Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Aimee Mullins at TED: Give me beautiful legs

In my previous post I made the case for novel and non-traditional prostheses. I'm not implying, however, that this is for all people, nor am I suggesting that there's something wrong with a disabled person wanting to look like a "normal" human.

Case in point is cyber-athlete and double-amputee Aimee Mullins. When Aimee is not tearing up the track with her carbon-fibre blades, she wears artificial legs that look and feel exactly like normal legs -- hair follicles and all. She even likes to paint her nails and wear high heels.

Here's a video of Aimee Mullins at TED 1998 talking about running as a disabled athlete (very inspiring and I highly recommend you watch this) and her assortment of artificial limbs. It's a poignant example of how technologies can help people achieve self-actualization.

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