Telechirics
Root: Greek tele- distant kheir- hand Telechirics is the technology of manipulatory devices and systems which operate at a distance from their controller, and which provide their user sensory feedback information. Telechirics is a branch of technology which is of particular interest to the investigation and exploration of environments naturally hostile to humans, as it allows for the “separation of the manipulatory system from the (hu)manned vehicle.”1 Telechiric robots are those which are used to carry out manipulatory work – they often have highly maneuverable “arms” or “hands”. Information about the environment of the system may be sent back to the human operator in the form of live video, audio, sonar and other sensory techniques. Communication between the device and its operator must be immediate and two-way; the devices’ operations are directly controlled by the human and not an artificial computer intelligence. John McHale points out the importance of telechiric systems to the exploration and creation of undersea space in his article “The Future of the Future: Inner Space”, published in 1967 in Architectural Design. Distinct from simpler remote-controlled surveillance machines, the versatile manipulative capabilities of the telechiric system extends the physical effective range of its human operator, a distant prosthetic. In a telchiric human-machine cyborg system, the machine can be so closely identifiable to the consciousness of its operator, it has been theorized as becoming their psychological alter ego (second self)2.