If looks could kill

Back in the 1970s, children - and secretly lots of grown-ups - were transported by the future portrayed in television's The Six Million Dollar Man adventure series.

- Jane Clifton

Catastrophically wounded in a Nasa test-flight accident, astronaut Steve Austin had his injuries magicked away and his ridiculous knitting pattern good looks restored by "bionics". "We have the technology. We can rebuild him," said Nasa. This fictional retrofit was somewhat over specified, resulting in a bionic Steve who could see further than a telescope, run faster than a cheetah and lift trucks as if they were made of paper.

Half a century on, we still don't "have the technology", life-enhancing as our spare parts and replacement medicine have become. Humans are not routinely upgraded with super powers - for all that they would surely and solemnly use them only in the service of law and order and the good of humankind as Steve did. We gratefully accept interventions to restore mobility, hearing and sight, and although these are constantly improving, they're not honing us into elite CIA recruitment material.