The Future Gets Closer, Part II

October 25, 2009 12:14 PM

Practical gene therapy treatment emerges. Prosthetics that feel. Circumventing paralysis with brain implants.
posted by StrikeTheViol (15 comments total)

Where was the future gets closer part I...and is there a list we should be checking these off of instead of links out of a greater context ?
posted by iamabot at 12:56 PM on October 25, 2009

Because most of the more in depth links I found are still behind paywalls, I thought I'd combine these three together, similar to my previous post, as a kind of follow up.
posted by StrikeTheViol at 1:17 PM on October 25, 2009

Well, that blew my mind.
posted by molecicco at 1:23 PM on October 25, 2009

When I was 6, I pretty much just assumed that I'd be George Jetson one day. I believed it to be an implicit promise from Hanna-Barbera. I'm still waiting for that. Until I get up, have a machine dress me, have a talking robot maid make me breakfast and communte in a flying car the future is dead to me - fancy prosthetics or no fancy prosthetics.
posted by jimmythefish at 2:11 PM on October 25, 2009 [1 favorite]

The first link is great. The kid got his eyesight back and can now ride a bike. Outstanding.
posted by fixedgear at 2:14 PM on October 25, 2009

Sometimes science just makes my fucking week.
posted by middleclasstool at 2:59 PM on October 25, 2009

Good.
posted by Anything at 3:14 PM on October 25, 2009

well well well, the singularity is 50 years early.

very cool
posted by Lutoslawski at 3:31 PM on October 25, 2009

So the interesting thing about that third link with the monkey being able to control his paralyzed arm is that, when you think about it, it's actually not that complicated. Stick some kind of a receiving device in the brain (around the spinal cord ending, or anywhere really). Ask the person to think about, or try to do certain things. Analyse that signal, then use that signal as an instruction to be sent wirelessly to an electronic device. Then, you can move shit with your fucking mind.
posted by molecicco at 3:51 PM on October 25, 2009

My semi-educated guess is that the adenovirus delivery of the gene therapy worked for the retinal because of the lack of an immune system.^* Hopefully they can extend the result, bearing in mind what happened to Jesse Gelsinger ten years ago.

^*Did they really inject into the retina proper? When we used viral delivery to study retinal development in an animal model, we would inject into the vitreous fluid.
posted by exogenous at 3:58 PM on October 25, 2009 [1 favorite]

And I think to myself, "what a wonderful world."
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 4:41 PM on October 25, 2009

Science is AWESOME. There's no limit to the amount of amazing, life-changing treatments that American health insurance companies will soon be able to deny access to.
posted by Tomorrowful at 9:02 PM on October 25, 2009

A single injection in a patient's eye brings 'astounding' results. The findings may offer hope for those with macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa.

My wife's family will be glad to hear this. My mother-in-law's grandmother likes to remind her family that macular degeneration is hereditary. Take that, Grandma. Science wins again!

I'm still looking forward to the day that I can regrow my teeth.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:04 AM on October 26, 2009

All those who believe in telekinesis, raise my hand.
Damn those bionic implants and the hackers with their wireless signals and terrible senses of humour and their nothing better to do than hack my arm after I make a cheesy comment...

Other than that, niftiness all around.
posted by LD Feral at 9:52 AM on October 26, 2009

"Yes, I love technology
But not as much as you, you see
But I still love technology
Always and forever"
posted by Mental Wimp at 3:51 PM on October 26, 2009