Exoskeletons…

Iron Man…how did I forget about Iron Man! After I wrote my post on Troy Hurtubise I started thinking more about how I was going to write my undergraduate thesis for next year. My topic varies from trans-humanism, robotics, prosthetic electronic aids, and all other tools which elevate human being and what these advances mean philosophically.

A well needed break from Martin Heidegger’s Being and Time guided me to this month’s Popular Science magazine. On the cover is an amazing full armored suit much like the Iron Man of the big-screen looking a little less like Hurtubise’s   Trojan armour, but a suit developed for human use nonetheless. Apparently DARPA began for funding the exoskeleton in 2000 with the hope of making a stronger and faster soldier. The suit enables a its wearer to have extraordinary strength and endurance, not protection against IEDs like Hurtubise‘s suit. The suit is often noted in the article as being an exoskeleton, but is better understood as he bionic prosthesis. An exoskeleton would be a better descriptor of Hurtubise’s suit, not the Raytheon Sarcos XOS which this article describes. Although Raytheon’s suit is inaccurately defined this does not take away from its incredible ingenuity and possible outcomes that it will provide it military and nonmilitary use. What Raytheon suit has now his strength not protection, yet what Hurtubise’s suit has his protection, not strength. A logical outcome would be to merge both technologies. Obviously this is easier said than done.

DARPA with its over $75 million programs for exoskeleton development seems a world apart from Hurtubise’s garage antics. One can only imagine how expensive a fully merged suit consisting both of Raytheon’s aunt Hurtubise’s technology would cost. Later on in the article a merging of several exoskeleton technologies shows the possibility for an integrated suit combining basically all of the abilities Master Chief from video game Halo has (or RoboCop for those readers of yesteryear) and looking much the same. Exoskeleton and bionics are an incredible tool being developed in this 21st century. Being able to wear these suits will have profound impacts in the field of war as well as other areas where fairness is an issue. My expectations are that bionics will be judged much like performance enhancers of the 20th century used in sports competitions and the like. Following Moore’s Law, bionics will most likely become smaller and less expensive making them available for most consumers. The benefits, however, will be that many people confined to wheelchairs or lacking the physical capacity of a fully functional body will benefit from such bionic structures as discussed in this article. It is easy to become skeptical of such mechanical advances yet the benefits that exoskeletons will give cannot be denied.

For my thesis plan I on focusing on the philosophical connection between the human itself, or human being, and the desire to extend that self electronic or mechanical tools. My topic initially focused purely on robotics, but I found that after more research a wider topic emerged. What I have realized is that a robot is a form of prosthesis. Robots can be understood philosophically as a prosthetic other. This understanding was reached thanks to the philosopher Emmanuel Levinas. Much research still needs to be completed but it is my hope that after I have read more philosophy along with current trends in robotics and prosthetic electronics that a deeper understanding into the human desire to know itself through itself will be uncovered.