No matter how skilled you are, no matter how many risks you take, no matter how much you spend on the sexiest hardware available, the one limiting factor in pulling off anything physical is the sack of meat your brain resides in.
And once you’ve accumulated years of experience, just as you feel your peak is reached, your meat sack starts creaking and it’s downhill into the grave. Thankfully a solution is slowly emerging. By the time your hips are titanium and your bladder lurks on the bedside table the Exoskeleton will have been perfected.
Raytheon Exoskeleton
The most famous Exoskeleton example has to be when Sigourney Weaver starts kicking xenomorph butt in ‘Aliens’. In 1986 it must have seemed 200 years in the future, but scientists are beavering away to make it happen right now and have been for several decades.
The General Electric Hardiman
The very first attempt was the Hardiman, built by General Electric in 1965. The project was intended to allow a person to lift nearly 3/4 of a ton, unfortunately the device itself weighed well over triple that and its movements were so violent that no person ever activated it whilst actually wearing it.
Since then there have been no shortage of remotely-operated limbs but the exoskeleton has proven to be a much tougher nut to crack. The technical obstacles are formidable. Power supplies haven’t been compact enough, sensors haven’t been subtle enough to interpret the wearers’ movements and the mechanical muscles themselves have been too crude – until now.
There are a variety of projects around the world attempting to make a viable proposition. Perhaps the most advanced is the HAL 5 from the alarmingly named Cyberdyne of Japan. Its primary purpose isn’t to destroy the human race, but to help the elderly and those with mobility problems.
HAL 5 - Judgment Day
The suit operates by sensing electrical impulses through sensors placed on the skin. Computers interpret these signals and activate the servos in the suit. It’s powerful enough to lift 10 times more than an unsuited human and the battery supplies up to 5 hours of superhumanosity. There are plans to introduce it into other arenas such as construction and rescue. At the moment it’s only available in Japan.
But what of the military? Surely they’d be itching to send legions of Iron Men across the battlefield. Correct.
So what does it all mean? You’ll be able to jog up Everest, execute that pesky 1080 McTwisty with a quick squirt from your booster rockets and if you do end up decapitating yourself whilst Extreme Ironing then something like the machine below will be waiting for your brain-in-a-jar.
Can’t wait.
