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"I have been a soreheaded occupant of a file drawer labeled 'Science Fiction' and I would like out, particularly since so many serious critics regularly mistake the drawer for a urinal."
- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
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| Cyborg | ||
| A cybernetic organism - man in union with machine |
Steve Austin lost three limbs in a catastrophic crash - can they rebuild him? Using the latest in bionics, scientists were able to replace (and in some cases, augment) his natural legs and arm with mechanical prosthetics that were controlled by Austin's brain, just like his remaining natural human arm.
| Steve Austin at this moment was the only true cybernetics organism living. Cyborg, they called him in the laboratories. And whatever his reaction, it was a measure, successful or otherwise, of their theories and labors. |
| Technovelgy from Cyborg,
by Martin Caidin. Published by Random House in 1972 Additional resources -
|
When Austin reports that he feels pain in his new legs, it is not phantom limb pain; he really does receive feedback of a sort from the bionic legs.
Compare to the cyborg collar from A Specter is Haunting Texas (1968) by Fritz Leiber, the cyborg pilot from The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (1966) by Robert Heinlein and the cyborg dolphin from Johnny Mnemonic (1981) by William Gibson.
It has also been suggested that the first cyborg story (which did not use the word "cyborg") was The Man Who Was Used Up, a 1839 story by Edgar Allen Poe, about a general who was mostly prosthetics.
The word "cyborg" is a contraction of "cybernetic organism" and was coined in 1960 by Dr. Manfred Clynes for a NASA conference.
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Additional
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More Ideas
and Technology from Cyborg
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and Technology by Martin Caidin
Tech news articles related to Cyborg
Tech news articles related to works by Martin Caidin
Cyborg-related
news articles:
- Your Can-Crushing Bionic Hand Is Ready, Steve Austin
| Bacteria Turns Plastic Into Pain Relief? That Gives Me An Idea. |
| Heart Patches Grown In The Lab Repair Hearts |
| Pixel Watch 'Loss of Pulse Detection' And Philip K. Dick |
| ErythroMer Artificial Blood |
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'...small electric motors at the principal joints worked the prosthetic framework by means of steel cables...'
'Living protoplasm incorporated into the Ampek F-a2 recording system...'
'Twoflower's Luggage, which was currently ambling along on its little legs...'
'He came to as the ship went into free flight, arching in a high parabola over the plains...'
'The peculiar quality of this light, which gave it its great preeminence over all other penetrating rays...'
'The overworked leg motor would have to cool down before he could work on it...'
‘Where to, sport?’ the starter at cab relay asked.
