WEBVTT

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I'm an MIT professor,

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but I do not design buildings
or computer systems.

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Rather, I build body parts,

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bionic legs that augment
human walking and running.

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In 1982, I was in
a mountain-climbing accident,

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and both of my legs had to be amputated
due to tissue damage from frostbite.

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Here, you can see my legs:

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24 sensors, six microprocessors
and muscle-tendon-like actuators.

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I'm basically a bunch of nuts and bolts
from the knee down.

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But with this advanced bionic technology,

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I can skip, dance and run.

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(Applause)

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Thank you.

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(Applause)

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I'm a bionic man,
but I'm not yet a cyborg.

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When I think about moving my legs,

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neural signals from
my central nervous system

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pass through my nerves

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and activate muscles
within my residual limbs.

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Artificial electrodes sense these signals,

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and small computers in the bionic limb

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decode my nerve pulses
into my intended movement patterns.

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Stated simply,

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when I think about moving,

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that command is communicated
to the synthetic part of my body.

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However, those computers can't input
information into my nervous system.

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When I touch and move my synthetic limbs,

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I do not experience normal
touch and movement sensations.

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If I were a cyborg and could feel my legs

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via small computers inputting information
into my nervous system,

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it would fundamentally change, I believe,

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my relationship to my synthetic body.

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Today, I can't feel my legs,

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and because of that,

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my legs are separate tools
from my mind and my body.

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They're not part of me.

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I believe that if I were a cyborg
and could feel my legs,

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they would become
part of me, part of self.

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At MIT, we're thinking about
NeuroEmbodied Design.

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In this design process,

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the designer designs human flesh and bone,
the biological body itself,

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along with synthetics to enhance
the bidirectional communication

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between the nervous system
and the built world.

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NeuroEmbodied Design is a methodology
to create cyborg function.

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In this design process,
designers contemplate a future

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in which technology
no longer compromises separate,

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lifeless tools from
our minds and our bodies,

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a future in which technology
has been carefully integrated

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within our nature,

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a world in which
what is biological and what is not,

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what is human and what is not,

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what is nature and what is not

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will be forever blurred.

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That future will provide
humanity new bodies.

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NeuroEmbodied Design
will extend our nervous systems

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into the synthetic world,

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and the synthetic world into us,

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fundamentally changing who we are.

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By designing the biological body
to better communicate

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with the built design world,

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humanity will end disability
in this 21st century

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and establish the scientific
and technological basis

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for human augmentation,

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extending human capability
beyond innate, physiological levels,

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cognitively, emotionally and physically.

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There are many ways
in which to build new bodies across scale,

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from the biomolecular
to the scale of tissues and organs.

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Today, I want to talk about
one area of NeuroEmbodied Design,

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in which the body's tissues
are manipulated and sculpted

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using surgical and regenerative processes.

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The current amputation paradigm

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hasn't changed fundamentally
since the US Civil War

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and has grown obsolete
in light of dramatic advancements

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in actuators, control systems
and neural interfacing technologies.

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A major deficiency is the lack
of dynamic muscle interactions

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for control and proprioception.

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What is proprioception?

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When you flex your ankle,
muscles in the front of your leg contract,

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simultaneously stretching muscles
in the back of your leg.

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The opposite happens
when you extend your ankle.

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Here, muscles in the back
of your leg contract,

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stretching muscles in the front.

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When these muscles flex and extend,

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biological sensors
within the muscle tendons

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send information
through nerves to the brain.

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This is how we're able to feel
where our feet are

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without seeing them with our eyes.

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The current amputation paradigm
breaks these dynamic muscle relationships,

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and in so doing eliminates
normal proprioceptive sensations.

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Consequently, a standard artificial limb

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cannot feed back information
into the nervous system

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about where the prosthesis is in space.

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The patient therefore
cannot sense and feel

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the positions and movements
of the prosthetic joint

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without seeing it with their eyes.

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My legs were amputated
using this Civil War-era methodology.

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I can feel my feet,
I can feel them right now

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as a phantom awareness.

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But when I try to move them, I cannot.

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It feels like they're stuck
inside rigid ski boots.

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To solve these problems,

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at MIT, we invented the agonist-antagonist
myoneural interface,

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or AMI, for short.

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The AMI is a method to connect nerves
within the residuum

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to an external, bionic prosthesis.

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How is the AMI designed,
and how does it work?

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The AMI comprises two muscles
that are surgically connected,

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an agonist linked to an antagonist.

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When the agonist contracts
upon electrical activation,

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it stretches the antagonist.

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This muscle dynamic interaction

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causes biological sensors
within the muscle tendon

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to send information through the nerve
to the central nervous system,

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relating information on the muscle
tendon's length, speed and force.

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This is how muscle tendon
proprioception works,

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and it's the primary way we, as humans,

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can feel and sense the positions,
movements and forces on our limbs.

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When a limb is amputated,

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the surgeon connects these opposing
muscles within the residuum

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to create an AMI.

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Now, multiple AMI
constructs can be created

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for the control and sensation
of multiple prosthetic joints.

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Artificial electrodes are then placed
on each AMI muscle,

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and small computers within the bionic limb
decode those signals

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to control powerful motors
on the bionic limb.

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When the bionic limb moves,

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the AMI muscles move back and forth,

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sending signals through
the nerve to the brain,

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enabling a person wearing the prosthesis
to experience natural sensations

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of positions and movements
of the prosthesis.

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Can these tissue-design principles
be used in an actual human being?

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A few years ago, my good friend
Jim Ewing -- of 34 years --

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reached out to me for help.

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Jim was in an a terrible
climbing accident.

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He fell 50 feet in the Cayman Islands,

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and his rope failed to catch him
hitting the ground's surface.

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He suffered many, many injuries:

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punctured lungs and many broken bones.

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After his accident, he dreamed
of returning to his chosen sport

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of mountain climbing,

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but how might this be possible?

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The answer was Team Cyborg,

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a team of surgeons,
scientists and engineers

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assembled at MIT to rebuild Jim
back to his former climbing prowess.

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Team member Dr. Matthew Carty
amputated Jim's badly damaged leg

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at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston,

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using the AMI surgical procedure.

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Tendon pulleys were created
and attached to Jim's tibia bone

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to reconnect the opposing muscles.

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The AMI procedure
reestablished the neural link

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between Jim's ankle-foot
muscles and his brain.

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When Jim moves his phantom limb,

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the reconnected muscles
move in dynamic pairs,

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causing signals of proprioception
to pass through nerves to the brain,

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so Jim experiences normal sensations
with ankle-foot positions and movements,

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even when blindfolded.

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Here's Jim at the MIT laboratory
after his surgeries.

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We electrically linked Jim's AMI muscles,
via the electrodes,

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to a bionic limb,

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and Jim quickly learned
how to move the bionic limb

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in four distinct ankle-foot
movement directions.

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We were excited by these results,
but then Jim stood up,

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and what occurred was truly remarkable.

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All the natural biomechanics
mediated by the central nervous system

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emerged via the synthetic limb

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as an involuntary, reflexive action.

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All the intricacies of foot placement
during stair ascent --

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(Applause)

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emerged before our eyes.

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Here's Jim descending steps,

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reaching with his bionic toe
to the next stair tread,

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automatically exhibiting natural motions

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without him even trying to move his limb.

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Because Jim's central nervous system
is receiving the proprioceptive signals,

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it knows exactly how to control
the synthetic limb in a natural way.

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Now, Jim moves and behaves
as if the synthetic limb is part of him.

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For example, one day in the lab,

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he accidentally stepped
on a roll of electric tape.

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Now, what do you do
when something's stuck to your shoe?

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You don't reach down like this,
it's way too awkward.

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Instead, you shake it off,

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and that's exactly what Jim did

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after being neurally connected to the limb
for just a few hours.

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What was most interesting to me

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is what Jim was telling us
he was experiencing.

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He said, "The robot became part of me."

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Jim Ewing: The morning after the first
time I was attached to the robot,

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my daughter came downstairs
and asked me how it felt to be a cyborg,

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and my answer was
that I didn't feel like a cyborg.

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I felt like I had my leg,

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and it wasn't that I was
attached to the robot

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so much as the robot was attached to me,

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and the robot became part of me.

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It became my leg, pretty quickly.

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Hugh Herr: Thank you.

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(Applause)

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By connecting Jim's
nervous system bidirectionally

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to his synthetic limb,

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neurological embodiment was achieved.

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I hypothesized that because Jim
can think and move his synthetic limb,

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and because he can feel those movements
within his nervous system,

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the prosthesis is no longer
a separate tool,

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but an integral part of Jim,
an integral part of his body.

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Because of this neurological embodiment,
Jim doesn't feel like a cyborg.

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He feels like he just has his leg back,

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that he has his body back.

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Now I'm often asked

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when I'm going to be neurally linked
to my synthetic limbs bidirectionally,

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when I'm going to become a cyborg.

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The truth is, I'm hesitant
to become a cyborg.

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Before my legs were amputated,
I was a terrible student.

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I got D's and often F's in school.

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Then, after my limbs were amputated,

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I suddenly became an MIT professor.

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(Laughter)

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(Applause)

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Now I'm worried that once I'm neurally
connected to my legs once again,

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my brain will remap
back to its not-so-bright self.

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(Laughter)

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But you know what, that's OK,
because at MIT, I already have tenure.

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(Laughter)

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(Applause)

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I believe the reach
of NeuroEmbodied Design

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will extend far beyond limb replacement

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and will carry humanity into realms

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that fundamentally
redefine human potential.

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In this 21st century,

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designers will extend the nervous system
into powerfully strong exoskeletons

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that humans can control
and feel with their minds.

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Muscles within the body
can be reconfigured

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for the control of powerful motors,

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and to feel and sense
exoskeletal movements,

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augmenting humans' strength,
jumping height and running speed.

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In this 21st century, I believe humans
will become superheroes.

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Humans may also extend their bodies

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into non-anthropomorphic
structures, such as wings,

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controlling and feeling each wing movement
within the nervous system.

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Leonardo da Vinci said,
"When once you have tasted flight,

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you will forever walk the earth
with your eyes turned skyward,

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for there you have been
and there you will always long to return."

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During the twilight years of this century,

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I believe humans will be unrecognizable
in morphology and dynamics

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from what we are today.

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Humanity will take flight and soar.

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Jim Ewing fell to earth
and was badly broken,

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but his eyes turned skyward,
where he always longed to return.

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After his accident,
he not only dreamed to walk again,

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but also to return to his chosen sport
of mountain climbing.

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At MIT, Team Cyborg built Jim
a specialized limb for the vertical world,

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a brain-controlled leg with full position
and movement sensations.

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Using this technology,
Jim returned to the Cayman Islands,

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the site of his accident,

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rebuilt as a cyborg
to climb skyward once again.

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(Crashing waves)

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(Applause)

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Thank you.

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(Applause)

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Ladies and gentlemen, Jim Ewing,
the first cyborg rock climber.

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(Applause)