Editor Marty Halpern looks back at the career of George Alec Effinger (part 1, part 2, part 3), a prolific author best known for his work set in the Budayeen, a walled city in a future Islamic state, teeming with gangsters, hustlers and transsexual prostitutes, many of them habitual users of plug in personality modules. The noirish tone and exotic technology of the Marîd Audran books (When Gravity Fails, A Fire In The Sun, The Exile Kiss) made Effinger one of the leading lights in the cyberpunk movie, and spawned a videogame - a rare attempt at a graphical adventure from Infocom - and an RPG setting. Sadly Effinger faded from prominence after that, and he suffered from a number of health and financial setbacks before passing away in 2002. His work has had somewhat of a resurgence in popularity of late, with the Marîd Audran books coming back into print in 2007, a long with a collection containing The Wolves of Memory, Effinger's personal favourite amongst his novels.
posted by Artw on Jun 9, 2009 - 32 comments

How Google Is Making Us Smarter: Humans are "natural-born cyborgs," and the Internet is our giant "extended mind."
posted by homunculus on Jan 15, 2009 - 50 comments

Scientists from the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon have demonstrated that a monkey can control a robotic arm with its brain when food is used as a reward.
posted by Pants! on May 28, 2008 - 39 comments

Amal Graafstra has implanted two rfid chips into his hands to permit himself keyless access to his computer, car and home. He's also written a book about the experience and the various rfid "toys" he's devised. This Valentine's Day, he and his girlfriend expressed a "modern declaration of their affection for each other, with implanted electronic chips that allow them unfettered access to each other's lives". Interested in something similar? The company Amal used is selling a kit. Though they don't actually recommend it for use with medical implants. So, cool, crazy or inevitable?
posted by darkstar on Feb 17, 2006 - 21 comments

Psymbiote: Hybrid Apparatus for Social Interface [via]
posted by moonbird on Jul 21, 2005 - 11 comments

Touch-Sensitive Cyborg
posted by cmicali on Jun 15, 2005 - 21 comments

Human Area Networking technology turns the surface of the human body into a data transmission path. A transmission path is formed at the moment a part of the human body comes in contact with a RedTacton transceiver.
posted by moonbird on Mar 2, 2005 - 4 comments

Cyborgs in Canada? When you first meet Steve Mann, it seems as if you've interrupted him appraising diamonds or doing some sort of specialized welding. Because the first thing you notice is the plastic frame that comes around his right ear and holds a lens over his right eye.
posted by edmcbride on Jan 12, 2004 - 19 comments

Survival System Train & Other Sculpture - "atomic-powered cyborgs, quasi-animate freight trains, and other absurd and fabulous contraptions populate the universe of Kenji Yanobe. Welcome to the world of the future-past, the unkempt aftermath of Better Living Through Science."
posted by madamjujujive on Mar 15, 2003 - 7 comments

The Soul of a New Machine is the title of an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education about the recent proliferation of cyborgs in the humanities. Growing outside of science, and inspired by science fiction, cyborgs have invaded economics, anthropology, and even philosophy. Cyborgs are indeed taking over the academic world. NASA is interested, too. In fact, NASA's Cyborg Program was based on the research of Manfred Clynes and Nathan Kline. More inside...
posted by chason on Feb 13, 2003 - 14 comments

"Basically, we are going to argue Professor Mann was discriminated against because he is a cyborg," As was discussed a few days ago, Steve Mann is the first (?) cyborg. People at the airport did not seem to be impressed. After a stripsearch, he had to go to a hospital. So now we have the first 'cyborg rights' lawsuit.
posted by swordfishtrombones on Mar 24, 2002 - 13 comments

Who else thinks we could use some of these now.
Seems a shame they're not quite ready to help with this disaster.
"...like crawling through earthquake rubble to search for victims..."
posted by TiggleTaggleTiger on Sep 17, 2001 - 11 comments

The cyborg manifesto scares me. I first read it in this month's adbusters magazine, then online. It paints a provocative picture of our future. Will we look back on this as the just the beginning or is it vapor-futurism?
flash 4 required
posted by will on Mar 20, 2001 - 23 comments

The six million pound man? Is he visionary or just stupid? More important, is this really something we want, even if he can make it work?
posted by Steven Den Beste on Dec 8, 2000 - 6 comments

Sick of your Wu-Name? I was never fond of 'Ol` Filthy, Sweaty Bastard' anyhow. Now you can get Your Own Cyborg Name. And Oh BOY!, is "S.I.K.K.: Synthetic Individual Keen on Killing" a much slicker name! watch out now.
posted by sikk on Mar 30, 2000 - 30 comments