Think about it: We’re all essentially weak meatbags. But as technology progresses, more people are turning into human cyborgs to combat debilitating diseases (though some people argue that most of us are already technically cyborgs).

Take, for example, the wife of Reddit user lukaro. She suffered from corneal scarring in her eyes, which made her legally blind in the United States. That is, until she got a prosthetic cornea (shown in the main image).

Lukaro originally shared her photo in the Reddit Pics community (which was recently resurfaced in a new thread).

He described the implant:

Remind you of anything?

That’s LeVar Burton’s character in Star Trek after he received an eye implant. The future is now!

Here’s how the cornea works:

The cornea is the clear, outermost lens of your eye. Think of a camera lens—it functions in a similar way. When your cornea becomes cloudy (because of an accident or virus like herpes, for example), light can’t enter your eye, making it difficult to see clearly.

You need cornea implants when this happens (which scientists have known about for a long time). In fact, the first known human cornea implant was performed all the way back in 1855 (though it might even go as far back as the French Revolution. Eek!)

The procedure that lukaro’s wife underwent—using an implant called the Boston KPro—is relatively new. Part of the implant is made from titanium, according to a study in Harvard’s Digital Journal of Ophthalmology.

In 2002, only 50 people in the world got this surgery. More recently, more than 4,500 people had this procedure done (with a very high success rate), according to ophthalmologists.

In fact, the uncle of Reddit user bjbark recently underwent corneal transplant surgery and the user was inspired to share a picture of his uncle’s eye in the post:

This isn’t the same surgery as getting a retinal eye implant or “bionic eye.” Check out this video by the University of Washington, which shows us what the world looks like after a retinal eye implant:

What’s even more amazing is that one man even has a prosthetic eye with a camera built in it, recording everything he sees. According to his website:

“The Eyeborg Project began when one-eyed filmmaker, Rob Spence decided he wanted a prosthetic eye with a video camera in it. Ocularist Phil Bowen was the first on board who designed a two part prosthetic eye shell that could house electronics. Next came Kosta Grammatis, a multi-talented engineer who designed and executed the world’s first wireless camera inside a prosthetic eye…on Rob’s kitchen table.”

We live in an amazing time!