50
Two scientists named Manfred
Clynes and Nathan Kline came up
with the term “cyborg,” combining
the words “cybernetic” and
“organism.” That was about 60
years ago, in 1960. At that time,
their goal was to make people more
fit for life in outer space using high-
tech equipment that could be
implanted inside them. But, sixty
years later, we are still a long
way from that.
of the term
What is a
cyborg?
Maybe there is someone in your family
or in your class with a pacemaker or a
prosthesis. If so, you already know a
cyborg! That’s because a cyborg is
simply a combination of a human and a
machine — in other words, a being that
consists of both artificial and natural
body parts. There are even people who
would say that you are a cyborg if you
wear eyeglasses, but then a lot of people
would be cyborgs, and that would be a
bit boring.
This boy has a cochlear
hearing implant, which
enables him to hear.
Did Clynes and Kline
imagine a cyborg that
looked like this?
?
!
CHECK IT OUT
In the future, however, we will certainly see more
people wearing various technological devices on or in
their bodies. And maybe one day we will really ask
ourselves whether the person standing in front of us
is human or a machine.
“cyborg”
The origin