A few weeks ago I spent a bit of time in Vienna participating in TEDxVienna. You can see two previous posts on my experience here and here.
My own video is not up yet on TED, but a few have popped up so far here. One of my favorites is the talk “What if we could become transhumans?” by Oskar Aszmann. See above. My own talk also touched briefly on transhumanism but from the very different angle of genetics, eugenics, and human genetic modification.
Before our rehearsals we got a tour from one of the organizers including the view above from the back of the amazing Volkstheater. Believe me it felt different there than on the stage.
The inside of St. Stephen’s Cathedral (above) was awe-inspiring. There’s something about stain-glass windows and candle-lighting that is really powerful. It’s a must-see in Vienna.
The idea of amputation in order to fit a prosthetic device is more common place than many people might imagine.
Nelson F. SooHoo, MD, and Gerald Kominski, PhD. Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Total Ankle Arthroplasty. In The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery. November 2004. Vol. 86-A. No. 11. Pp. 2446-2455.
Dr Aszmann, much to his credit, amputated after careful consideration.
On the other hand, beware, there are many procedures still done today that are of the “if in doubt, cut it out” school of surgery. The great hope is that regenerative medicine might make that sort of thinking obsolete, one day.
Then there are others, like Honda, who are making sophisticated robotic devices that assist as opposed to replace:
https://www.honda.ca/innovation/walk-assist
TED talks are, by design, strong on “an” idea. I just thought I’d add a little context.