Definition of a cyborg

If you are one of those readers who are asking themselves "What is a cyborg?", you're not alone. Wikipedia has a pretty decent explanation. Wikipedia:Cyborg. But I don't expect everyone to read that article. So, for the sake of brevity, and to clarify the definition of the word "cyborg" as it pertains to this blog, I'm going to give you the quick and dirty answer. A cyborg is part man, part machine. There's a butt load of references in popular culture that, even if you aren't familiar with the term cyborg, have probably seen, or at least heard of.

• The Terminator
• Robo-Cop
• i, Robot
• Ghost in The Shell
• The Matrix
• Cyborg (duh!)
• Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader in Star Wars.

The list goes on!

Now you know what a cyborg is. The second thing you need to know is that: Cyborgs are real and are living amongst us. There are people who have been cyberized to varying degrees. We'll discuss them in more detail later. Here are some pictures:


Each of these individuals have one or more electromechanical devices that communicate with their brains via connections to the nervous system.

In practice, this allows them to do some very practical things. In theory, it allows all of us to do some very fantastic things.

Restoring sight to the blind, sound to the deaf, and lost limbs to amputees, is nothing short of miraculous, but we're only scratching the surface at this point.

In my next posts, I'll explore the different ways that these technologies can be utilized to augment humanity. After I have covered those bases, I'll get into the discussion of the ethical and philosophical issues of an augmented humanity.

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