Thursday, September 18, 2008

What is a cyborg?

Well by definition I’d consider a cyborg to be a natural life form that is physically reliant on artificial augmentations. As a classic example of an augmentation let’s forget the precept most people have that requires a cyborg’s technological parts to be mechanical. Consider the peg legged pirate, in order to maintain a normal appearance in walking about, they have capped the amputated limb and attach to the cap a wooden limb. I consider these people to also be cyborgs, as some may agree with me with the more modern version of this practice in prosthetic legs.

If you still don’t see how this makes them cyborgs lets take it a step farther. Take for instance the miraculous medicine of the Star Wars universe. When Luke Skywalker’s hand is severed and lost he receives an artificial hand that with prosthetic skin can pass as a natural limb without close inspection. Now few at this point would argue that Luke at this point is no longer human, he obviously retains humanity though he is at that point partly cybernetic and therefore a cyborg.

Now if Luke’s hand isn’t enough lets take a look at his father. Darth Vader is nearly as cyborg as we often see and still consider at first glance human. Vader has lost both legs, both arms, a lot of his skin, hair, and much of his ability to breath on his own. In our day and age he would be a terminal patient, with little to no prospect of ever leaving his bed. But though augmentation he is given mechanical limbs, lungs, and artificial skin. He retains his mind as well as his abilities in the Force, and though morally warped by the emperor he retains his humanity as well.

Let’s back up a bit now that I’ve gotten that point a crossed, and take a look at one of the other preconceptions of cyborgs. Does a cyborg have to be an augmented human? Not so far as I can tell. Lets consider a story from Ripley’s Believe it or Not, I recently saw an episode which featured a lamb that had been born with a circulatory problem. The poor thing had such bad circulation in it’s back legs that they simply fell off. The owners of the lamb by this time where so attached to it that they did not give up. Instead they drove to a specialist who built for the lamb prosthetic legs. That lamb is now the family pet and an inspiration for children with prosthetic limbs.

The question here is whether this lamb is therefore a cyborg sheep now. In my opinion the answer is of course yes. This sheep is as I stated in my definition an augmented life form and therefore a cyborg. He isn’t the only animal to receive augmentations. There has been at least one case of a dog with a wheelchair like aparatus that was attached to him to compensate for his lack of rear legs. And there is talk of pacemakers for pets.

With that in mind I would like to talk about the robots seen in sonic the hedgehog games. While destroying them releases the little woodland critters that was their power source. Do those woodland creatures make the robots cyborgs? I’m inclined to say yes, however due to developments in Sonic Adventure we see that the animals do more than just power them. In Sonic Adventure the robot Gamma whose core animal is a small bird comes in contact with another bird who was a close friend. Gamma realizing what Eggman is trying to get him to do and he turns on his creator. Not much is revealed as to why Gamma is different but it seems Gamma at least is a sort of inverted cyborg, being an artificial intelligence physically reliant on a life form.

There are many things that can make someone, or some animal, a cyborg. In looking at the things today such as prosthetic limbs and artificial heart calibrators, it seems cyborgs are already among us. I for one am proud they are around. One last parting thought though. If I ever gained mechanical parts I would not want them to be electrical, as I would gain a mortal fear of EMP waves.

Thursday, September 4, 2008