Last August I had a practically miraculous eye surgery to replace my super-myopic natural lenses with bionic ones. I went from being blind as a bat (that is, about -16 dioptres) to eagle vision. Then, last week, at a routine checkup, the opthamologist told me there was a bit of filming at the back of my left eye and I should come in for surgical evaluation.

This morning I went in to get my eyes dilated for a proper look-see. The surgeon who did the original surgery said, “Oh, yep, you’ve got a PCO. Want me to take care of it right now?” That is, I had posterior capsule opacity, which happens about 20% of the time after lens replacement, and she could do an Nd: YAG laser capsulotomy.

It was very cool (apart from the dilation; I look like an owl as I type this). I sat in a chair and she shot lasers in my eye to punch holes through the film along the axis of vision. Each shot flared brilliant red and made a  high-energy cracking sound. Just like an old arcade video game. Then she offered to shoot down the giant floater I’d got from the vitreous separation I had in autumn. And so she did. No masks or gowns or gloves, just a couple of drops in my eye, a video game, and wearing sunglasses for a few hours.

It’s pretty amazing to live in the future.