Akademik

(FY.bohrg)

n.

A functional cyborg; an organism that has become a kind of cyborg by extending its senses and abilities using technology.

[Gregory Stock, author of Redesigning Humans: Our Inevitable Genetic Future, is], the director of the Program on Medicine, Technology, and Society at the UCLA School of Medicine, approaches humans from two starting points: one is mechanical and the other biological. On the mechanical side, he is clearly convinced that cyborgs (bionic people made by inserting bits of silicon chippery into human brains and bodies) are not the way humans are going to extend and enhance their range of abilities. He argues instead that we are more likely to become "fyborgs" (functional cyborgs) by developing extracorporeal electromechanical devices to improve and widen the scope of existing sense and effector organs.

— R.E. Spier, "Toward a new human species?," Science, June 7, 2002

A functional cyborg (should we call it a fyborg? fuborg?) may be defined as a biological organism functionally supplemented with technological extensions.

If you do not pay attention, the stream of technological supplements may turn you into a functional cyborg before you notice it. To prevent this, I would recommend that you periodically submit yourself to the cyborgization check-up by answering the questions of the following

FYBORG SELF-TEST

• Are you dependent on technology to the extent that you could not survive without it?

• Would you reject a lifestyle free of any technology even if you could endure it?

• Would you feel embarrassed and "dehumanized" if somebody removed your artificial covers (clothing) and exposed your natural biological body in public?

• Do you consider your bank deposits a more important personal resource storage system than your fat deposits?

• Do you identify yourself and judge other people more by possessions, ability to manipulate tools and positions in the technological and social systems than primary biological features?

• Do you spend more time thinking about — and discussing — your external "possessions" and "accessories" than your internal "parts"?

If you answered "yes" to most of these questions, please accept my congratulations (and/or condolences): you are already a cyborg!

— Alexander Chislenko, "Are you a cyborg?," http://www.ethologic.com/sasha/articles/Cyborgs.rtf: http://www.ethologic.com/sasha/articles/Cyborgs.rtf, August 10, 1995

The word cyborg (1960) is short for cybernetic organism and it refers to an organism that is part-human, part-robot. Alexander Chislenko coined fyborg (see the earliest citation, below) to differentiate between the man-machine creations of science fiction and the everyday ways that we extend ourselves using technologies such as eyeglasses, hearing aids, and cell phones.