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Perfesser Sy Borg makes his debut

From: bph@primenet.com (Blair P. Houghton)
Date: Wed Aug 26 08:53:33 1998
Newsgroups: comp.sys.wearables

This guy claims to be the first cyborg:

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/ts/story.html?s=v/nm/19980825/ts/chip_2.html

I don't think so.

Anyone wearing a HMD connected to a belt computer is much
closer to a cyborg than a guy who had a dummy transponder
stuffed under his dermis.  He's not part of the control loop.
He's just got an indentichip.  There's no man-machine interface
in the implanted parts.  This thing he's wearing might as well
be in his pocket or on his badge-clip, like my access card
for work.

The "implanation" isn't novel, either.  Pacemakers and
vagus-nerve stimulators (for epileptics) have put microchips
in people for decades.  You can even reprogram some pacemakers
using an inductive loop.  I doubt this guy's chip has any
programmable memory.

And since when have researchers resumed conducting experiments
on themselves? Don't universities and grant programs still
have rules against that sort of thing? Don't they understand
the moral of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"?

				--Blair
				  "Funny, he doesn't look cyborgish."

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