Friday, January 14, 2011

Assimilation

Find myself watching a classic Japanese animation tonight.
"Ghost in the Shell 2 Innocence"
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0347246/

And I got to thinking about what has just happened to me over the past few months.

I've had a heart murmur all of my life.  Anytime a Doctor, Medic or Nurse would listen
to my heart they'd always pause, look at me and ask, "you've got a heart murmur.  Did
you know that?" 
I'd tell them I knew and that it was never a problem.
It really wasn't.  I played a lot of sports as a kid and young adult.
Always running around.  Never turned down any outdoor game. 
Then after a "routine" physical 3 months ago I found out that my heart was about to
blow out and that it wasn't 5 to 10 years before I had to have it fixed.  It was ASAP.
Because no one wanted to guess just how much time I had left.  I was told that waiting much more then
a few months wouldn't be wise.

So, what does Ghost in the Shell and a St Jude aortic heart valve have in common. 
I've become part mechanical and in Ghost in the Shell cyborgs are the norm in society.

I'm not the first nor the last to have a mechanical body part put in and hopefully there will be more
advances in this field.  My wife needs her knees replaced and yet the mechanical knees out there
right now will not last long enough for her to have only one set replaced.

There are folks out there who are against prostheses.  And, yet the world is heading in that direction.
I'm sure that if I did not have the aortic valve replaced I'd be heading to a sudden and violent death.

Driving truck and having the left ventricle burst due to over pressure is not something to joke about.

Please, let's not stop research and development on mechanical body parts.  My new valve
will out last me. 

You know what is weird.  I was given a card with the serial and model number for my valve.
Heh, way cool.
Yeah, I know I've been tagged to a number now.  But, really folks, we all voluntarily
carry around identifiers right now.  Unless you're not using a cell phone, driving a car, watching
tv or on an electrical grid.  I can give more examples.

okay, I just found it weird that I had an urge to watch cyborg movies
shortly after I've been assimilated...lol

Resistance is  futile. 
;)
Walt  


Posted via email from heydriver's posterous

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe when you get back on the road, you can start going by the handle "Cyborg Trucker"

Randy Noseworthy said...

You're the $6,000 man! :)