Because when you lift something, you’re not just using your arm, you’re using your whole body. Having an arm that could carry heavy weights would put large amounts of stress on the rest of your body as well, which would not be able to handle it. More importantly, the transition between prosthetic and flesh would be exposed to high stresses and current prosthetics technology is not able to handle those.
That’s what I was thinking. You might have an arm that can carry 400lbs but man, that would screw up your shoulder and back.
I guess the only solution is to become a full borg. That way, every titanium bone would be rated to handle superhuman stress and you could cary much more.
While we’re swapping out limbs, wheels would be a lot more efficient at moving loads around too.
I can totally get behind swappable parts. Depending on what you’re doing, you could use different arms and legs specifically designed for the task at hand.
See also: Adam Smasher
You could have swappable parts that, say your hand attaches to (with, for example, a flexible grip by your hand). That way you could swap an enormous array of parts, using your hand as a universal adaptor.
Some of these parts could even by powered by your body so they don’t need an external power source. Like you could design a machine which, when attached to you by your hand, and powered by the rotation of your arm, could twist screws into the wall!
LOL. You can go places with convincing arguments like that.
But seriously though, versatility is useful, but only up to a certain point. In niche cases, special tools make more sense due to the superior performance they offer. For example, running with a traditional leg prosthetic isn’t as efficient as running with a special running prosthetic. You know, those carbon fiber arcs that looks nothing like a leg (AKA “running blades”).
But neither is as efficient as a bicycle?
As someone who recently started needing wheels, much of the world isn’t really built for that. Lots of uneven flooring in buildings, stairs, thresholds, spaces too narrow to traverse, etc. I get stuck often lol
Then mecha it is!
Jetpack. Much more practical.
Anyone who has observed a robot vacuum struggle with minor bumps knows that even homes aren’t ideal for wheels. Some warehouse are ok though, but they were specifically designed with wheels in mind.
You’re touching on where “dad stength” and, uh, R-word strength comes from. Our brains limit us from tearing ourselves to pieces.
Our old guy brains still think we’re 25 and act accordingly, and we fuck ourselves up. People with Down’s don’t have the limiter, so they appear to be super strong.
Technology isn’t there yet. Try again in 20 years.
deus ex intensifies
LMFAO that was exactly what he was playing when he asked me. He had to legs blown off in Afghan.
If he continues to play deus ex human revolution, he will eventually learn why it didn’t work out that easily even in the future Detroit.
It’s a good question. One of the major examples are wheelchairs. They could be much faster then they are but they are deliberately restricted to leg speed. Of course for safety reasons and so on but its kinda obvious that we don’t trust anyone disabled to excel non-disabled people.
Counter-point to that would be blade-style leg prostheses, with which ‘disabled’ people can acheive speeds far greater than non-augmented people.
I don’t think the technology is there yet where artificial would routinely beat physical.
You can get more raw strength out of a machine, but our biological bodies are something incredible, really. And when you need extra strength, there are machines you can operate with your body (e.g. with your fingers!) and leave behind when you don’t need them.
