FFF Podcast Episode 10: Prosthetics Pioneer: Professor Hugh Herr

In our tenth episode, Athamanatha Kitsune teams up with  Cam Cam (not to be confused with Cammy). With just an hour of his  precious time, they interview the  rock-climber-come-prosthetics-pioneering-professor, the one and only  Hugh Herr from the MIT Media Lab. The professor provides his thoughts on  pushing the envelopes of biomechatronics, the ethics of prosthetics,  freedom of form and terrific tails...

Host: Athamanatha Kitsune
Guests: Cam Cam and Professor Hugh Herr
Zoom Host: Professor Hugh Herr (hence the call ended before the podcast did)

Things  we learned: don't record a podcast from Zoom, the audio isn't that  good. We had to fall back on the old dictaphone, so sorry for the  echoing sound but it was better than what Zoom's own recording gave us.

Links relevant to the discussion (all are for reference and do not count as endorsements):

France to start research into 'Enhanced Soldiers':
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-55243014

Hugh Herr:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Herr
www.media.mit.edu/people/hherr/overview/

Jumping Stilts (or 'bocks')
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumping_stilts

Olympians with prosthetics:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Pistorius
apnews.com/press-release/pr-ne…bab4cf05d34b3ad0846

Regarding Atha's Tail:
youtu.be/I24KO39qr5M?t=637

Morphological Freedom:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphological_freedom

Donations:
www.patreon.com/freedomofform
www.freedomofform.org/involvement/donate/ for all methods.

Our website:
www.freedomofform.org

TIMESTAMPS for our questions:
02:20 What are your personal goals for developing your prostheses? What brought you to decide on them?
05:40 What do you see your goals of self-expression requiring in the coming years?
07:22 What is your outlook on Neuroprosthetics?
12:20 Technical difficulties
12:59 What about additional limbs in new places?
16:39 Do you see there being new ways of producing sensory input or motor output that go beyond using nerves for limbs and such?
18:20 What are your hopes and thoughts on morphological freedom?
21:10 Can you give some examples of fun or useful ways of applying prosthetics?
23:45 What makes your exoskeleton design more special and capable than jumping stilts?
27:36 Is it possible to augment other sensory inputs than just touch and feel?
34:25 What if a machine learning algorithm (or AI) for optical recognition misinterprets what it is being taught?
35:45 What has having amputee Olympians around taught you about the public perceptions of enhanced individuals?
39:40 Have you seen the news about the French military talking about enhancing soldiers?
48:19 Would we expect people to be okay with the good potential coming with downsides in augmentations?
52:09 What do you think of prosthetic tails and other such non-standard additions in a charitable context?
53:17 If you could be any animal...
54:11 Call ended
54:28 Wrapping up (Atha and Cam Cam)

Recorded 22nd December 2020
Released 6th January 2021