With the current on-going search for “tricks” or “solutions” to “solve” manual problems of ADL (activities of daily living), one very large unexamined domain is how to live life without a prosthetic arm on.

With a realistic estimate of at least 85% of potential prosthetic arm users not wearing a prosthetic arm, one might argue that prosthetic arms are not good – or, that over 85% of arm amputees cannot possibly be just THAT wrong.

After all, the search for one’s own prosthetic arm usually is a costly, cumbersome, time consuming and frustrating search in conjunction with a few other involved parties and these efforts, including a possible resulting increase in function, must outweigh the performance one gets without prosthetic arm on. Even then, a prosthetic arm lives longer the less often it is used, so wearing it restrictively extends its life span, and keeps repair efforts per month or year down. So, not wearing a prosthetic arm can be the a perfect choice even for those that have prosthetic arms for dedicated purposes.

Here is me cracking three eggs in perfect execution just with one hand, whereas two already in the pan and one being cracked in slow motion so you can see this. In fact I was just making a few eggs to eat and after I had just cracked two with the left hand, I realized that the rest of the world must believe that an arm amputee will certainly be lost and starve without at least 10 kg of “bionic” arm equipment on. So I took the camera to get this in slow motion.

To explain this more step-wise: I never thought about this, actually. Absent mindedly I just caught myself, while making scrambled eggs, realizing that not only do I just plough forward with this, that this is totally not an issue, but also, that this is a forgotten discourse of attempts to make better prosthetic arms.

So the question prosthetic arm research and development may have to ask: what do we add to a technically flawless single handed performance? Do we allow single handed performances at all – and if not: what are we truly afraid of? What really are we all after? How does any type of video or statistical analysis help us unless we start with better concepts, with better overall strategies, of where we come from, what we are really doing and from that, where we really want to go?

Because I somehow fear that the death cycle of prosthetic arms is raging on as we speak.