As robotics technology seems to progress by leaps and bounds (virtually literally), it seems that it will also press on some philosophical "sore points" as we struggle to reconcile what machine-human interface means to society and to individuals, perhaps most poignantly, men and women who have become injured or challenged in some fashion.

While ERN looks to point out the obvious complications and, possibly, errant pathways, robotic advancements might take; it has to be conceded that there is, indeed, a "Thin Silver Line" that has to be considered, as evidenced by the continuing development of technologies like the Deka Arm.

Far be it from us to rail against the enrichments such technologies may, specifically, be able to bring to individuals' lives, such as capably replacing lost limbs and mitigating other grave injuries. That being said, we would persist in pointing out the profoundly sensitive conundrum that this story so aptly brings to the fore. The Deka Arm is being commissioned by DARPA, in response to the increasingly urgent desire to replace the lost limbs of the drastically rising number of combat casualties in the United States Military's conflicts abroad.

With all due humility, we would like to consider the "treat the symptom vs. treat the cause" mentality surrounding this development. That is, the need for highly advanced prosthetic limbs to be made so much more desirable by the catastrophic loss of limbs incurred by our political and military world-view, generally.

The "test pilot" for the Deka Arm, Chuck Hildreth, in the included video below, has lost both arms in a, presumably, non-military related accident. Is it possible or even...desirable, to make a commentary on the obvious benefit that Chuck will eventually draw from this remarkable technology versus the implications of the device's origins and its larger purpose to mitigate the results of our current psycho-social perceptions of war; regenerating limbs technologically in order to obviate our apparent inability to prevent from creating scenarios in which we cause catastrophic numbers of limbs to be lost, i.e. "wars", "police actions", etc.?

We at ERN roundly admit that we are very probably not qualified to pronounce any conclusive judgement on the matter but merely submit to you, The Deka Arm.

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"When Americans are wounded in Afghanistan or Iraq, no expense is spared to save their lives. But once they're home, if they have suffered an amputation of their arm, they usually end up wearing an artificial limb that hasn't changed much since World War II.

In all the wonders of modern medicine, building a robotic arm with a fully functioning hand has not been remotely possible.

But as 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley first reported in April, that is starting to change. One remarkable leap in technology is called the DEKA arm and it's just one of the breakthroughs in a $100 million Pentagon program called "Revolutionizing Prosthetics." "

Full Story at CBS News - 60 Minutes