Elder-Assist Robotic Suits, From the Real Cyberdyne

Tasha26 writes "No, not the one which will end up building terminator robots. BBC's Click brings news of a Japanese company, Cyberdyne, which is in the process of building different robotic suits to assist the elderly in accomplishing simple body tasks such as walking and lifting. Even though still in R&D, this video (@3m15s) shows a pretty promising future for the elderly."

Comments

I love robotics, but so much biochem hate...

[Talisman]

I have nothing against advancing robotics, whatsoever.

But, many of the problems with the elderly being physically infirm can be treated with steroids. Society has this bizarre view of steroids of being a horrible drug causing anything from cancer to rage to psychotic episodes. The DEA has it listed as a Schedule III drug, which carries a worse fine for possession than Xanax, Rohypnol, Valium and Halcion. Anabolic steroids are on the same DEA classification as LSD. From a legal standpoint, they view as equal what is essentially a drug that increases the rate at which proteins fold to the most powerful hallucinogen known to man.

Give the elderly steroids, and let their doctors monitor them. Keep going with robotics, but steroids are here now.

If you're curious where your drug of choice lands on the DEA schedule, here's a link:

http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/scheduling.html