“In this beautifully written study, Middleton offers a vivid account of experimental limb replacement. An empathetic guide, she tacks expertly between a Swedish bioengineering lab and the quotidian, home-based lives of half a dozen extraordinary patients who have survived traumatically severe limb injury and loss. <i>The Connector</i> proffers a superb melding of ethnographic and STS skill, insight, compassion, and wisdom.”—Lesley A. Sharp, Barbara C. And Helen C. Josefsberg '30 Professor of Anthropology, Barnard College, Columbia University<br /><br />“<i>The Connector</i> is an ethnographic masterpiece. Middleton’s bold rethinking of brain-science enigmas forges revelatory connections among the injured, neuro-prosthetics, and the intimate frontiers of human-machine life at home.”—Adriana Petryna, author of, <i>Horizon Work: At the Edges of Knowledge in an Age of Runaway Climate Change</i>
Introduction 1
Part I. Producing and Sustaining a Connector
1. Domestic Lived Science 21
2. Experimental Labor 49
3. The Fourth Bottleneck 77
Interlude 1. Limited Edition 99
Part II. Living and Dwelling with a Connector
4. Phantom Signals 107
5. Reverse-Engineering Touch 151
6. Sense Making; Meaning Making 151
Interlude 2. Lunar Thai 171
7. Flickering Embodiments 175
8. Breakdown 207
Conclusion 225
Epilogue 235
Acknowledgments 237
Notes 243
References 249
Index 267