Elgan: Don't Look Now, but You're a Cyborg

The cyborg, or cybernetic organism–part human, part machine–is a staple of science fiction, from “Star Trek” to “The Six Million Dollar Man” to “RoboCop” to “The Terminator.” These pop culture cyborgs usually involve robotic machinery to enhance physical capabilities rather than mental ones because that’s more visual, more entertaining and easier for the general public to understand.

And, of course, such physically enhanced cyborgs exist in real life. Oscar Pistorius, a runner with two artificial legs, was disqualified from competing in last year’s Olympics because his man-made limbs gave him an unfair advantage.

Current research in prosthetic limbs is aiming for artificial arms, hands and legs that are directly controlled by the wearer’s thoughts.

But the term cyborg, coined in 1960 by Manfred Clynes and Nathan Kline, originally envisioned either the human mind enhanced by machines, or the use of human minds to control or direct machines.

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