Cyborg : the Hybrid Living Machine
Have you ever watched a Hollywood movie named RoboCop? A wonderful movie portrayed the main character, a detective officer as a human-robot. To be precise that is called a Cyborg. This article will enlighten you on the topic Cyborg.
Introduction
Cyborg can be mentioned as an abbreviation of the word Cybernetic Organism. The definition of Cyborg in Oxford dictionary is a creature that is part human and part machine in fictional stories. It was part of fiction in the olden days. But now it is not. There are living Cyborgs among us in this new world. Our modern innovations and technologies made sure of that. Cyborg can be explained in simple words as a hybrid of human and mechanical parts. Technically, it can be described as a living being with combined bio-mechanic and organic body parts. The term Cyborg was first introduced by NASA scientists, Nathan Kline and Manfred Clynes in 1960.Science Behind
As we said earlier, Cyborgs can be depicted as a combination of organic and biomechatronic anatomy. The biomechatronic part will enhance the abilities of that organism. There is no separation for being a Cyborg. It can be human, animal or any mammal or any kind of organism. Science and technology are improving nowadays to give a better life. Cyborgs are used or created in different fields or for various purposes. Cyborg can be of two types. They are the following:
At present, the experiments are concentrated on bringing forward the conditional cyborgs. Scientists are analyzing and improving their technologies to develop convenient cyborgs in the near future.Examples and Applications
There are many days to day life examples for conditional cyborgs. Few of them are following below:
These are some examples of conditional cyborgs in the medical field and communication fields. Cyborgs are used in many fields other than medical. It has used in defense, sports, art, and popular culture as well. The military has taken an interest in developing cyborgs for defense purposes. The idea was to create Cyborg insects that can act as spies and collect information which helps for national securities. The US military agency, DARPA has announced the development of Cyborg sharks and insects. Sharks can be used to detect underwater motions from enemy submarines or ships and insects can be used for detecting explosives and gas. There are many persons with their cyborg counterparts.
Neil Harbisson is an artist who suffered from Achromatopsia, an extreme case of color blindness. The result was a world in black and white. Shades of Grey. He became the first person in the world with an implanted antenna in his skull and recognized as a cyborg by the government. The antenna was a sensory device that will send audible vibrations through the skull. That is how he got cured of his illness.Fictional Cyborgs
Cyborgs are very popular in literature and media. We can find many fictional Cyborgs from our movies and books. One of the main characters is Iron Man from the Avenger franchise. Iron Man is played by actor Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark. The character has an arc reactor in place of his chest which acts as a heart. Another character is RoboCop aka Detective Alex Murphy played by the actor Peter Weller. The character cyborg was created when the detective is in critical condition from an explosion and using Alex Murphy's few human parts such as the brain, organs, one arm. Initially, the RoboCop was acting like a robot without emotions, gradually he overthrows the infested program.
The honorable mentions are Robotman by DC Comics, Cyborg from Teen Titans, Cable and Omega-Red from X-Men Series, Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist franchise, Doctor Octopus from Spiderman 2, Darth Vader from Star Wars franchise, Max Da Costa from Elysium and many more.