Opening
In a world where technology increasingly merges with the rhythms of everyday life, some stories catch our attention not because they rewrite what’s possible but because they remind us how human resilience and innovation intertwine. A British woman’s description of herself as “80 percent human and 20 percent robot” — born from her experience with an advanced bionic arm — sits in that gentle space between metaphor and lived reality. At first glance it reads like a line from science fiction; yet, tucked inside it are real advances in prosthetics, artificial intelligence, and the way people adapt after life-altering injury.
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The woman at the heart of this story, Sarah de Lagarde, lost her right arm and leg in a severe London accident in 2022. What followed was a long process of recovery — one that ultimately brought her into contact with a state-of-the-art bionic prosthetic arm designed to interpret her muscle signals and assist movement more naturally than traditional prosthetics.
De Lagarde has spoken publicly about how the device “reads” signals from her residual muscles, using artificial intelligence and sophisticated software to anticipate what motion she intends and make it happen. To her, this capability feels so integrated that she playfully describes herself as partly robotic.
Her description of being “20 percent robot” is not a literal scientific measurement, but rather a personal way of expressing how much the technology now helps her move, communicate and reclaim aspects of daily life she thought were lost. The arm’s sensors and software learn from repeated actions, smooth familiar movements and support tasks ranging from hugging loved ones to everyday tasks most of us take for granted.
These kinds of myoelectric and AI-assisted prosthetics are part of a broader field of medical technology that aims to bring more natural control and feedback to people living with limb loss, building on decades of engineering and neuroscience research. They don’t turn people into literal robots, but they do extend capabilities in ways that can feel profoundly transformative.
Closing
As conversations about human-technology boundaries continue to evolve, stories like de Lagarde’s highlight a very human core: the ways we use tools to regain autonomy, connection and possibility after trauma. There are no sweeping claims of literal cyborg conversion here — only a testament to how modern prosthetics can enhance life, and how individuals frame their experience in the language that resonates with them. Technology evolves; so too does our language and imagination in describing what it feels like to live with it.
AI Image Disclaimer
Visuals are AI-generated and intended for representation, not reality.
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Sources
1. Supercar Blondie (news report) 2. Filmogaz (news report) 3. LBC news (earlier coverage)