Future prostheses
A prosthetic is artificially produced replacement for a person who is missing a limb or who is in need for a replacement to another important part for their body. Prostheses usually are very functional and are able to help its user to continue nearly normal life. There is also prostheses that are meant for cosmetic use, Cosmesis, which usually don’t have much functionality but might still make a significant difference for someone who does not want their impairment to show. However, it is hard to define what things are counted as prostheses , for example, glasses help people to see when their own sight is not capable to it, but glasses are not usually called as prosthetic. Today, prostheses only cover the physical need, but there could be prostheses in the future that are helping with someone’s mental side too.
What comes to the future, prostheses stand in a good place. Science is taking the mechanics of prostheses forward with a good pace, that is why the next 50 years are going to be very interesting. Of course it is not sure what human kind is going to reach in the next 50 years, but there is always room for imagination. Due sci-fi and superhero movies people like to think we are going to have laser eyes and prosthetic arms that make us super strong. T think there is a possibility to have a future human who is half robot, half human. All these upcoming changes are going to bring a lot of good but also a lot of bad and danger.
My future prosthetic project was about the possibilities to help people with mental health issues. My group and I were looking for a futuristic answer to the big issue of mental health. Since medicating should not be the only answer on such things like panic attacks, social anxiety and depression, we started thinking about how to edit surrounding to fit everyones needs. With help of our research and developing we came up with a headset that would edit colours, lighting and contrast that a person sees around them. The headset would also cover the sensation of hearing since noises are big part of creating hassle and stress on people, we should be able to decide what are really the noises we want to hear.
The evolution on prostheses can be seen as a good improvement for society. Prostheses could spread to abilities like mental health or just improving functions we already have. Future prostheses have an excellent chance to help people even more than they already are right now or they can even help to find better solutions to different problems. Just like my headset project is perfect replaceable to medication, that a lot of times have bad and unwanted side effects like memory dysfunction, dry mouth, weight gain and drowsiness. The headset could also be suitable to people without mental health problems to enhance abilities to stay more refreshed or to reduce stress.
Prostheses could help humans to be more effective and make us better in our daily tasks. To imagine, that even though a person would miss a limb, they could choose whatever job they wanted to and still be able to do it because the prosthesis could work like the original limb. Or, in case of prosthesis that would be capable for more than a normal human body part, in fields like durability and strength. That way, a person with a prosthesis could be even more suitable for a job than a person without one. These kind of jobs could be fireman for example, because if the prosthesis had more strength or it would be fire resistant, a fireman could be more effective and save more lives. Same comes to my prostheses project headset. The headset could even make a person more effective worker since it erases distracting factors from persons surroundings and with adjusted sight it could keep the employee energetic and productive.
Future prostheses could also connect people and countries by making language barriers disappear or help with diving in to a different culture. Prosthesis that would translate and give more information about our surroundings would promote an easier way of living with changes and unknown surroundings around us. While going to new surroundings it can be found as stressful and hard to adjust, what I have experienced with moving to another country, it takes a lot of energy to try to keep up with a different language and habits. With a headset that would focus my hearing only on the important talk that is meant for me, it would make understanding on a new language easier.
However, future prostheses can also go too far. Adding more extra abilities to people who are not necessary needing anything, but are looking for an extra boost, for example, to their strength or hearing. There can be a point where a prosthesis can become a weapon or even an unwanted distraction. My worry with the headset prosthesis is the possible decreasing tolerance for stressful situations, after all, stress is not always a bad thing. Stress also forces us to get going with upcoming tasks or boosts us to perform through important events. If prosthesis is no longer just a way to lift a person to a normal level function but to level up the quality of living by adding extra function to the prosthesis like artificial intelligence. There is a chance that we are no longer control of ourselves if our artificial body parts have their own will or if there is a case of dysfunction.
My worry is with how person manages after long time use of the headset when it is taken away from them, since it could have a setback and cause feeling of overwhelming stress and mental health problems to them. Also the blocking of certain noises can actually cause accidents if in case of a car coming up and a person with a headset cannot hear and therefore they cannot predict the upcoming car, they might get over run. The headset can even limit social interactions since people might think it is easier to stay in your comfort zone and not hear the conversation around them.
Also the reason why we need prostheses cannot always be good. If in our future we would need a permanent prosthesis for getting fresh air or vitamins, we as a human kind, have failed to take care of our surroundings and our lives. Or if in the future we have too much factors that cause stress and anxiety to us and therefore everyone would need a headset just to keep their stress levels normal. Even aesthetics can be something that in the future it is hard find and that is why a headset would be a part of creating more appealing view to everyone. This is why it is important to have more responsibility to our future and for our planet because if we don’t change, the planet will, and it will make our live more miserable and harder to live. We can only hope, that in the future we don’t need to get prosthetics for such normal things as breathing, to drink clean water or even such a simple thing as seeing a colorful view.
Since my project about future prostheses is focused on editing our surrounding and reducing factors that might affect on our mood and create more stress, it makes me think of reasons why everything is so overwhelming. Of course, certain mental health disorders cannot be helped or prevented but big busy cities and the culture of productivity and performing is creating unnecessary pressure and hassle around us. One of my big worries of mental health is finding help before it is “too late”. For some reason it is harder to get help with mental problems than with physical ones. If your leg is broken, people will notify it and try to help you so it will be fixed as soon as possible, so there won’t be any complications later. Mental health problems might be harder to see but just like a broken leg, it should be treated as soon as possible so it won’t get worse. Somehow I think people still don’t understand how important it is to take care of your mind, DR. Jodi K’s comment on Reflection magazine sums up my thoughts on the reasons behind all this. “Reasons that I’ve heard folks voice a lot of times is either students haven’t been exposed to the idea of mental health or their families wouldn’t be supportive of mental health treatment,” said Dr. Jodi K. Caldwell, executive director of the Counseling Center. “For a lot of cultures, especially with our international students, the idea of mental health treatment is kind of a foreign, or taboo … idea that’s not something culturally that would really be acceptable, so they’re not as comfortable accessing these services.” (Reflector magazine, Christina McKinley, 2018). It seems like our culture is closing its eyes on the problems. Also, preventing mental health problems doesn’t seem obvious to governments either. By preventing mental complications it would be more profitable to a government to stop the problems before they are permanent, but there still is not enough quidance and attention to these problems, it takes a lot of time and it is hard to get through the system.
People should remember to prioritize their life and have more attention to their well being. Simple things like spending more time with nature and breathe for a while without thinking work, school or other responsibilities might be a step to better state of mind. This also means that we should value the peaceful surrounding and not to fill everything with factors, manufacture and productivity. We should find more value to countryside and nature but also with things like family and alone time.
C. Woodford (2019), Prosthetic limbs, Explainthatstuff.com (online) available at: https://www.explainthatstuff.com/prosthetic-artificial-limbs.html
C. McKinley (2018), Why people don’t seek help for mental illness, Reflector magazine (online), available at: http://reflectorgsu.com/why-people-dont-seek-help-for-mental-illness/
