What does the future of human bodies look like? Viktoria Modesta, a bionic artist, model, singer, innovator and Future Fellow at Georgetown’s Evermay, spoke with “Enable: The Disability Podcast” about how human augmentation can help people achieve more, prosthetics as art, and the potential of AI in new developments for people with disabilities.

“Human augmentation is the ability to extend human capacity beyond biological limits. So some of the helpful examples that I like to think about is the way that a prosthetic or a spacesuit is a type of technology that transforms what we can do,” said Viktoria, who underwent a below-the-knee amputation of her left leg at age 20 after a severe birth injury and multiple surgeries.

“For the first time in history, we’re able to manipulate our biological destiny,” she added. “In my earlier life, back in Latvia, there was still an echo of eugenics, which is really the primary way of how we think about when we think about augmenting biology. But the big shift that’s happening now is that the power is going back to the people and individuals all around the world are thinking about what are the ways that they’re going to address their physical and mental capacity. And it’s much more than just a physical shift as well, you know, because this is a way where sci-fi reality is kind of becoming real.”

For more about Viktoria Modesta, visit https://viktoriamodesta.com/ or follow @viktoriamodesta on social media.

Learn more about Evermay at https://evermay.org/ 

“Enable: The Disability Podcast,” which highlights amazing people with disabilities and different abilities, releases new episodes weekly on YouTube and all major podcast platforms.

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Note: Views expressed in this podcast do not necessarily reflect the views of Advance Local.

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