biological cybernetics for human prosthetics

Question

So in my book the main character loses his left arm (all the way to the shoulder) and is giving a prosthetic arm but I want the arm to be bio-cybernetic like I was thinking that the metal (can use non-metals like carbon) was organic or at least has organic compounds like blood flow, cells and a working Nervous system, the arm must be combat effective and can repair itself so what I'm asking is this

What is the best way to make this happen?

Examples I could think of are cell engineering like a hard prosthetic shell then the hosts cells would then be used to make it work Another is a living metal like element that is hard yet flexible and gets its mass from the host’s body much like our own body I know about the body’s habit of rejecting foreign body and don’t bother saying things like if they are so advanced why they don’t just build his old arm back (let’s just say the people working on him don’t like that)
Would like to hear from you all please make this unholy union between metal and flash come true

Answer 1

There are a couple of ways you can go when it comes to prosthetic limbs. The first is using actual biological material, such as 3-D printing new body parts with organic material (amazing tech by the way). However, it seems you want a more militarized version. So we go to option number two.

Carbon. It's what we're made of, and is completely organic. The body will eventually react with most metals, which will then degrade and have to be replaced within a few years. Carbon, however, is much tougher. Depending on how advanced your technology is, and I'm assuming it is quite advanced, your soon to be re-armed (bad pun) character could receive an arms that has a carbon nano-tube matrix with actual living tissue inside it, maybe even tissue cloned from his own body. The joints will be a little harder to work out. If muscle and nerve tissue can be grown then there you go, however why settle for boring human-level strength? Put a small electric motor in each joint that attaches to a compact, high energy density battery to give the arm super human speed and strength. This can also be used to add drama. What if the character runs out of battery power for his super arm in the middle of a fight? Finally, this carbon nano-tube arm will also allow to hide things like blades and spikes inside the arm itself. Graphene, which is another form of carbon, is one atom thick yet incredibly strong, and could be used to make nearly invisible blades that could cut through flesh like a hot knife through butter.

So to wrap it up, you would have a functional, super humanly strong and fast, nearly indestructible arm with hidden and nearly invisible blades inside it. Obviously this is way beyond current science but to my knowledge it is all fairly plausible.

Answer 2

Okay, so a friend of mine and I created this concept based off of research we read up on at 3AM one Saturday night, the idea has to do with Silicon based life forms. Science suggests that life can only exist in two forms: carbon-based (like us) or silicon-based (theoretical alien thing).

We brainstormed for weeks and eventually had a pretty cool concept. It had to do with silicon based cells and programmed DNA that allowed the cells to take care of themselves. The concept has some serious theoretical weight behind it. The outcome would be a functioning bio-mechanical mechanism that has adaptational abilities, self regenerating capabilities and all the while can be controlled with a hardwired computer.

The biggest issue was its compatibility with carbon organisms like with the idea you have with your book because instead of Oxygen and Carbon as the basic compounds it used Silicon and Sulphur. Maybe the character has to have special injections of the required compounds to maintain metabolism inside the arm or something a lot more subtle like change his diet.

There's a ton of flexibility... enjoy.

PS I love this idea so much; if you use it, just a little acknowledgement would feel great (in case you make millions on your book).

:)

Answer 3

Perhaps, if your warrior is fighting a non-homo-sapien foe, and if that foe has a history of savaging human weapons from the battlefield, the current human military has decided to bio-lock all of their infantry-carried equipment.

Bio-locked devices sample the DNA and life-signs of the hands which control them and only work for the specific species which they have been trained to serve.

Your warrior's prosthetic arm might therefore host a natural human hand at the end. Within the metallic and plastic limb would therefore need to have human veins, arteries and lymphatic structures channeled through its artificial components from the host's body to the hand.

Answer 4

If your story takes place in the future, the technology may be available to just have a 3D printer use biological material, cloned directly from your character, to print off a new arm. This is just taking existing technology to the next level. Nothing magical.

Your story could even have the technology improve on the printed body part by making it "better, faster, stronger" (see what I did there?) so its as hard as machinery. Maybe the more BFS it is the more it looks mechanical.