MIT Prof Predicts the End of Disabilities In Next 50 Years 190
judgecorp writes "MIT professor Hugh Herr describes how technology can end disability in 50 years — with a big incentive from the need to support injured war veterans. A champion climber, Herr lost both legs below the knee, returned to climbing and designed improved climbing prostheses. From the article: 'Herr believes the work he is doing won’t just have humanitarian benefits. There’s money to be made too. And if there’s a market here, it means more people will receive help. Despite all the horrors and injustices the Iraq and Afghanistan wars spawned, they have helped make the biomechatronics industry a lot more viable. Back in 2007, Herr gave Garth Stewart, a 24-year-old Army veteran who lost his left leg below the knee during the conflict in Iraq, a bionic ankle. It used tendon-like springs and an electric motor to provide support for Stewart.'"
Re:no (Score:4, Informative)
Autism researcher here. (Well, I'm not actually an autism researcher, but I do their computer stuff.) It's now generally believed that, whatever the genetic component of autism actually looks like (and it's now believed that there are many, many subtle mutations working in concert), a significant portion cases are triggered by environmental conditions. Like cancer, the incidence rate of autism is pretty much correlated with how horribly contaminated our world is. Here's an opinion piece by David Suzuki [labbusinessmag.com] (PDF; scroll to page 8) on the matter. It's possible that the data set for people with autism will never be large enough for us to actually do statistically useful genetic screening.
Also: try not to be too hard on people with Asperger's. Certainly there are people out there who are just socially maladaptive and use it as a label to hide behind, but just from a short conversation with someone suffering from AS, you simply can't tell. There's a lot going on behind the scenes, however, in how they think, plan, feel, and perceive, and the apparently-normal facade is more of a testament to determination to fit in than anything.