SHOULD PEOPLE BECOME CYBORGS?

IN THE MARVEL COMICS AND MOVIES, billionaire Tony Stark dons a red and gold suit and becomes Iron Man.

The suit provides superhuman strength, protection against most attacks, the power of flight, and much more.

Iron Man is just a story. But robotic suits are not. Engineers call them exoskeletons. They don’t look as flashy as Tony Stark’s suits. They typically look like a backpack attached to a harness. But they have changed the lives of many people with injuries or illnesses that affect movement. A disease had paralyzed Stacey Kozel from the waist down. But in 2016, she used an exoskeleton to hike the Appalachian Trail. Also, people who do tiring or repetitive jobs, like moving heavy boxes in a warehouse, sometimes use exoskeletons to lessen the load.