The name of the surgeon is Rand Spencer, M.D., and we need many more like him.

The flame that I had as a kid, all of it, gone. Because now everyone died. All at that one moment, you know? And I made arrangements to fly home the next day, and I got on the plane, and when I got on the plane I decided that I was going to end my life. I’m pretty much done. And I wasn’t telling anyone, it wasn’t a threat, it was a total fucking decision that I’ve pretty much had enough of this. There is no more, nothing else to live for, and I’m done. So I got on the plane, and I was so excited because I’m like, I’m really going to fucking die, this is so great! I was thrilled and at peace. And I couldn’t wait until the funeral was over, because that’s when I’m going to do it. I’m not going to jump off a building or in front of a car. You people ever heard of overdosing on drugs? …I get up and go to the back of the plane to go to the bathroom and… the monk that I had met was sitting in the back row… And he put his hands out like he did before, again… and it worked for me… it just, it worked. And I got home, and I quit my job and I said, you know what? I want to be a fucking comedian.

Listen to the whole thing.

[audio:moth-podcast-89-mike-destefano.mp3]

Download (mp3, 17 MB)

Of course, rather than simply explaining the news in as clear a way as possible, ABC proceeds to extremes: “Mitchell has become the first real ‘Bionic Woman’: part human, part computer.” She’s first and she’s real, and you can tell because ABC even awarded her the official capitalized title of “Bionic Woman.” Presumptuous, and also inaccurate. In fact, this technology is exciting because it doesn’t have much to do with computers at all. Rather than relying on predictive software to control the motors in the prosthesis (which was the technique used in this BBC producer’s prosthetic foot), Ms. Mitchell controls her hardware directly, with her brain.

In any case, the success of this procedure has led to some interesting discoveries, such as the fact that Ms. Mitchell retains a 1-to-1 mapping of her reinnervated afferent fibers to locations on her prosthesis.

Paul Marasco, a touch specialist and research scientist with the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, was brought in to study the hand sensations that Mitchell feels in her chest. He put together a detailed map, connecting what Mitchell’s missing hand feels with the corresponding locations on her chest.

Depending on where you touch her chest, “she has the distinct sense of her joints being bent back in particular ways, and she has feelings of her skin being stretched,” Marasco said.

If a human’s nervous system can be extended to include a prosthesis, it isn’t a stretch to imagine that it can be interfaced with external signal networks, such as other humans’ nervous systems, or the internet. How will this affect embodied cognition? Societal structure? Consciousness?

Here’s a video of Claudia in action. Seems like she’s got style too—the upper part of her artificial arm is covered in a camoflauge pattern. Seen!