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"Cyberspace is a metaphor that allows us to grasp this place where since about the time of the second world war we've increasingly done so many of the things that we think of as civilization."
- William Gibson
 |
| Cyborg Pilot | ||
| A combination of a human being (at least the thinking part) and a machine. |
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress contains a number of references to cyborgs; the best way to see what he meant by it is to look through them.
| Being kissed by Wyoming Knott is more definite than being married to most women. Had I been Mike all my lights would have flashed at once. I felt like a Cyborg with pleasure center switched on...
There was a solar storm warning but the pilot thought he could make it – or didn't care; he was a Cyborg... "Man, I saw one disturbing report. It was claimed that attempts are being made at the University of Peiping to combine computers with human brains to achieve massive capacity. A computing Cyborg." "Here we are, two million males, less than one million females. A physical fact, basic as rock or vacuum. Then add idea of tanstaafl. When thing is scarce, price goes up. Women are scarce; aren't enough to go around – that makes them most valuable thing in Luna, more precious than ice or air, as men without women don't care whether they stay alive or not. Except a Cyborg, if you regard him as a man, which I don't."
"Excuse me but isn't there an exceptionally fine computer at Peiping University?" |
| Technovelgy from The Moon is a Harsh Mistress,
by Robert Heinlein. Published by GP Putnam in 1966 Additional resources -
|
I've read elsewhere on the Internet (must be true, nyet?) that the term "cyborg" is a contraction of the phrase "cybernetic organism" and was coined in 1960 by a Dr. Manfred Clynes for a NASA conference.
Compare to the cyborg collar from A Specter is Haunting Texas (1968) by Fritz Leiber, the cyborg from Cyborg (1972) by Martin Caidin and the cyborg dolphin from Johnny Mnemonic (1981) by William Gibson.
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