Bio-hacking our way up the evolution ladder - Yanko Design

"Nosotros're all already cyborgs", says Elon Musk. "You take more power than the president of the U.s. had 20 years ago," he says, and he couldn't be more right. The things nosotros invent today push our abilities in ways that would brand our ancestors think we're gods. That smartphone has you lot talking with people hundreds of miles away, it can find y'all the answer to pretty much any question you have on your mind, if yous call up from the perspective of someone from a century back, we've come a long way into hacking human capabilities.

That's what Dani Clode's Third Thumb projection aims at doing… Exploring and expanding the possibilities of what we can practise with additional powers… in this case, an extra thumb. With the aim of adding to human'south possibilities, rather than replacing what's lost, the prosthetic has the potential rapidly alter the style we live our lives. The pollex, 3D printed from a variant of Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU) called Ninjaflex, sits right beside your piffling finger. It's connected to a smart-bracelet that receives its commands via bluetooth from the wearer's foot. Force per unit area sensors are placed on the soles of the feet and any strength you apply with your foot is perceived as a bespeak by the bracelet i.e., if you printing down with ane pes, the thumb flexes inwards, grasping whatever you're holding. Clode says that the learning bend is rather minimal and people go used to the controls pretty quick. Watch the video to see one rather confident candidate shred abroad at a guitar with a Third Pollex!

The tertiary thumb could just be ane of those products that dramatically alter the world as nosotros know it, making us grip better, text better, work better, and probably evolving communications to a massive extent, from gestures to sign language. Me, I'm merely happy if I tin can grip my smartphone and text in bed without having it slip and smack me flat on my face. *dumb grinning*

Designer: Dani Clode