Guinness World Records 2018

Transhumanism

S
UPERHUMANS

FIRST

3D-PRINTED

PROSTHETIC

USED AT THE

PARALYMPICS

German cyclist

Denise Schindler

competed in the

2016 Rio Paralympics

with a 3D-printed

polycarbonate

prosthetic right leg.

She was the first

athlete to use a

3D-printed limb at

the Games, winning

a silver in the time

trial and a bronze in

the road race. Her

leg weighed just

812 g (1 lb 12.6 oz)

and took only 48 hr to

complete from initial

body scans to the

finished product.

The term “transhumanism” describes the use of science and technology to

overcome human limitations and enhance our physical and mental capacities.

History of prosthetics

FIRST...

Camera implant

Wafaa Bilal, an Iraqi-born photographer and

professor at New York University, USA, had a

camera implanted for an art project (“3rdi”) in

Nov 2010. As if he literally had eyes in the back

of his head, Wafaa’s rear-facing camera was

attached to a titanium plate inserted under

his scalp. The camera took snapshots at 1-min

intervals and the pictures were then uploaded to

the internet. The images were also displayed live

as a digital art installation in a museum in Qatar.

Biohacker with

earthquake-sensing technology

“Biohacking” describes the act of implanting

cybernetic devices into the human body to

enhance its abilities. In 2013, artist and dancer

Moon Ribas (ESP) had her left arm fitted with an

implant that receives data about earthquakes

anywhere on Earth in real time. It does so via a

bespoke smartphone app that connects with

geological monitors worldwide, detecting seismic

activity as low as 1 on the Richter scale. The

intensity of the vibrations that Ribas experiences

depends on the strength of the quake. She also

performs a stage show in which she moves her

body to interpret the tremors she is experiencing.

Biomonitoring computer implant

Software developer Tim Cannon (USA) is a

biohacking pioneer and co-founder of Grindhouse

Wetware, which designs biohacking technologies.

In 2 013, he became the first person to be

implanted with the Grindhouse “Circadia” body

sensor, inserted under the skin of his forearm.

The device sent his pulse and body temperature

wirelessly to a smartphone at regular intervals.

The Circadia featured wireless charging and LED

status lights that shone through the skin and

remained in place for three months.

Fully integrated prosthetic arm

In Jan 2013, a Swedish truck driver became

the first recipient of a prosthetic arm

implanted into existing bone and controlled

directly by existing nerves – despite losing

the limb more than a decade previously.

Researchers at Chalmers University of

Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden,

first inserted a permanent titanium

implant into the bone marrow of the

man’s upper arm. They then attached

a prosthetic arm controlled by

electrodes also implanted into the

upper limb. These gave greater

control and reliability over

sensors that typically sit

on the surface of the skin.

Earphone implants

In 2013, Rich Lee (USA) had speakers implanted

in his tragus (part of the outer ear), enabling him

to listen to music and take phone calls using an

electromagnetic coil worn around his neck. Lee

plans to modify his implants to give him powers

of echolocation similar to those of a bat.

3 D-printed bionic ear

In May 2013, nanotechnology scientists at

Princeton University in New Jersey, USA, in

collaboration with Johns Hopkins University

(USA), created a 3D-printed artificial ear that

can pick up radio frequencies. It was printed

from a hydrogel, a material used as a framework

for tissue engineering, using a commercially

available 3D printer. The ear was found to receive

signals across a frequency range up to 5 GHz.

Person with an ear implanted in their arm

Stelarc (AUS, b. CYP), a performance artist and

academic at Curtin University in Perth, Australia,

has had a “third ear” – an ear-shaped implant

under the skin of his left forearm – since 2 007.

The project took a decade to research and

fund, but Stelarc eventually found three plastic

surgeons who created the ear from the artist’s

own cells and a biocompatible frame. The cells

grew around the structure until it became a

living body part with its own blood supply.

It cannot hear, however.

Commercially available bio-compass

The North Sense (below) is a small compass

attached to a person’s chest that vibrates

whenever the user faces magnetic north. The

product was created by the biohacking group

Cyborg Nest and is designed to help people

navigate without having to read an external

compass. Instead, the wearer “feels” the bearing

within his or her body, like a sixth sense. The

North Sense, which

is held in place by

permanent metal

bar piercings,

went on sale in

Jun 20 16. One

of Cyborg Nest’s

co-founders, Neil

Harbisson, has a

record-breaking

implant of his

own (see below).

FIRST IMPLANTED ANTENNA

In 2004, Neil Harbisson (UK) had an antenna fitted into the back

of his skull. He was born with a rare form of colour blindness and

cannot perceive any colours other than black and white. The antenna

is attached to a camera that hangs in front of his eyes and converts

colour – in the form of light waves – into sound waves that he can hear

as musical notes. The colour spectrum he can now hear runs from low

notes, which appear as dark red to him, to high notes, which register

as purple. Neil is the first officially recognized cyborg.

Q: What is the word

“cyborg” short for?

: Cybernetic organismA

1 0th–8th century bce

The mummy of a

noblewoman dated

to 950–710 bce

has a wood-

and-leather

replacement

for one of her

toes, the oldest

prosthesis

currently known

5th century bce

Herodotus writes

about a wooden

foot made for a

soldier amputee

c. 200 bce

Roman general Marcus Sergius

replaces his lost right hand

with one made from iron to

help him hold his shield

c. 1540

Ambroise Paré, a French

military surgeon, creates

“Le Petit Lorrain”, a

mechanical spring-operated

hand, and a leg with

a lockable

knee joint

1861

James Hanger,

a Confederate

soldier in the

American Civil

War, loses his leg

in the conflict

and later designs

and patents the

“Hanger Limb”,

which is hinged

at the knee

and ankle

188 0s

The first glass contact lenses

are developed, by glassblower

F A Muller in Germany, and – at

around the same time – by

physician Adolf E Fick (DEU) and

French optician Edouard Kalt

1982

Graeme Clark

(AUS) invents the

cochlear implant,

arguably the

first body part

that could be

described as

“bionic” (i.e.,

an electronic or

mechanical aid

incorporated

into the body)

2008

Touch Bionics (UK) launch

the i-limb hand, the first

commercially available

bionic hand

10 0%