3 April 2014
SHORT AND SIMPLE
A cybernetic organism is called a
cyborg (for short). A cyborg is a being with both organic (living) and
mechanical parts. And it sounds just as creepy to say that a cyborg is part
living animal and part machine. But, TV’s The Six Million Dollar Man
brought one idea of a cyborg into public awareness. The “The Six Million Dollar
Man” is a fictional vision of normal human functions increased and improved
by robotic or mechanical technology.
VIDEO CLIP INTRO: The Six Million Dollar Man
WIKIPEDIA: The Six Million Dollar Man
But a few years before the airing of
the pilot episode of the TV show, most everyone already knew about cyborgs. As
a matter of fact, most of us have met a few. Simply, the cardiac pacemaker,
introduced in the 1960’s, turns the wearer into a cyborg. The pacemaker’s
action as it regulates the beating of the human heart is enough to make the
user, together with the device, into a cyborg. Also, a variety of medical and
life-saving technology may, technically, combine together with the user to form
a cyborg.
But if “The Six Million Dollar
Man” was a cyborg, why did they call him “bionic?”
Because “bionics” is the study of
how to use mechanical technology to replace human organs or improve the way
human organs work. So, the study is bionics, but the actual combination is
called a cyborg. By the way, the TV show, “The Six Million Dollar Man”,
was based on a science fiction novel by Martin
Caidin titled Cyborg.
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