Vulcan Science? The Woman Without A Pulse!
The Woman Without A Pulse isn't a trashy zombie movie or a cut Star Trek episode, but instead a new kind of cyborg with a totally mechanical heart which fundamentally alters the human design. Which still sounds like a movie, but at least it's science-fiction instead of horror.
Madam Salina Mohamed So'ot received a total artificial heart to replace her own ailing organ which was undergoing end-stage failure. Which is bad. The interesting aspect is that her new heart doesn't mimic the mammalian model but instead uses centrifugal forces to continually pump blood around her body, meaning she doesn't have a pulse (and might want to get a medalert bracelet which just says "Check for breathing, doctor! Don't give up!")
The new pulse-free pump is extremely exciting for the futurists, transhumanist, and anyone else interested in improving on the human design. Which really should be everyone (especially the appendectomized). The new design is smaller and more efficient than past pulsing models and without the rigors of slamming blood around the place it lasts a lot longer. A major plus, as swapping these things out is abit trickier than changing batteries.
The idea of improving on our design is especially awesome because we now have the technology to do it, and we can expect a near-future of man-machine modification. Especially now that medical professionals are admitting that the original model human body could bear some serious improvement. Oscar Pistorius demonstrates that prosthetics don't have to follow flesh and blood, and now even the organs are being upgraded.
It's going to be an interesting future.
Luke McKinney
Image Credits: ChonaStock Moonchilde-Stock
This idea was put on film in the 1981 movie, Threshold. Donald Sutherland played the heart surgeon that implanted a nuclear powered heart of the same design described above. Very good movie by the way, leaving one to ask.....Why don't we have these things now?
Posted by: Rick | October 06, 2009 at 07:28 PM
is this supposed to be journalism? aside from the numerous technical (grammatical, stylistic, spelling) errors, there are no citations; there is no supporting evidence. worse yet, there are aspects of the piece which *just don't make sense:*
who is "madam so'ot?" a real human, or a fictional vulcan? and what exactly does any of this have to do with "vulcan science," which *is,* after all, fictional? did this really happen in real life, or is it an event in a cheesy second-rate SF novel? who is oscar pistorius? the internet allows for what's called "hypertext" to link to other documents - couldn't you have linked something in the lines, "Oscar Pistorius demonstrates that prosthetics don't have to follow flesh and blood" and "now even the organs are being upgraded"?
your kung fu is weak. if you want to be taken seriously, raise your game.
Posted by: peter | October 06, 2009 at 08:28 PM