The Body Builders: Inside the Science of the Engineered Human Paperback – February 13, 2018

I had a special interest in Chapter 4 of this book, titled "The woman who can see with her ears", because I have been personally deeply involved in Pat Fletcher's quest to regain a form of sight after being totally blind for many years. So it was the first chapter I read after receiving the book. Adam Piore does an excellent job of describing Pat Fletcher's use of technology - known as "The vOICe" - that encodes the live view of a camera in the form of soundscapes. These soundscapes by design preserve much of the visual content and thus enable blind people to "see" (with or without the quotes remains a point of ongoing debate). Human brain plasticity combined with a consistent mapping from images to sounds caused the visual areas in Pat Fletcher's brain to be recruited for processing soundscapes with visual content, as demonstrated by brain scanning and transcranial magnetic stimulation experiments at Harvard Medical School. Piore's account of the string of events and emotional reactions is both accurate and compelling, and inspiring to blind users and scientists alike to try and further push the limits of sensory substitution and sensory augmentation, aiming to make best use of human brain plasticity - and not only with blindness. As with cochlear implants, training is key, and it can take several months of daily use before the human brain starts to really accommodate and appreciate remapped sensory inputs.Peter Meijer

What a fascinating read! I could not put it down. It’s a celebraron of human resilience and ingenuity. There were so many discoveries described in the book that made my jaw drop. It’s sad that these amazing breakthroughs went under the radar, while we were focusing on bad and depressing news. This book uncovers the potential of human bodies, the natural curiosity and lust for discoveries. Whether enhancing human bodies (and not just rehabilitating) will prove a good thing is questionable, but either way this book is a fascinating read! It is packed with mind boggling facts and it’s very beautifully written. Highly recommend

This is almost a fantastic book. It seemed to linger rather long in some areas, particularly relating to scientific experiments, but otherwise introduces the lay reader to glorious possibilities concerning biotechnology and biomedical engineering. Highly recommended.

Have you ever wondered why there are certain events that you can easily recall in vivid detail even though they occurred years ago? We all remember where we were when the Twin Towers were struck on 9-11-2001, and if you are of a "certain age" you know exactly how you felt the day JFK was shot. Adam Piore explains why and how our brains retain memories that are meaningful for us. Through his meticulous research and interviews with doctors, patients, and scientists he manages to explain complex scientific research in a way that a layman can grasp. He does this with a dry wit that makes the book entertaining as well as educational. I loved it.

The idea for this book was excellent, the execution maybe less so. If you enjoy detailed human interest stories you will like the book. I need a lean, efficient way to get at the facts, because I have a huge pile of reading to do, so this was not for me, I wish I had realized it was creative nonfiction. Also the book calls for some images, there were none. I read only perhaps a third, and saw no glaring inaccuracies except one that I hope was a typo: he speaks of certain biological processes in humans, that were honed over millennia of evolution - hopefully he is not implying the young earth theory that humans were created 6000 years ago.

I enjoyed the writer's use of humor and creative perspective while explaining use of technology to empower humans with abilities taken from them. The research into the cases is thorough and personal. I felt a connection to, an understanding of the people and the science that broke through limitations.I use cases and quotes from this book in my biology class. It engaged my students and harnessed the power of 3D instruction. Students liked the readings that reinforced content. They posted questions and brainstormed engineering ideas.

Fascinating look at the future and one provides a positive view of the future. Personally, I am convinced a robot is going to take my job, but if there are compensations in the form increased quality of life, then it makes the future a little less scary. I was a kid in the 70's when the bionic man - Steve Austin captured the imaginations of young boys. 30 years later, those crazy ideas are now a budding reality as Piore so brilliantly documents. THis book will blow your mind. Great stuff.

Awesome book for those who study the patterns of successful people. Only 4 stars because it isn't quite as readable as some other books of its ilk, but still a solid read with excellent information that isn't found in other places.

The book is great

I bought the book because I heard a podcast interview with the author and it seemed interesting - it did not disappoint.