Artificial organs. OK, so the name isn’t as catchy as the ‘Wii,’ nor will it perforate society as wholly as the iPod nano, but hey, it’s got its own movie, ‘Repo Man,’ with Jude Law as the leading actor. It will be pretty difficult to beat that one.

‘Repo Man,’ which hit theaters last week, is a film set in the future, when artificial organs are bought on credit and if users do not pay their debt, the organs get repossessed.

Jude Law is a widely esteemed British actor. An artificial organ is an internal organ created by mankind using applicable technologies. Sorry, Jude Law, you lose this competition of what is more cool.

While development of artificial organs has been under way since the mid-1950s, scientists and engineers are just beginning to make strides toward making an artificial heart that can be completely self-powered and entirely life sustaining. Actually, a little-known fact is that the inventor of the first permanent total artificial heart is Syracuse University alumnus Dr. Robert Jarvik, who earned his bachelor’s degree in zoology here in 1968. This invention was made possible by the wonders of, you guessed it, technology.

Dr. Alain Frédéric Carpentier, a leading surgeon in heart transplants, is currently working on a wholly independent artificial heart and thinks it could be ready for trial by 2011. The early model of this heart functions by using sensors developed from animal tissues and synthetic materials.

However, just because people with heart or kidney or even lung disease won’t have to wait for the next motorcycle accident to be moved up on a donor waiting list, that doesn’t mean you should practice daily binge drinking or poor exercise habits.

The cost of one of these self-reliable artificial hearts, including the surgical procedure, can cost as much as $1 million. Good luck getting that covered by the new Obama health care plan.

So what else can we expect from bionics in the future? Actually, we can expect a fully functional lung and kidneys. Grim Reaper beware, the spectrum of kryptonite weaknesses of humankind is continually shrinking.

Not only are there artificial organs in the works meant to prolong death, but there are also ones being used now to enhance life. For example, the artificial eyeball. And this is an important one — how else are you supposed to look at Jude Law?

The artificial eye is much less complex than the artificial heart, which is one of the reasons it’s currently fully functioning and available. The bionic eye can replace lost vision by implanting a camera on a retina.

With all of these artificial organs underway, I would say that the bionic man and true artificial intelligence aren’t all that far off. But that would be way too sci-fi.

Jessica Smith is a sophomore information management and technology and television, radio and film dual major and the technology columnist. Her column appears every Thursday. If you know how to reach Jude Law, contact her at jlsmit22@syr.edu.
 

Published on March 24, 2010 at 12:00 pm