The Six Million Dollar Man

[uberalan]

Long before metal fused with living flesh in the Terminator, Battlestar Gallectica's Cylons or Star Trek's Borg there was a cyborg created by fusing metal with flesh and bone in the 1970's TV series the Six Million Dollar Man. 

If that was before your time or deleted from your memory banks, the TV show was about exploits of Astronaut Colonel Steve Austin, whose body was destroyed in the crash of the NASA LH-10 lifting body.  A secret government agency, Office of Scientific Intelligence (OSI), decides to rebuild him, spending a whopping six million dollars to retrofit him with two bionic legs, a bionic arm, a bionic eye and bionic ear.  Col. Austin's bionic components give him incredible powers and he  is employed as a secret weapon, managed by Oscar Goldman of the OSI, in the battle of good vs evil and TV network Nielsen ratings.

Each show began with a preamble recounting how Steve Austin became the six million dollar man.  The sound track of Oscar Goldman speaking went something like: "Steve Austin, astronaut. A man barely alive. Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to build the world's first bionic man. Steve Austin will be that man. Better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster."

As I searched for an avatar to dress up my posts (Bionic already had chosen the Cylon Centurion) I thought about this 1970 TV series.  What was corny science fiction 30 years ago has now become main stream technology. Although I admit the cost were understated given the cost of medical care today. If the series were to be created in 2009, it would more accurately be titled The Six Billion Dollar Man.

I chose the user name UberAlan with the idea that with hip resurfacing I am becoming a better Alan than the original arthritic one.  So to go along this theme, I have adopted the Six Million Dollar Man as my avatar.  Literally Dr. Gross will use this technology of fusing titanium coated, cobalt-chrome steel alloy with my bones and "make me better than before."

As I was "Googling" around, I found this article written along this same theme.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/137109.php

With only two Biomet Mangnum/Recap hip joints, I fall well short of the full components list (Thank God) needed to be a Six Million Dollar Man, but certain most bilateral surface hippies qualify for the title of the Fifty Thousand Dollar Man or Woman.