So here’s the thing about today’s prosthetics: they kinda suck. For example this 2022 study reports that 44% of amputees rejected their prosthetic:
Most responders complained about the comfort (60.87%, n = 14) as well as the weight of the device (52.17%, n = 12).
What apparently goes a long way is accepting the missing limb and living with it. And I guess religion does help with that.
The advancements of the last decade in the arena of upper limb prosthetics have not yet achieved a significant change in prosthetic abandonment within this study cohort. Although academic solutions have been presented to tackle patient's complaints, clinical reality still shows high rejection rates …
Of course, it’s all primitive dogshit, basically early 20th century sticks with fancier motors. Big deal.
We need to figure out how to regrow limbs. A stupid salamander can do it.
There’s some evidence that mammals never lost the ability. Unfortunately, our scarring response is massively faster and locks wounds down.
A few years back, they engineered mice to lack a gene, to find out what it did. Initially, someone got in trouble for not properly marking the modified mice (via holes in their ears). They later discovered the holes healed completely, including regenerating fur etc.
Unfortunately, it also makes recovery from larger wounds difficult, since without a scarring response they don’t close quickly.
I mean holes in ears healing and closing up is one thing, entire limbs regrowing is another, and we already know from salamanders and lizards that things can go wrong:
Who’s to say a regrown human arm won’t have similar issues, possibly even internal issues only humans would notice due to having opposable fingers.
Hofmaimaier
Dayroom7485
Draconic NEO