Do you think totally artificial hearts will ever become a reality?
I think they could. But right now we have done better with a mechanical pump sewn into the heart, called a left ventricular assist device (LVAD). These patients’ experiences are unlike any other human beings who have ever lived. Most of them don’t have a pulse. Listening to their chest, you actually hear the pump running. If they run out of batteries, they could die, sometimes instantaneously. But they also represent the dawn of a new age. People have always anticipated that one day, we will be transhuman, but that time has already arrived. Patients who have LVADs, who there are tens of thousands of around the world, are a living example of that
I think they could. But right now we have done better with a mechanical pump sewn into the heart, called a left ventricular assist device (LVAD). These patients’ experiences are unlike any other human beings who have ever lived. Most of them don’t have a pulse. Listening to their chest, you actually hear the pump running. If they run out of batteries, they could die, sometimes instantaneously. But they also represent the dawn of a new age. People have always anticipated that one day, we will be transhuman, but that time has already arrived. Patients who have LVADs, who there are tens of thousands of around the world, are a living example of that
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