# Cyborgs.



## NatP303 (Aug 20, 2011)

I'm wondering what peoples thoughts are on Cyborgs so if anyone could anwser these questions for me that would be great.

What is the difference between a human and a cyborg?

Is there some point where you stop being considered human?

If you are no longer considered human what rights do you have?

How far do you think people would go with replacing their bodies with cybernetics?

Would it be a fad or a more permenant thing?

When would people stop seeing cybernetics as only a medical necessity?

How would the millatary use cybernetics?

How would religeious groups react to non-medical related cybernetics?

Thank you for anwsering these questions if you think of any i haven't asked please feel free to leave a comment.


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## Stephen Palmer (Aug 20, 2011)

Check out Pohl's _Man Plus_ for answers to these questions!


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## chrispenycate (Aug 21, 2011)

A cybernetic organism (not necessarily originally human; there are numerous 'uplifted' species in SF, particularly dolphins,  with electromechanical augmentation) is one certain of whose functions have been replaced/improved by artificial equivalents. Thus an amputee with a replacement limb (at least, a reasonably sophisticated one; I don't see a pirate's hook or peg-leg getting him so classified) is a low level cyborg already, while a six-billion dollar man or a Robocop is more like what people are likely to visualise; the replacement parts being more effective than the originals.

The curve goes on, getting more and more synthetics and fewer biological components, with the ship that sang and daleks. Generally, the brain should be organic to stop the character being classed as a robot, but several of the rebuilt infantrymen with weapons systems in all four arms and built in jetpacks have serious implant brain increase, too, with built in targeting, GPS and probably an oven timer that goes "ding" when conditions are optimal.   

People's ability for self mutilation can go to (to me) incredible lengths, and reversibility is not always an important factor. But it could even happen that certain professions were not open to anyone without implanted interfaces. even without going this far, if some game controller required surgical implantation, and gave a new level of control, there would be hundreds queuing at the doors of clinics within hours of the declaration of the release.

Religious groups? Some (including the ones who haven't yet accepted the use of ungodly anaesthetics) would immediately decry them as works of the adversary; others would be fascinated by the taste of heaven available by stimulating the pleasure centre, and attempt to take control of the technology. There might even be a few who wout declare mechanical augmentation as mankind's manifest destiny (there would certainly be a few who would be against the medical ones, bringing sight to the blind, motion to the lame and life extended beyond what the Lord had intended. You can't just ignore them; they are, however misguidedly, willing to kill to prove their position right).


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## old wallie (Aug 23, 2011)

I agree, "Man Plus" tackles most of these questions.  We are slowly becoming cyborgs.  As we add pacemakers, artificial limbs, and other implants we are becoming more cyborged.  I think that the ultimate cyborg is a human brain in a artificial body.  We will only develop reservations long after the issue is commonplace.  

I think the next big development will be an implanted phone that is done like a piercing salon.  Just walk in and get a phone installed.


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## Stephen Palmer (Aug 23, 2011)

what happens when you need to upgrade...?


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## Vince W (Sep 13, 2011)

The real question is what OS will you run? Can you imagine the first cyborg OSes? It would give the BSOD a whole new meaning.


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## TheTomG (Sep 14, 2011)

Yup, there are glimpses of cyborgism already in society. So far it is mostly positive, enabling people to exceed limitations imposed upon them by disease or birth, such as replacing missing digits or limbs, or even artificial eyes.

Then there is the decidedly Borg-like vision of a person with a glowing blue "implant" behind their ear, chatting away to no-one at all. Bluetooth headsets definitely put me in mind of that. This is not to regain equal abilities by overcoming a unique condition not experienced by most, but to enhance ourselves beyond our normal abilities. Being able to talk to someone not physically within earshot is a new ability for the human race, and while it was easy to separate that ability from ourselves when it was done with an external device, as the device becomes more and more snugly "part of us" the distinction between it being done by the device or being an inherent human ability begins to blur.

I will pause here for a moment to reflect that said birth conditions can often be overcome without the addition of artificial limbs etc; there have been plenty of people who have had such unique conditions who overcome it without having to replace the missing foot or leg etc, so there could even be debate there as to whether even this is necessary. Here I avoid the wording "disabled" because so many people who might have that word applied to them have achieved far more than I ever have, despite me being what you would have to term "enabled." Any word with "dis" in it will always carry that negative implication, which is not really justified.

So as a topic it is one that will, inevitably, move out of the novels and the make-believe and into the real world, and become issues that we don't have to just consider in the hypothetical, but ones that we will face every day on both a grand and on a personal scale.


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