Technology Meets Human Biology

In 10 years, how much technology will we integrate into our own anatomy? In 20? In 30? How exactly can technology transform the human body?

In this relatively short TED talk, a lot of interesting ideas are discussed. Lucy McRae is a body architect. Lucy was originally trained in classical ballet and studied architecture and fashion. She is incredibly fascinated with how we can integrate technology into our body and what new things we can create by trying to combine the two. Says McRae: "I became obsessed with this idea of blurring the perimeter of the body, so you couldn't see where the skin ended and the environment started." Throughout her talk, Lucy talks about new ideas she has such as tattoos that change color with touch and clothing that has living plants on it. She even created a perfume that you can swallow; the fragrance comes out through the skin's surface when you sweat.

This TED talk was fascinating and refreshing. Although it was relatively short, Lucy was able to capture my attention and draw me into her work, forcing me to rethink the way I defined the parameters of the human body and technology. In my eyes, Lucy is a visionary. She offers a unique perspective that I've never seen before, and her work has inspired me to dream up new designs in my own life. I believe that Lucy's work is ultimately heading in the same direction as society: advancement. She's looking forward decades into the future and attempting to bring a taste of our possibilities to us in the present.

Perfect Evidence

If you woke up one morning and were accused of a murder that you didn't commit, would you fight for your freedom or would you lose hope?

In 1986, there were 284 murders in Chicago, Illinois. Linda Rosetti was among these unfortunate victims. In October of 1986, 23-year-old caucasian Roscetti was brutally raped and murdered in a predominantly black neighborhood, and the community put a lot of pressure on the police force to hold someone responsible for the horrendous crime. Through a series of misconduct and misdirection, the police got Calvin Ollins, 14 years old at the time, to sign a confession in exchange for seeing his mother. The confession named himself, his older brother Larry, their friend Omar, and their friend Marcellius as the perpetrators of the crime. They were all innocent. Though they had no real evidence against them, the four men were still brought to trial for the murder. Each one of them was under the age of 19. In exchange for a lighter sentence, Marcellius made a deal and testified at the trials of the other three boys, fabricating details and events to ensure that he would not serve a life sentence. The three boys were then sent to prison for 15 years, beginning to lose hope that they would ever get out. A quarter of a century after the original crime, the three boys, now grown men, began to discuss the details of their respective trials. What they found shocked them. They discovered a discrepancy in the presentation of the DNA evidence left at the crime scene. Eventually, they persuaded an attorney to take their case, and the men were freed. After they were released, two men in Chicago confessed to the murder of Linda Roscetti.

I feel a variety of different emotions when I think of this story: shock, anger, sadness, fear, helplessness, etc. I find it so disgusting that the police who were investigating this case could think for one moment that they were doing the right thing. If I were a family member of a murder victim, I would want justice for the REAL perpetrators of the crime. Taking innocent boys off of the street and charging them with serious offenses, while the actual criminals continue to live in the community, doesn't do anyone any good. It's incredibly irritating to think that these men lost a quarter of their lives to lies, and there's no way that they can ever get them back. I also seriously question the character of Marcellius, who lied on the stand against his three other friends in exchange for a lighter sentence. While the other three men can live their lives with a clean conscious, Marcellius has to carry the guilt that he betrayed his friends with him forever. The fact that the prosecutor who altered the DNA evidence in his favor didn't face any consequences is ridiculous. He essentially stole 45 years of life, and he has to pay no price. Ultimately, I find Larry, Calvin, and Omar inspiring. They never lost hope that someone would believe that they were innocent and take them out of prison. Instead of becoming dark people after being housed with serious criminals, they came out of the experience as men elated to have their freedom and return to the world from which they were so cruelly stolen.

Lucy the Chimpanzee

Lucy the Chimpanzee represents the gap between apes and humans that can be bridged to a certain point before leaving its traveler stranded between two worlds.

Lucy was adopted in 1964 by Maurice and Jane Temerlin when she was just two days old. Maurice, a psychotherapist, was intrigued with the question of precisely how human-like a chimpanzee could be if she was raised in the right environment. Lucy was raised as if she were a human child, learning to hold her own bottle, dress herself, and use proper utensils at the dinner table. The Temerlins hired a sign-language instructor to teach Lucy how to communicate with her family, eventually learning over 140 signs. Lucy became even more human-like as she grew up, drinking gin and reading books, and making tea for guests when her family entertained. When Lucy was introduced to a male chimpanzee for the first time, she was frightened of him and did not relate to him at all. This illustrated how detached Lucy was from her ape origins. When she reached the age of 12, she had become too strong and violent for the Temerlins to continue to care for Lucy in their home, so they sent her to a chimpanzee rehabilitation center in Gambia, Africa with a graduate student named Janis Carter. Janis cared for Lucy in Africa and took Lucy and other chimpanzees who were having trouble acclimating to the wild to a secluded island in a river to help them become accustomed to their environment. Lucy struggled for a long time accepting that her life as a human child was now over, but eventually, she learned to live as her own kind. A year after Janis left, she returned to the island with some of Lucy's old belongings. Lucy embraced her and one of Janice's traveling companions captured an image of the hug. Janice returned one year later to find that Lucy had been killed, presumably by a poacher. They found that her remains were free of skin and hair as well as hands and feet, suggesting that she had been skinned and her limbs were taken as a prize.

Lucy and Janice embracing in Africa

I found the story of Lucy tragic and moving. In a way, Lucy's life was incredibly unfair. Her parents took an animal that should have grown up with her own kind and instead placed her in a life that was never supposed to be hers. As a result, when she reached the age where she began to act out, her parents sent her away without any of the necessary skills to survive in the wild. I find Lucy's similarities to a human incredibly intriguing, as she was found to be able to lie. Before Lucy, it was thought that humans were the only beings who were self-aware enough to be able to lie. I find myself wondering what Lucy's life would have been like had she been raised as a chimpanzee and not a human, and wondering if she would have been any happier or more loved than she was as her time spent as the Temerlin's daughter.