Natural-born cyborgs: minds, technologies, and the future of human intelligence

The notion of the cyborg has exercised the popular imagination for almost two hundred years. In very general terms the idea that a living entity can be a hybrid of both organic matter and mechanical parts, and for all intents and purposes be seamlessly functional and self-regulating, as prefigured in literary works such as Shelly's Frankenstein (1816/18) and Samuel Butler's Erewhon (1872). This notion of hybridism has been a staple theme of 20th century science fiction writing, television programmes and the cinema. For the most part, these works trade on a deep sense of unease we have about our personal identity - how could some non-organic matter to which I have so little conscious access count as a bona fide…