Fusion

Most people today believe that cyborgs, humans with physical, mechanical augments, are nothing more than a work of fantasy; to be put on the same shelf as fairies and laser wielding aliens. They've become the centerpieces of fantasy books and video games, which strengthens the illusion that cyborgs belong in a realm far-far away. However if you take a good look around you you might just see one.

Nowadays, the term "cyborg" takes on a slightly different meaning than a half-man, half-machine hybrid; instead if is more often used to describe a person who uses a mechanical device to assist them in everyday life, usually to correct some sort of physical defect or injury. For example, there are several types of machine aids to restore sight to people with varying degrees of blindness. One model which is already in use allows a person to "see" colors by converting color into sounds. There are planned models that look similar to glasses that link up to electrodes that are made to link into the nerves behind the eyes, and, while untested, are supposed to be able to restore sight to people with damaged eyes.

Of course the physical aids don't stop at visual aids. There are several kinds of machines made to help people with impaired or missing limbs. One example is a "powered exoskeleton" that assists people with disabled limbs to walk- using electrodes placed around various parts of the body. For those without limbs, there are robotic replacement legs that read signals from the bottom of a functioning foot and use that data to predict the movement the missing leg should have taken- once again allowing the equipped person to walk. Other aids have been made to replace missing arms; the device hangs off the user's shoulders and, through a set of electrodes in the shoulder piece, can be controlled by the user to emulate a pair of human arms.

However, believing that this kind of technology is only used to aid the injured would be foolish. As far back as 1998, test were being conducted for "Project Cyborg" wherein a perfectly normal human was outfitted with some sort of physical augment. The project began with a simple test- the subject had a radio transmitter placed beneath his skin to see if the signal could be used to turn on household electronics as the subject drew near. In 2002, the project went a step further- the subject had an electrode array implanted in his arm. The array was then used to control a robotic hand over the internet. The test was successful; the subject was able to make the robot move as if it was his own hand, and even was able to receive sensory input from sensors placed in the robot's fingers.

This array was also used in an attempt to further extend the subject's physical senses. The user was able to set up an ultrasonic sensor array on a baseball cap and was able to use it as a form of extrasensory input. Furthermore, the subject's wife volunteered to have a simpler array placed inside her arm; both the subject and his wife's arrays were linked up via the internet and was used to pass simple nerve pulses between the two, resulting in a very basic form of telepathy. The main concern with these experiments was that the electrode arrays would damage the nervous system with it's inputs, but later examination revealed that not only was the nervous system not damaged by the array, but the nerve tissue grew around the array, enclosing the sensor.

The implications of these experiments is astounding; is is completely possible that modern people could have similar arrays implanted in themselves, but this raises a grave question; should they? There are several benefits of these kinds of augments; first and foremost that this "cyborg technology" can be used to compensate for injuries or birth defects. Furthermore, this kind of technology could be used to allow people to operate machinery from very far away, which could be very helpful to several professions, like surgeons. However, it is possible that these augments could be used against you. An electrode, if set up incorrectly could cause irreparable damage to the nervous system, and having a telepathic link to the internet opens up the terrifying possibility of literally having your brain hacked. There are also other questions: is there some kind of dignity to being purely human? Is it immoral to mutilate one's body, replacing the parts with stronger machines? Could this technology have further implications that cannot, as of yet, be predicted? I would say it is for the future to decide, but the technology is already available; we may not even be allowed the comfort of letting a future generations decide for us.