I ran across this story about a Chinese baby who had a third arm removed and thought to myself, "Stelarc is probably pissed." Here, this child had a chance to be a true natural born cyborg, but the third arm was removed. While its not clear if the arm could be moved at all, it is still a baffling concept. I was adamantly against the idea of a bionic third arm (like Stelarc has tried) being at all useful when we discussed it in class, but what if you are born with one? What if it works? Should a parent keep the third arm, or risk injury by having it removed? I am kind of on the fence on this one. I think a third arm is pointless and I feel like your brain couldn't keep up with doing three things with three different arms, but at the same time, unnecessary surgery on a baby is just that, unnecessary. What do you think?
Make sure you check out the video on that link, it is pretty wicked.
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i think that you're born with a third arm or like Sterlarc, as long as you're used to it, you can make your brain think for 3 arms which would be really talented, but i know it can me done. I had a friend in high school who was born with one arm and he played the cello with the help of his feet, thinking about it, it is difficult to move your feet to stroke the cello strings..
ReplyDeleteI found the article to be very interesting. It would be a very tough decision, but I guess that if I was the parent I would want the arm removed. Stelarc might disagree with me on this, but I don't think we are ready for people to have three arms.
ReplyDeleteI think if our bodies needed a third arm we would of adapted some how a long time ago...i don't think either how much it might help but probably get in the way.
ReplyDeleteI think the brain would probably learn to adjust to the third-arm but, the cost of third-arm shirts and jackets would be enormous. In all seriousness though, there would be pretty significant social ramifications to having a third arm. On one hand you would get a lot of attention for it, but it would basically be the equivalent of a freak show. In this instance, a physical evolution has been hampered down by our society's willingness to accept it.
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