The Six Million Pound Man
May 18, 2016 8:54 AM   Subscribe

James Young has been equipped with a bionic arm which includes a laser beam, a flashlight, a USB port, and a drone held inside a hatch on the shoulder. It was consciously patterned after Snake in the computer game Action Gear Solid. (No word on whether he can pick up cars with it..)
posted by Chocolate Pickle (59 comments total) 10 users marked this as a favorite
 
Oh this is awesome! Action Gear Solid is one of my favorite PlayingStation games of all time!
posted by griphus at 9:05 AM on May 18, 2016 [43 favorites]


No word on wether or not he is the winter Solider
posted by The Whelk at 9:06 AM on May 18, 2016 [4 favorites]


OTAKIN: Snack? Snack? SNAAAAAACK
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 9:06 AM on May 18, 2016 [25 favorites]


I thought the arm was cooler in Action Gear Plasma.
posted by selfnoise at 9:07 AM on May 18, 2016


Oh, also, the game is called Metal Gear Solid. Though I don't remember Snake having a bionic arm though I've only played MGS I & II.
posted by I-baLL at 9:09 AM on May 18, 2016


Are we sure this guy's middle name isn't Buchanan?
posted by taterpie at 9:10 AM on May 18, 2016 [2 favorites]


!
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 9:10 AM on May 18, 2016 [5 favorites]


How do we know that [pop culture reference] isn't [pop culture reference]?!
posted by beerperson at 9:11 AM on May 18, 2016 [2 favorites]


Oh, also, the game is called Metal Gear Solid.

cite please?
posted by griphus at 9:11 AM on May 18, 2016 [8 favorites]


Man, I'm really missing on all cylinders today. Two mistakes on the same post. My apologies, folks.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:15 AM on May 18, 2016 [1 favorite]


Action Gear Solid III is the best one just because of the cutscene featuring President London J. Johnston and Soviet Premiere Nokia Krunchvez.
posted by beerperson at 9:17 AM on May 18, 2016 [34 favorites]


if he were the Winter Soldier then Ed Brubaker would be standing awkwardly behind him.
posted by Artw at 9:21 AM on May 18, 2016


Squalid Snake is my favorite.
posted by aubilenon at 9:22 AM on May 18, 2016 [13 favorites]


"cite please?"

Not sure if serious.....

But if you're serious then the 2 links in the FPP.
posted by I-baLL at 9:29 AM on May 18, 2016


(or am I missing the joke now that I've noticed that it says "The Six Million Pound Man"?)
posted by I-baLL at 9:30 AM on May 18, 2016


Oh, wait, "pounds" as in the currency.
posted by I-baLL at 9:31 AM on May 18, 2016


Not sure if serious.....

But if you're serious then the 2 links in the FPP.


Those links are incorrect. "Metal Gear Solid" was the imaginary meta version of the series which appeared in Action Gear Solid 2, which had my favorite level design of any of the AGS games up until AGSV, which made good use of an open world setting on the border between North and South Vietnam.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 9:32 AM on May 18, 2016 [12 favorites]


Fusion Mailed
posted by griphus at 9:33 AM on May 18, 2016 [6 favorites]


Look you wisecracking internet yokels, this man has a cyborg arm. Given the fact that it can charge his cell phone, I'm suprised that half of you aren't throwing yourselves under a train and saying a hopeful prayer.
posted by boo_radley at 9:36 AM on May 18, 2016 [19 favorites]


The best game in the series is obviously Action Gear Solid III: Snack Taster, where you control Solid Snake's mentor Fat Boss through twenty pulse-pounding levels of ladder-climbing mayhem.

The theme song is particularly catchy: "Fried, not for texture, but for youuuuuu, Snack Eater...."
posted by majuju at 9:38 AM on May 18, 2016 [11 favorites]


Oh, wait, "pounds" as in the currency.

It's actually 'pounds' as in Dog Jail which you would know if you'd played Action Gear Solid
posted by beerperson at 9:38 AM on May 18, 2016 [15 favorites]


I wish they went more into the nerve integration aspect of it. Does it have sensors? Can he feel what he's touching directly? Or are there electrodes hooked up to his shoulder that buzz with amplitude relative to the pressure of his grip, for example? Can he move his arm and hand and fingers by just...moving it? Or does it he need to squeeze certain shoulder muscles to let a computer in his arm know that he wants the arm to move into a certain direction?
posted by I-baLL at 9:41 AM on May 18, 2016


Given the fact that it can charge his cell phone, I'm suprised that half of you aren't throwing yourselves under a train and saying a hopeful prayer.

Pfffft. Call me when they have a PeepBuoy* installed in the arm, and I can talk on the cellphone using a telephone hand gesture.

* from the hit series Fall In
posted by lmfsilva at 9:48 AM on May 18, 2016 [10 favorites]


It would be cooler if it were a Bionic Commando arm. That thing was awesome.
posted by Hoopo at 9:51 AM on May 18, 2016 [2 favorites]


I-ball: There's a kid with Cheeto stained lips somewhere offscreen making it all go via a TreyShock Joytroller.

"MOM, alright! Geez I said five more minutes!"
posted by notyou at 9:51 AM on May 18, 2016 [3 favorites]


...so nobody wants to have a serious discussion about the article? I'm always okay with jokes but so far nobody's mentioning anything serious related to the FPP.
posted by I-baLL at 9:53 AM on May 18, 2016 [3 favorites]


I'm suprised that half of you aren't throwing yourselves under a train and saying a hopeful prayer.

That's quite an assumption you're making, isn't it?
posted by nickmark at 9:55 AM on May 18, 2016 [1 favorite]


Action Gear Solid: Tactical Action Action

(I'll admit, when I saw that the link was to Daily Fail I totally expected this to be a mistake in the original article.)

It would be cooler if it were a Bionic Commando arm. That thing was awesome.

Agreed. Someone has to save us from Hitler Master-D.
posted by neckro23 at 9:57 AM on May 18, 2016 [1 favorite]


...so nobody wants to have a serious discussion about the article? I'm always okay with jokes but so far nobody's mentioning anything serious related to the FPP.

Well, the article could have a bit more information. Instead we know it's a guy who was ran over by a train, and got a high-end prosthetic. And while that prosthetic is certainly cool in all aspects (including the "flames make it go faster" laser pointer), I don't think there would much else to discuss unless someone dead-goated the FPP by going about most people not being able to afford it.
posted by lmfsilva at 10:03 AM on May 18, 2016 [1 favorite]


The Daily Mail is just useless. They do "who what when where" and then stop abruptly.

For example, what exactly happened to this guy? The article makes it sound a lot like he reached out to touch a moving train while about to go clubbing. It's a fair implication from there that he was already drunk. If DM doesn't care whether he was drunk, why include that detail? If they do care, why elide the topic other than this reference?

For the record, I am not saying that negligent injured people deserve less care than other injured people.
posted by radicalawyer at 10:05 AM on May 18, 2016 [1 favorite]


It would be cooler if it were a Bionic Commando arm. That thing was awesome.

Creepily, the article doesn't say a word about the current whereabouts of the guy's wife.
posted by straight at 10:05 AM on May 18, 2016 [6 favorites]


Look, the bionic arm is cool, but can it spin its hand and make a click-clack sound like Nude Snack's bionic arm can? I think not.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 10:05 AM on May 18, 2016 [4 favorites]


Metafilter: always okay with jokes but so far nobody's mentioning anything serious
posted by CynicalKnight at 10:14 AM on May 18, 2016 [7 favorites]


radicalawyer: yeah, they refer to it as a "freak accident" in the first line of the article, but then state he was standing too close to the edge of the platform and reached out to touch a moving train, which is like, anything but a freak accident.

There's actually much more in-depth article on Polygon from back in February about this, talking about the people and the technology in much more depth than the very late-to-the-party Daily Mail.
posted by majuju at 10:30 AM on May 18, 2016 [2 favorites]


I sure wish people would do more research when they post stories like this to Metafilter. I mean the Daily Mail treatment is kind of fun and clickbaity, but as folks say, so many questions. Here's a few more links:There's some 4 hours of solid material, and more if you keep looking.
posted by Nelson at 10:37 AM on May 18, 2016 [17 favorites]


There is also a dcoumentary (15 minutes for the first part).
posted by el io at 10:37 AM on May 18, 2016 [3 favorites]


So basically a guy has an elaborate movie prop for an arm, which doesn't actually do more than a standard prosthesis can but looks like it should. It's cool that this guy got this opportunity, and the people behind these personalized prosthetic limbs are doing good work, but there's not much of a story here. I mean, I have a flashlight with a laser pointer in it, and a USB battery pack. Can I tape them to my functional meat arm and get a daily mail article about it? Should I put them in a modified Power Glove instead? Or do I need Konami to issue a press release for me before they close up their video game marketing department?

I'm glad the FPP posits the existence of Action Gear Solid because otherwise there'd be very little to say.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 10:41 AM on May 18, 2016 [1 favorite]


Can I tape them to my functional meat arm and get a daily mail article about it?

Only if you painted a Union Jack on it and claimed it was in response to a Muslim person telling you that you couldn't do it.
posted by griphus at 10:45 AM on May 18, 2016 [4 favorites]


Looks like there's an IAmA going on on reddit with him right now:

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/4jx4cs/iama_the_amputee_cyborg_from_bbcs_bodyhack_metal/
posted by I-baLL at 10:46 AM on May 18, 2016 [1 favorite]


This is the part when I mentally checked out of the article:
'I didn't want to look like The Terminator because my job involves talking to doctors about the drugs they use. I didn't want to look as if I'm going to kill someone,' says James
...well, OK then, obviously a prosthesis based on a video game that incorporates blue LEDs for no apparent reason is the way to go. I mean, if I had to have one, I'd dig some cool blinkies and whatnot, but come on. For all the cool gimmicks, it seems not to address the problem that's briefly mentioned in the Daily Fail article and at more length in his GoFundMe campaign: wanting titanium anchors for his prostheses so that his skeleton and not his skin is taking the weight and stress.
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:54 AM on May 18, 2016 [1 favorite]


Just to make it more delightful, another James Young is Sebastian Stan's stunt double for the MCU films.

And in a vague attempt to be serious: I really love that most of this thread is people going HAY JUST LIKE IN [pop culture thing], because this means people are actually thinking about amputees in a...normalized way? Sorry, I'm saying this really poorly, but I'm hoping that this is a tiny representation of a sea change in thinking about disability, especially for prosthetic development. Because we've seen it, we can dream it. And I'd be curious to see how having pop culture that shows the use of technology to create supremely amazing prosthetics affects, say, funding of such things, or how people with prosthetics, super-awesome or otherwise, are viewed.

It's making something that may be unusual familiar, and that's amazing, is I think what I'm trying to say.
posted by kalimac at 11:08 AM on May 18, 2016 [2 favorites]


His bionic arm was fitted at the London studio of prosthetics artist Sophie De Oliveira Barata, creator of the Alternative Limb Project.

Limb project linked up above. Previously on MetaFilter here
posted by chavenet at 11:09 AM on May 18, 2016


Can he feel what he's touching directly?

Probably not. It's been a while since I saw a seminar on neuroprosthetics, but generally the goal is more on the motor end (being able to grasp and manipulate objects) rather than the sensory end. Even without touch sensation, you can manipulate objects fairly well as long as you can see them (so you're using visual feedback rather than haptic feedback), and so connecting the prosthetic to the motor parts of the nervous system is the higher priority.

Or are there electrodes hooked up to his shoulder that buzz with amplitude relative to the pressure of his grip, for example? Can he move his arm and hand and fingers by just...moving it? Or does it he need to squeeze certain shoulder muscles to let a computer in his arm know that he wants the arm to move into a certain direction?

Usually the prosthetic is controlled either by the patient's muscles in the shoulder or chest, or his/her motor nerves/neurons. If the muscles are used for control, the patient learns to twitch certain muscles to achieve certain actions. If nerves or cells in motor cortex are used (often in the case of paralyzed patients), the patient learns how to consciously control the activity of those neurons to achieve the desired effect.

I would be curious whether prosthetic engineers are trying to develop something that would restore the patient's sense of touch. I don't know what the current state-of-the-art is.
posted by phoenix_rising at 11:15 AM on May 18, 2016


There's a few things I like about this... First of all the short docu (there is a part 2 as well) is quite touching, I teared up a bit during it. That this helps normalize those missing limbs is nice as well.

Yes, it's a gimmick that was funded by a game company, but the fact that they had him part of the design process was wonderful; it gives him some real control over his appearance, the functionality, and just some control back in general is quite wonderful. Sure, it was a PR event, but maybe we'll start thinking of this process (getting a new limb) as something the person wearing it has control over, something they have ownership of.

It seems weird that he had to go to a body hacking conference to engage with people that had gone through this; really the hospital should have had him interact with folks that had gone through this as part of his physical rehabilitation.
posted by el io at 11:18 AM on May 18, 2016


From the AMA: "Something different happens in the USA where people grab my hand and thank me for my service to their country. Awkward."
posted by el io at 11:20 AM on May 18, 2016


i too am familiar with admiral america's good friend the windows soldier
posted by Krom Tatman at 11:22 AM on May 18, 2016 [7 favorites]


"As well as sustaining multiple injuries - including collapsed lungs, a fractured skull and face..."

The arm is cool and all, but depending on how much facial damage there was, the reconstruction/repair is miraculous! He looks amazing.
posted by BigHeartedGuy at 11:28 AM on May 18, 2016


We're going to eventually have the full Luke Skywalker technology, total limb replacement integrated into the nervous system with more or less full dexterity and sensation. Too bad no one will be able to afford it except the rich and their military, it won't be covered for normal citizens.
posted by T.D. Strange at 11:34 AM on May 18, 2016


Too bad no one will be able to afford it except the rich and their military, it won't be covered for normal citizens.

Not at first. But 2.6 billion people on the planet are now walking around with technology that used to be called supercomputers (that used to cost as much as a small mansion). Those supercomputers cost US citizens less than 100 hours of minimum wage labor. Eventually technology better than this will be available to many people that aren't rich.
posted by el io at 11:44 AM on May 18, 2016 [5 favorites]


Meh. He's only USB 2.
posted by Thorzdad at 11:44 AM on May 18, 2016 [5 favorites]


Too bad no one will be able to afford it except the rich and their military, it won't be covered for normal citizens.

Wait, is this a comment about the cyborg arm or that a quote lifted from an old thread back when the univac was invented?
posted by VTX at 12:43 PM on May 18, 2016 [1 favorite]


We can rebuild him. We have the technology.
posted by SisterHavana at 1:57 PM on May 18, 2016


And in a vague attempt to be serious: I really love that most of this thread is people going HAY JUST LIKE IN [pop culture thing], because this means people are actually thinking about amputees in a...normalized way?

I think this has been improving for a while. I recall twenty years ago seeing a photo of Aimee Mullins, around the time she was competing in the 1996 Paralympics. The photo was a full length shot of a strong, beautiful who stopped being flesh and blood at the knees. It was presented without comment and -- this being when cyberpunk was still a moderately thriving subgenre -- I thought, "My goodness, this may be the first cyborg glamour shot."
posted by ricochet biscuit at 2:22 PM on May 18, 2016 [1 favorite]


"We can rebuild him. We have the technology."
"We have rebuilt him, Bob, he's right there. You made him do bicep curls to see if it charged your phone quicker."
"That's what I mean - USB3."
posted by quinndexter at 2:25 PM on May 18, 2016 [3 favorites]


Though I don't remember Snake having a bionic arm though I've only played MGS I & II.

Basically they mean in MGS5.

[Spoilers for MGS series, I guess]

Solid Snake, who is the main character of MG, MG2, MGS, etc, does not have a bionic arm. Venom Snake, who is the main character of MGS5, has a bionic arm. Solid Snake is a clone of Snake aka Big Boss. Venom Snake and Snake.... well, not going to get into all that.
posted by thefoxgod at 3:18 PM on May 18, 2016 [1 favorite]


And then there's their less-effective doppelgängers, Toilet and Trouser
posted by middleclasstool at 3:56 PM on May 18, 2016 [1 favorite]


But can he infiltrate a base wearing only a cardboard box as a disguise?
posted by MartinWisse at 12:58 AM on May 19, 2016 [3 favorites]


Not sure if Reddit.
posted by jim.christian at 2:21 PM on May 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


Who can forget when Nokia Krunchvez banged his shoe on the table at the United Stations?
posted by Going To Maine at 8:39 PM on May 21, 2016 [1 favorite]


« Older "The real value in the apology lies in a...   |   All about that bass, that baritone, and maybe a... Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments