I hope they don't scale it back. If it isn't a super powerful arm how is Will Smith going to save us when US Robotics finally takes control?

If Will doesn't get the arm he needs, we are all doomed. Doomed!

@pkittie: You could hop hella fast.

Can't wait to lose a li... never mind.

I'll predict two things:

1. Limiting the limb will be done by on-board CPU so as to allow for fine-tuning for the specific person.

2. The same people who make devices that allow you to modify the computer settings on your car engine for extra performance will adopt said devices to allow you to kick a football a quarter mile with your bionic leg("Impress your friends!").

@finite_elephant:
3. Someones going to rip thir dick off