SMORGASBORG #7: Endoskeletons part B

What do Sam Worthington, Peter Weller, and Will Smith have in common? They're all dreamy, and they all play characters in movies who have devices implanted into their bodies. In their films the only issues they seem to have with their artificial parts are emotional ones, but putting a foreign object into a human body without adverse physical effects is actually pretty hard to do.

Marcus.

Note the chiseled endoskeletal cheekbones.

Marcus (Worthington) in Terminator Salvation, is apparently the lone humanoid organism to have survived Skynet's experimentation to build a cyborg with a metallic endoskeleton. Why would this be so hard? (Other than the fact that a machine dominated society using humans as lab rats wouldn't really care that much if there were a lot of casualties.) Living tissue and many types of metals have problems getting along together.

YOU PUT WHAT, WHERE?

Metals for making cyborgs, or hip or knee replacements, have to be corrosion resistant and biocompatible. If you have an allergy to nickel, you sure don't want a nickel implant, or a nickel belt buckle, or a phone with nickel in it.

The consequences of nickel allergies.

Metals shed ions. In order for the body to tolerate the metal well, it can't leach too much into the surrounding tissue. Although your body uses some metals for metabolism (copper, iron, magnesium, etc.), too much can cause toxicity. You don't want that metal plate in your head shedding too much of anything near your brain(1).

So you can imagine that corrosion resistant types of metals, plastics, or ceramics, would be a good idea. Using incompatible metals could interfere with normal tissue growth near the implant(2). Blood acidity and ph balance can have a corrosive effect on metals. If metals shed into the bloodstream, your whole body may have a (systemic) reaction. Organs that filter blood, like the liver and kidneys may accumulate unhealthy amounts of metal ions, which is bad. And don't forget cancer! You have to be careful that whatever you're implanting isn't carcinogenic 20 years after you've implanted it.

Cobalt-chromium alloys, stainless steel, and titanium have been reported to have minimal tissue reactions in rabbits, dogs, and people. If Terminator Salvation was going to be really accurate, we should have seen some rabbit cyborgs hopping around killing humans.

Kelli Doyle's Cyborg-Bunny puppet

Although there are always many things to consider, many people enjoy their artificial joints (made of plastics and metals) or eye lenses (plastics), or boobs (silicone) and never have any problems. 300,000 women per year receiving breast implants can't be all wrong, can they(3)?

Lens implant

CYBORG FATIGUE

Once you find biocompatible materials to implant in the body, you also want them to last. Fatigue resistance is important. You don't want parts to break or bend like a lug nut on an airplane wing.

If we're talking about hip replacements, "... chrome is favoured if tensile and fatigue strength are required, titanium is favoured if load sharing with adjacent bone (uncemented prostheses) is required (titanium has a similar modulus to cortical bone)(4)." So it really depends on what you're going to do with that hip and whether you glue the prosthetic, or just jam it in there really tight.

Bo Jackson, cute enough to be a cyborg, and a super-human athlete.

The metal and the bone it's embedded in, making up the structure of an artificial joint, are able to withstand normal physical stresses. Professional athletes with joint replacements often end up with complications because they put super-human stress on their bodies. The metal may bend, the bone holding it may break, or the prosthetic starts to work its way lose. For this reason, RoboCop with his combination of exoskeleton and implanted sensory parts, Spooner and his entirely prosthetic limb, and Marcus with a full body endoskeleton are the creme de la creme of the Hollywood Cyborgs.

1. Which is why they use titanium or niobium in the skull.

2. This can lead to chronic inflammation and scarring in the area.

3. Women with breast implants do not qualify as cyborgs.

4. Page 394 from Imaging of the Hip and Bony Pelvis: techniques and applications, by Arthur Mark Davies, Karl J.Hohnson, Richard Wihehouse. Read it on Google books, otherwise it costs over $200!

SMORGASBORG #6: Endoskeletons part A

A NEW WORD

Before we get started on the cyborg thing, I'd like to introduce a new term I coined last week due to a wicked cold (or maybe it was H1N1...). What is this term? Boughing. Cough so hard you try to barf, and there you have it. It's practical and combines two signs(1) of illness into one convenient word.

RoboCop isn't smiling because he's sensitive about his teeth

Might RoboCop bough? Certainly. He has a digestive system(2), such as it is, and a respiratory system. Just because he is mostly metal exoskeleton doesn't mean he can't catch a cold.

Might the Terminator bough? No. He has no respiratory system that involves lungs, and no digestive system providing an esophagus for vomit. Come to think of it, he doesn't eat food, and therefore has no vomit. Come to think of it, we don't know that he even has a functional transversus abdominis(3), the muscle that does most of the work during forced exhalation, like coughing.

Transversus abdominis is the deepest (and most petulant)

of the muscles at the waist.

YOU KNOW THIS ALREADY

Exo- means "without" or "external" while endo- means "within" or "internal." Marcus (Terminator Salvation) and the Terminator (from the great state of California) are excellent examples of cyborgs with endoskeletons.

A variety of Terminator endoskeletons

It seems that the Borg don't necessarily have to have endoskeletons per se(4). Some of them appear mostly organic with a new eye and exoskeletal structures. The Queen, however, has an endoskeletal cranium and vertebral column mounted in a machine structure with other fleshy parts. She's hard to figure out.

The remains of the Borg Queen

The implantation of fabricated devices into the cyborg is what interests me about the whole endoskeleton thing. Even Pearl from Cyborg(5) has this type of physiological intimacy with technology. This is really where the metal hits the meat.

Pearl

WHAT TYPES OF MATERIALS CAN YOU PUT IN A LIVING PERSON?

For decades, people have been walking (and running and dancing) around with all sorts of artificial devices imbedded in their bodies. The list runs from simple screws to hold broken bones together, to artificial joints, to cochlear implants, to artificial corneas... and don't forget the occasional misplaced hemostat!

Here is the most adorable "cyborg" ever!

Why would some people say he was a cyborg? Because he has a cochlear implant.

Scissors in a patient, from an interesting blog called The Sterile Eye

As long as surgeons have been implanting devices (accidentally and on purpose) they have also been taking copious notes about the substances those devices are made of. It turns out that finding the right material to do the job is harder than you'd think.

Next time we look a different physiological reactions to implants.

1. Remember, signs are objective, observable, data like coughing or vomiting. Symptoms are subjective, like a sore throat or nausea.

2. It just occurred to me. RoboCop/Murphy has teeth but eats the equivalent of babyfood. If he doesn't chew and exercise his teeth, they will get soft and weak. Do they give him dentures in RoboCop 2?

3. The transversus abdominis, along with two other muscles at the waist, the external and internal obliques, are commonly known as bacon in our porcine friends. Hey... it's a theme! H1N1 is swine flu, and now I've mentioned bacon!)

4. If anyone proficient in Borg lore wishes to comment and educate me, please do!

5. What a bad movie that was.

SMORGASBORG #2: Exoskeletons part A

BIOMECHATRONICS

Hybrid Assistive Limb Suit

In the field of Biomechatronics(1) the integration of man and machine can be achieved through internal or external body/machine interfaces. Exploration of internal interfaces between the nervous, muscular, and other body systems are represented in movies like Terminator Salvation and Star Trek: First Contact, where living flesh encases machinery(2). We'll look at some aspects of internal interfaces in future posts.

You'll recall from SMORGASBORG #1 that my gauge for a cyborg is "some kind of sensory and/or motor interface between the man (or biological tissues) and his machine parts. This involves the exchange of data and of energy. This relationship between two independent systems (man and machine in the case of the movies we will look at) is a dynamic one, where each influence the other."(3)

Claudia Mitchell with a new prosthetic arm.

This one's real, folks!

This criterion for cyborgism means that a person wearing a truly biomechatronic exoskeleton, whether invasive or not, could fit the model of a cyborg. One can also be provided sensory and motor interfaces that are non-invasive. A person can be encased (all the way or partially) in an exoskeletal structure that provides feedback to the wearer. Cybernetic devices could be directed through physical manipulation, voice commands, or in some cases, thought commands. Electrodes and other types of sensors can read nervous impulses and brain waves via contact with the skin. Sensory information can be provided to the user of the device through skin contact, aurally, and visually.

Lobster attacked by a baby

(Thank you, Bill Rahner, for the photo!)

GETTING HUNGRY...

I have read (and heard) the exoskeletal construction of a cyborg described as a "lobster." It's an appropriate nickname if you think about it. This type of cyborg has a hard outer shell and a tender, juicy middle. Makes you want to throw Iron Man, live, into a big pot of boiling water, cook him up, then crack him out of his shell and eat him with melted butter. The more I think about dipping Robert Downey Jr. into melted butter, the more I like the "lobster" thing.

Mr. Downey as Tony Stark. Too much eye liner.

Iron Man, Matrix Revolutions, and Aliens fulfill the model of the exoskeleton with greater and lesser degrees of technological finesse. Stark is encased entirely in his "power suit" (power suit?!?!), has a visual, and probably a tactile, interface, and talks to Jarvis (a computer of artificial intelligence) through his suit, to give commands and request information. In Matrix, the Armored Personnel Unit is an exoskeletal weapon. There is direct communication with the external environment. It's a big walking gun with a person in it. Captain Mifune goes down in one while battling the machines (Sentinels? I forget what they're called). It's a good fight scene.

Nathanael Lees as Captain Mifune

From Cyberpunk Review

In Aliens, Ripley(4) makes herself the crudest cyborg of all. Much of her body is exposed. Her exosuit cargo loader is, well, a cargo loader, it has buttons and levers. Ripley uses it as a weapon. It's not clear in the film if she is provided with any feedback from the suit, or if information travels only from her to it. She does walk in the suit, which I think would require some type of feedback mechanism in order to maintain balance, but I'm not a biomechanic.

If we take this lobster-as-cyborg imagery too far, anyone in a car might be encased in an exoskeleton, and therefore a cyborg. I'm not willing to go there. Another feature that may disqualify these characters from being true cyborgs is that they can remove themselves from their casings at any time. On the other hand, I haven't read anything that decrees Once a Cyborg, Always a Cyborg.

Next time we look at exoskeletons, prosthetics, and some real life applications for a power suit.

1. Biomechatronics is an interdisciplinary field that combines robotics, neuroscience, "interface and sensory technology, and dynamic systems and control theory," whatever they are. The objective of biomechatronics is to create implements that interact with the body in order to restore it to mechanical function, or enhance its function. Biomechatronics - Assisting the Impaired Motor System, by P.H. Vletnik, et. al. is a fascinating read on this topic. The article is from the Archives of Physiology and Biochemistry 2001, Vol. 109, No 1, pp. 1-9. If you don't have access to the right database (hmmm, grad school has its advantages), you can purchase it through Pub Med, if you're inclined.

2. Of course, each movie has its own set of rules. In Star Trek it is revealed the Borg cannot survive without their fleshy parts, no matter how seemingly small a percentage of the Borg body is flesh. This is a major plot point regarding how the crew of the Enterprise overcome a Borg invasion. In contrast are the cybernetic organisms in the Terminator series, who lose their flesh and keep on going.

3. Cripes! Now I'm quoting myself!

4. Another actor to consider dipping in butter.

SMORGASBORG #1: What is a cyborg?

Yes, We is the new Queen of the Borg. As a Borg, We don't need glasses, but as the Queen, We thought it might help people take Us seriously.

BORGFUDDLING

Working on the Terminator Salvation posts generated some interesting conversation in my household over the following days. I've become curious about that meat/metal interface, what it takes to make a cyborg, how cyborgs are portrayed in the movies, and what a cyborg is and is not.

What is a cyborg? It depends who you ask. Some sources say a cyborg is anyone who uses a tool to enhance sensory input, or improve physical mechanics of the body. By that definition, eyeglasses, hearing aids, canes, crutches, and prosthetics have been making cyborgs of us for centuries(1). Other sources are more stringent in their definitions, and yet others seem to confuse terms like robot, android, and cyborg.

Cyborg, or Kindle?

Cyborg, or Kindle?

Language can get confusing. A Kindle covered in a leather casing is not a cyborg even though it resembles, on a crude level, the Terminator. Why is the Kindle not a cyborg? Because it is not encased in living tissue (just dead tissue), according to the definition used in The Terminator movies. My husband, the cartoonist, is crushed of course, because he was hoping we could buy a cyborg from Amazon.com.

GETTING TERMS STRAIGHT

Patrick Parrinder wrote a great historical survey of cyborgian literature and presents his own set of definitions, which I've paraphrased and embellished here(2).

Robot is the English version of the Czech robota, basically meaning "forced labor". This label can be applied to machines, which take the place of human workers. Examples of robots from film include V-Ger (Star Trek the Motion Picture), the Gunslinger (Westworld), and don't forget the autobots and decepticons (Transformers)!

The Gunslinger, looking like Yule Brenner

Android, meaning "manlike," was first used in 1727. The term is currently used to mean artificial human beings of organic substance. Replicants (Blade Runner) belong to this category.

Sean Young as Rachel-the-Replicant

Cyborg is a contraction of "cybernetic organism," which is how the Terminator labels itself. Cyborgs are constructed through surgical extension. They are not born, they are made. Some sources(3) say that a basic principle of cybernetics requires some kind of sensory and/or motor interface between the man (or biological tissues) and his machine parts. This involves the exchange of data and of energy. This relationship between two independent systems (man and machine in the case of the movies we will look at) is a dynamic one, where each influences the other.

The requirement of interface between the human and the artificial body part gives us a good base from which to look at cyborgs in the movies, so let's include this in our definition of cyborgs.

WHICH CYBORG MOVIES FIT THESE CRITERIA?

1. The Terminator series: The Terminator itself (Arnold Schwarzenegger), and Marcus (Sam Worthington) from Terminator Salvation.

Marcus

2. Star Trek: First Contact: The Borg

The Borg Queen, before my reign.

3. Cyborg: Pearl Prophet (Dayle Haddon)

Little Pearl

4. The RoboCop series: RoboCop (Peter Weller). Oops! Picture gaff! We'll see him later...

5. I, Robot: Del Spooner (Will Smith) could qualify as a cyborg because he has a prosthetic arm that obviously has sensory and motor feedback systems that interact with his private parts (nervous system, musculature, etc.).

Spooner and his miracle arm

6. Iron Man: Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) when he dons his "power suit." Power suit?!?

Iron Man

7. The Matrix Revolutions: Anyone wearing an Armored Personnel Unit.

APU

8. Aliens: Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) when she is wearing the exosuit cargo loader to battle the Alien Queen. Weak, I know, but I'll make my point next time.

Ripley suited up

I know what your thinking... You're wondering how I, Robot, Iron Man, Aliens, and Matrix Revolutions qualify as cyborg movies. Next time, we look at exoskeletons and cyborgs.

1. Someone should make a movie about Benjamin Franklin, the cyborg: struck by lightning while wearing glasses, the electrical charge fuses them to his head (and brain) and gives him super-human vision...

2. Robots, Clones and Clockwork Men: The Post-Human Perplex in Early Twentieth-Century Literature and Science. Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, Vol. 34 No. 1, March, 2009 pp. 56-67. You can purchase this article online if you're into the history of science fiction literature (or even if you're not).

3. Vanishing senses -- restoration of sensory functions by electronic implants. Rosahl, Steffen K. Poiesis & Praxis; may 2004, Vol. 2 Issue 4, pp 285-295. An excellent overview of what it means to enable the body with a sensory and/or motor interface. You can purchase this article through this link, or just check out the abstract.