The Bionic Era Arrives

NBC's new Bionic Woman series (2007).

Gentlemen, we can rebuild him.  We have the technology.  An entire generation grew up with that opening line to the 1973-1978 TV series, The Six Million Dollar Man.  The series was based on Martin Caidin's 1970s' series of novels, starting with Cyborg (1972).  Caidin died in 1997, before the bionic era he popularized would come to pass.

Caidin's Cyborg (1972).

 NBC's new Bionic Woman series (2007)

Since 2007, bionics are again in the popular consciousness as tech improves and the needs of war amputees make bionic limbs a reality.  Christina Aguilera put out an album called Bionic in 2010, you can see one of the videos from it here.

Bionic eyes have been developing by leaps and bounds since around 2007.  In 2009, news reports indicated that a bionic eye made a blind woman see.  We've literally reached the age of miracles: the blind can see again.

Bionic eye trials (2007). Image Source: BBC.

'Bionic' contact lens on lab rabbit (2008).

 

First Australian prototype of advanced bionic eyes to allow the blind to see (2010).

This includes bionic prothetics, like the contact lens in the rabbit's eye above, or the bionic eye camera used by Gen Xer Canadian filmmaker Rob Spence.  Spence grew up watching the Six Million Dollar Man  and the Bionic Woman.  When he lost an eye, he decided to use a camera where his missing eye was to make his films.  See the Telegraph report on him, here.

Rob Spence, Eyeborg. Video Source: Telegraph.

Video Source: Youtube.

Video Source: Youtube.

Bionic hand (2007). Image Source: BBC.

Super realistic bionic hand (2007). Image Source: Wired.

i-LIMB bionic hand: the world's first commercially available bionic hand.  (2011). Image Source: Robotionary.

Bionic man meets bionic woman (2006).

 

Claudia Mitchell with her bionic arm (2006).

How Mitchell's arm works. Image Source: Immortal Humans.

Bionic limbs allow man to walk again (2007).

In 2010, reports came out that modern medicine is turning more and more focus on bionics technology.  This applies to veterinary science as well.

Storm, the world's first bionic dog (2007).

Storm and his bionic paw (2007). Video Source: Youtube.

What was science fiction only 35 years ago is now everyday reality. The sci-fi stories in the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman reached their pinnacle when they encountered pure robots that sought to destroy them. Only the hybrids of human and machine and animal and machine were considered heroic and accessible. The androids they fought were villainous and terrifying.

The legendary Six Million Dollar Man intro scene is here. The Bionic Woman intro is here. 

Birth of the Bionic Man, comics adamptation. Video Source: Youtube.

Six Million Dollar Man versus the Venus Death Probe. Video Source: Youtube.

Fembots and the Bionic Woman. Video Source: Youtube.

Fembots fight the Bionic Woman. Video Source: Youtube.

Fembots in Las Vegas. Video Source: Youtube.

Copyrights for all scenes from the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman remain with ABC and NBC and are reproduced here solely for the purpose of not-for-profit discussion and review.