Dezeen/YouTube
A mechanized extra thumb would fit right into our oncoming bizarro cyberpunk future.Dani Clode created a prototype of the Third Thumb for her graduate work at the Royal College of Art, as seen in this video from the design-focused website Dezeen. The bonus digit is powered by a motor worn on the wrist and controlled with Bluetooth-connected pressure sensors placed inside a shoe. The thumb itself is 3D-printed from flexible filament called Ninjaflex.Clode sees the future of prosthetics moving beyond health or accessibility aids and into the realm of extending our bodies' natural abilities with technology. "The origin of the word 'prosthesis' meant 'to add, put onto,' so not to fix or replace, but to extend," Clode wrote on her website. "The Third Thumb is inspired by this word origin, exploring human augmentation and aiming to reframe prosthetics as extensions of the body."Third thumb owners may someday join the guy who installed a camera in his eye socket and the man who installed a tattoo gun on his arm as augmented humans.Get six of our favorite Motherboard stories every day by signing up for our newsletter .