After becoming a self-made millionaire by the age of 19, Erik Finman, instead of going to college, decided to use his money for good. In 2018, Finman, at the request of a young boy, recreated the Doctor Octopus limbs from the Spider-Man comics and movies as a working prosthetic.
Erik Finman is known across internet circles as the world's youngest Bitcoin millionaire. In 2011, at age 12, he invested $1,000 in the cryptocurrency, earning himself 100 Bitcoin. As time went on, Finman was able to use his earnings to fund a different venture, in turn netting him even more of the currency. By 2017, the price of a single Bitcoin grew exponentially, and withholding of just over 400 Bitcoin, Finman was worth over $3 million by the age of 18. This was when he decided to use his money for good by recreating the Doctor Octopus limbs from Spider-Man as a workable prosthetic.
In a video posted to YouTube, thousands of viewers got to see what Finman has recently been using his money for: a real-life recreation of the mechanical arms used by the supervillain Doctor Octopus from the Spider-Man comic books and movies. Finman teamed up with a team of engineers to develop these arms, which have been creating using 3-D printed and are powered by a set of motors that allows the arms to lift lightweight objects. This suit, however, is not being made for himself, but for 11-year old Aristou Meehan, the son of one of Finman's mentors who is afflicted with hypermobility issues.
The suit was created so Meehan could simply control the four limbs using the middle fingers on each hand - connected via the gloves featured in the suit. Meehan initially brought the idea to Finman, in fact, with the belief that a prosthetic like this would help alleviate some of the problems he faces. As of now, Finman has stated that the arms are more or less a glorified tech demo but hopes that they could reach their true potential in the future, with more assistance and funding.
The possibilities of Finman's prosthetic limbs could be endless. While this seems like the beginning of the creation of a supervillain like so many in the YouTube comment section jokingly allude to, the technology used is not as sinister. It could open the door for many different types of prosthetic limbs that are a bit more practical space-wise. For Meehan, however, being a comic book fan, having this suit is a dream come true, and he loves to show it off. It also shows that technology featured in works of fiction like comic books or movies may not be too far off from the real world.
Source: YouTube