Robots and cyborgs have become familiar concepts and images through science fiction and modern blockbuster movies. Ian Simmons reminisces on older tales of linking up the technological with the biological.

Cyborg Origins


The idea of the cyborg has been with us for decades, but it is only in recent years that the science fiction has started to become reality. The artist Stelarc implanted electrodes in his muscles to allow his limbs to be operated over the Internet, and researcher Kevin Warwick has given himself an implant to open doors in his lab, but the Six Million Dollar man they are not.

In reality, the claim to being the first cyborg probably belongs to a lab rat.