Recently in Germany some researches have developed the Alpha IMS retinal prosthesis. This device basically allows the blind to see. It does so by both plugging into your eye, and into your brain via a tiny chip. This is an important breakthrough in technology, as instead of replacing the images your eye sees it instead utilizes the light sent through the eye and helps send it to your brain, allowing you to use your eyes as normal and truly see through them as opposed a camera. Though this fix is mostly aimed at those with macular generation and diabetic retinophathy, both of which cause the rods and cones in your eye in your retina to not generate the necessary signals, it raises hope that the other issues of blindness aren't far from a solution as well.
The sociological impact of this is far reaching and not just confined to one country or peoples. In life those who cannot see honestly don't have as much opportunity as those of us lucky enough to see. This fix will allow them to better rise through society and give them truly a better quality of life. Though not much has been said about the cost of such a procedure, as technology progresses this will become viable for more and more of those afflicted by blindness. Some day such things as "handicaps" may just be eliminated completely by technological advancements, which would impact society on a global scale.
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/149106-the-first-real-high-resolution-user-configurable-bionic-eye
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