Synthetic Medical Advances:
A lot of research recently has been targeted at creating synthetic life. These are not robotic solutions (so, for these purposes at least, synthetic does not mean artificial intelligence or cyborgs) but instead largely biological entities that have been tinkered with.
For example, Kurzweilai.net reports that chemists have created cells with self-assembling, artificial membranes. Because creating truly artificial life will require both an artificial membrane and an artificial genome (which has also been created) this is an important step towards creating entirely new organisms. The best part: it seems to be easy and cheap to create these new artificial membranes, so we should see a lot of movement in this area in the near future.
The recent breakthroughs in the medical field is astounding, after a discussion pertaining to the advancements towards growing new limbs and organs I came across this article. This article suggests that not only can we already begin doing this but it's going to be affordable and practical to do so as well. This obviously doesn't mean to go cut off a finger because the potential is there to regrow it but just think about... we're so close to this break through.
This got me thinking about all of the synthetic medical advances we've made just in this last decade. How close do you think we are to 'the bionic man' in your opinion based on the current speed and trends of advancement?
Definition: The Bionic Man.
