February 17, 2009

Aimee Mullins at TED: Give me beautiful legs

In my previous post I made the case for novel and non-traditional prostheses. I'm not implying, however, that this is for all people, nor am I suggesting that there's something wrong with a disabled person wanting to look like a "normal" human.

Case in point is cyber-athlete and double-amputee Aimee Mullins. When Aimee is not tearing up the track with her carbon-fibre blades, she wears artificial legs that look and feel exactly like normal legs -- hair follicles and all. She even likes to paint her nails and wear high heels.

Here's a video of Aimee Mullins at TED 1998 talking about running as a disabled athlete (very inspiring and I highly recommend you watch this) and her assortment of artificial limbs. It's a poignant example of how technologies can help people achieve self-actualization.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the heads-up about people with disabilities not being normal humans. Always nice to know where the transhumanists stand on that one.

George said...

Uh, you do see the word normal in scare quotes, do you not?

Richard Blalock said...

As someone having an Ertl amputation in 2 weeks, I could care less what the prosthesis looks like. I'm a runner-on-hold and I think the Cheetch/Flex-foot prothesis are things of incredible beauty. Personally, I dislike the fake legs but we all come from different life points. A great industrial type design that works as form following function would be my one desire. Be true to yourself and what you are.