Is Mech Already Better Than Meat?

With a new pair of meat hands “One year after double hand transplant, progress elusive” we learn that it takes three to four years of intensive therapy to bring replacement meat hands online, because the nerves have a long way to grow.

In contrast, with a new mech arm, back in 2003 we, “graft existing nerve endings from his shoulder onto the pectoral muscle on his chest. Those nerves grew into the muscle after about six months. Electrodes on the graft can now pick up any thought-generated nerve impulses to the now-absent limb and transmit those to the mechanical prosthesis, controlling the movements of the arm.

In 2008, of her new mech arm and hand, Claudia Mitchell says, “it feels more real than I ever expected.”

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6R5bm6qx2E&w=480&h=385]

Also in 2008, Joshual Bleill explains that, “I can do about five times the distance with these legs, than I could in a normal, just normal walking on a flat, level plane. They each have motor in them and it actually drives forward when I walk.”

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAnI7cZr6is&w=480&h=385]