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"If you turn away from the natural gifts that God has given you, or the universe has given you, you're going to grow old too soon."
- Ray Bradbury
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| Joeboy (Muscle Grafts) | ||
| Additional muscle tissue added through surgery. |
Surgical alteration is a repeated theme in this book. Others have facial grafts, unusual dentition and even selected melanin boosting.
| Case turned his head and looked up into Wage's face. It was a tanned and forgettable mask. The eyes were vatgrown sea-green Nikon transplants. Wage wore a suit of gunmetal silk and a simple bracelet of platinum on either wrist. He was flanked by his joeboys, nearly identical young men, their arms and shoulders bulging with grafted muscle. |
| From Neuromancer,
by William Gibson. Published by Phantasia Press in 1984 Additional resources -
|
Muscle grafts or transplants are used to repair damage to existing tissue. For example, in 2001 a seven year-old boy almost lost his leg in a car accident. The biggest problem was the damage to the muscle tissue.
Surgeons transplanted the latissimus dorsi, a muscle in the upper back which is not vital to everyday movement. The operation was successful; the boy plays soccer with friends today.
Of course, the heart is a muscle, and heart transplants are not quite routine, but the survival rate is getting better every year.
I'm not aware of this kind of surgery being done to enhance strength in an otherwise healthy person. But compared with body modification on the scale in Samuel R. Delany's Babel-17, this may not seem so extreme. See the entry for decorative implant.
(Thanks AJU for help on this one.)
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Tech news articles related to Neuromancer
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Joeboy (Muscle Grafts)-related
news articles:
- Bioengineered Muscle Grows In Mice
| MIT Ampli Blocks Build Biomedical Devices |
| Handheld Human Skin Printer |
| Retinal Prosthesis Uses Organic Printing Inks |
| New Brain Scanner Lets You Move Around |
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