Posted by
glen ropella on
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/speaking-of-old-people-tp7586049p7586051.html
On 02/13/2015 02:17 PM, Steve Smith wrote:
> just like others don't seem to smile (grimace maybe) when I suggest instead of a knee replacement (you know who you are), they just have Flex-Foot Cheetah prosthetics engineered in place of them.
I don't quite grok why people feel so negative about prosthetics. It doesn't seem to be purely about their (lack of) functionality. I suppose this goes back to the same topic most of the threads on this list (in which I participate, anyway) deal with: the mind/body problem. Your foot, or hand, or hair, is not just a body part... it's a part of one's self, one's identity. We don't seem to feel this so much with things like aspirin or, say, what you ate for lunch. But we feel it fairly strongly for things like SSRIs and other psychotropics as well as eyeballs and the body parts closely correlated with gender identity.
I'd maintain, however, that having one of those 5-year hormone pumping implants really is akin to having a metal knee ... or should be, anyway. It's not _merely_ that how we feel is a function of what we are. It's full blown, how we feel _is_ what we are ... and vice versa.
> I know a fellow (also around 50) who has had MD since he was a teen and gets around well enough on foot and even bicycle but cannot really recognize a face... he has to stare off to one side to see your mouth moving and facial features changing, but without foveal vision can't really do much more than register that there are changes. I'm guessing this tech is just what he needs to improve his quality of life.
Yep. If the article hadn't said "age related macular degeneration", I wouldn't even have posted it ... there's no irony there.
> As for this becoming "the hazard we don't know", I believe it, but that is always the case.
I _wish_ I could express this to the anti-GMO-labeling people. We (Oregon) voted on a measure last november that would have required products made with GE materials be labeled. Most of the people against the measure seemed to be flat out pro-GMO. I'm pro-GMO to a large extent. But I was also for labeling it. I think I'm in a small minority.
The reason I'm both pro-GMO and pro-labeling is precisely because i believe in tracking cause and effect, regardless of the wisdom underlying any intervention decision. It's equally frustrating when, say, your program begins working for no apparent reason, as it is when your program stops working for no apparent reason. It's my ignorance that frustrates me, not the current state (working or broken). I failed several attempts to explain this to the pro-GMO-anti-labeling people I managed to argue with.
--
⇒⇐ glen e. p. ropella
Is what the prophets have to say
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