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Flash Forward

Enter the Exos

Flash Forward

Flash Forward Presents

Science

4.81.6K Ratings

🗓️ 8 May 2018

⏱️ 50 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This episode we talk exoskeletons: what are they being used for now? What might they be used for in the future? And what happens when they’re everywhere? Guests: Tim Pote, PhD student at Virginia Tech Greg Pote, Tim’s brother Dr. Bill Marras, professor at The Ohio State University & Director of the Spine Research Institute Larry Jasinksi, CEO, Rewalk Ashley Shew, assistant professor at Virginia Tech in technology & disability, and author of Animal Constructions and Technological Knoweldge Kim Sauder, graduate student in Disability Studies, author of Crippled Scholar blog Bill Peace, anthropologist & bioethicist, author of Bad Cripple blog Further Reading: The robotic exoskeleton market is poised to grow to $1.9 billion in 2025, compared to $97 million in 2016, says ABI Research's Dan Kara. Berkeley BLEEX Exoskeleton Exoskeletons Won’t Turn Assembly Workers into Iron Man We Try a New Exoskeleton for Construction Workers The Exoskeletons Are Coming ReWalk Testimonials For heavy lifting, use exoskeletons with caution Biomechanical evaluation of exoskeleton use on loading of the lumbar spine Exoskeletons for industrial application and their potential effects on physical work load The effects of a passive exoskeleton on muscle activity, discomfort and endurance time in forward bending work. The Exoskeleton’s Hidden Burden Walking is Over Rated The Obsession With Walking Exoskeletons as a Social Problem You Cannot Kill a Bad Idea: The Exoskeleton Lives ReWalk: A Plea for Common Sense Flash Forward is produced by me, Rose Eveleth. The intro music is by Asura and the outtro music is by Hussalonia. The voice of the future historian from the intro was by Sarah Werner. The episode art is by Matt Lubchansky. For more about the show or this episode go HERE. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello and I'm your host. Flash forward is a show about the future.

0:08.0

Hello and welcome to Flash Forward. I'm Rose and I'm your host. Flash forward is a show about the future.

0:15.0

Every episode we take on a specific possible or not so possible future scenario.

0:21.0

We always start with a little field trip to the future to check out what's going on, and then we

0:26.0

teleport back to today to talk to experts about how that world that we just heard might really go down.

0:32.3

Got it? Great. just heard might really go down.

0:33.0

Got it? Great.

0:35.0

This episode we're starting in the year 2085. I'm here.

0:43.0

here. Hi, thanks so much to the Art History Department here for having me.

1:00.0

So looking out at the audience today, I'm going to guess that most of you have never actually seen one of these in the wild.

1:08.0

I know it's probably hard to imagine that people used to wear these, right?

1:13.7

So how many of you are wearing something powered today?

1:16.8

Maybe a show of hands?

1:18.9

Yeah, and of course, I'd never know.

1:21.4

So today I want to talk to you about how the rise empowered clothing changed

1:26.1

the dance industry. But let's start with a little bit of history. So we could start our

1:32.0

story a lot earlier than this, but for simplicity's sake, let's begin on January 28th, 1890.

1:40.0

That's the date on which a Russian inventor named Nicholas Jan got the patent for a powered exoskeleton.

1:47.0

He didn't call it that, though. His patent was called an apparatus for facilitating walking.

1:53.0

And you can see that here.

1:55.0

I know, isn't that beard amazing?

1:59.0

But so Yahn designed this thing for soldiers in the Russian army.

...

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