Summary & Study Guide - The Body Builders: Inside the Science of the Engineered Human

By Lee Tang

Science Fiction Becomes Reality

This book is a summary of “The Body Builder: Inside the Science of the Engineered Human,” by Adam Piore.

This book explores the science which can be used to reverse engineer, rebuild, augment, and enhance the human body and mind:

• The bionic man who builds bionic people.
• The scientists who decode the genome and rewrite it.
• People who have regrown parts of their fingers and legs.
• A blind woman who can see with her ears.
• Soldiers with spidey sense.
• Doctors are trying to give mute patients the ability to communicate telepathically.
• The race to create “Viagra for the brain.”
• Neurosurgeons are trying to fix the circuits in your brain.
• Scientists are trying to augment human brains with creativity.

Read this book and you’ll have a lot of talk about many of the topics in this book.

This guide includes:
* Book Summary—helps you understand the key concepts.
* Online Videos—cover the concepts in more depth.

Value-added from this guide:
* Save time
* Understand key concepts
* Expand your knowledge

• Language: English
• Publisher: LMT Press
• Release date: Oct 13, 2017
• ISBN: 9780995943186

Lee Tang

Lee Tang is a retired executive of a major global insurance company. Prior to his retirement, he has worked as an actuary, a risk officer and a chief financial officer for several major insurance organizations in the United States, Canada, and Taiwan. To learn more about Lee and his work, visit his website and blog at https://lmtpress.wordpress.com. You can reach him by email at [e-mail].

Book preview

Science Fiction Becomes Reality

This book is a summary of The Body Builder: Inside the Science of the Engineered Human, by Adam Piore.

This book explores the science which can be used to reverse engineer, rebuild, augment, and enhance the human body and mind:

The bionic man who builds bionic people.

The scientists who decode the genome and rewrite it.

People who have regrown parts of their fingers and legs.

A blind woman who can see with her ears.

Soldiers with spidey sense.

Doctors are trying to give mute patients the ability to communicate telepathically.

The race to create Viagra for the brain.

Neurosurgeons are trying to fix the circuits in your brain.

Scientists are trying to augment human brains with creativity.

Read this book and you’ll have a lot of talk about many of the topics in this book.

This guide includes:

Book Summary—helps you understand the key concepts.

Online Videos—cover the concepts in more depth.

Value-added from this guide:

Save time

Understand key concepts

Expand your knowledge

Important Note About This Guide

This guide is a summary and not a critique/review of the book. The summary may not be organized chapter-wise but summarizes the book’s main ideas, viewpoints, and arguments. It is NOT meant to be a replacement, but a supplement to help you understand the book’s key ideas and recommendations.

Title: Summary & Study Guide - The Body Builders

Subtitle: Inside the Science of the Engineered Human

Author: Lee Tang

Publisher: LMT Press (lmtpress.wordpress.com)

Copyright © 2017 by Lee Tang

All rights reserved. Aside from brief quotations for media coverage and reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced or distributed in any form without the author’s permission. Thank you for supporting authors and a diverse, creative culture by purchasing this book and complying with copyright laws.

First Edition: September 2017

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 9780995943186 (ebook)

ISBN 9781976076442 (paperback)

ISBN 9781987063530 (paperback)

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: The publisher and author make no representations or warranties regarding the accuracy or completeness of these contents and disclaim all warranties such as warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. The website addresses in the book were correct at the time going to print. However, the publisher and author are not responsible for the content of third-party websites, which are subject to change.

To my wife, Lillian, who is the source of energy and love for everything I do, and to Andrew and Amanda: watching you grow up has been a privilege.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Part I: Moving

1. The Bionic Man Who Builds Bionic People: Replicating the Way We Move

2. The Birth of Bamm-Bamm: Decoding the Genome and Rewriting It

3. The Man with the Pixie Dust: Regenerative Medicine and the Quest to Regrow Limbs

Part II: Sensing

4. The Woman Who Can See with Her Ears: Neuroplasticity and Learning Pills

5. Soldiers with Spidey Sense: Intuition and Implicit Learning

6. The Telepathy Technician: Decoding the Brain and Imagined Speech

Part III: Thinking

7. The Boy Who Remembers Everything: Viagra for the Brain

8. The Surgeon Conducting the Symphony: DBS and the Power of Electricity

9. Sudden Savants: Unleashing the Inner Muse

Index

About the Author

Part I

Moving

Chapter 1

The Bionic Man Who Builds Bionic People

Replicating the Way We Move

Biophysicist

Hugh Herr was a climbing prodigy who started climbing when he was seven. He conquered Super Crack—the hardest climb in the Northeast—when he was seventeen. No wonder people called him The Boy Wonder.

In January 1982, Herr set out with his partner, Jeff Batzer, to ascend Mt. Washington in New Hampshire. They were 1,100 feet below the summit when the weather shifted. They became disoriented during a blizzard. A one-day excursion turned into a three-day ordeal. They both suffered hypothermia and frostbite when the rescuers found them. Doctors had to amputate both of Herr’s legs below the knee.

Herr’s first prosthetic legs were stiff and uncomfortable. He tweaked them to climb walls. By the summer of 1982, he was rock climbing again with the new prostheses.

But even with his new design, Herr’s prostheses caused painful chafing as he walked, because the prostheses lacked the natural cushioning provided by the tendons of the ankles and feet. So Herr decided to make a leg that wouldn’t hurt so much. Batzer introduced him to a prosthetist named Barry Gosthnian, who agreed to help. That fall, Herr enrolled at Millersville University. By the time he graduated, Herr shared a patent with Gosthnian for a cushioned socket with inflatable bladders to cut down on the painful chafing caused by the prostheses. After graduation, Herr pursued a master’s degree in mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

***

YOU CAN LOOK

at the human body as a simple pulley system, like the system we used to move a marionette. The bones give the body shape while the muscles and tendons are the pulleys and strings that move the bones. The ligaments and tendons hold it all together. The bones, joints, tendons, and muscles move in concert to generate, store and release the energy we need to move, walk, run, and carry heavy objects.

For centuries, the Romans had