Why Humans Will Become Cyborgs

Given the choice between chronic leg pain for the rest of your life, and a bionic leg that's stronger, more durable and more flexible than the original, give me the odds on your saying, "No, thanks, Doc. I'll stick with what I've got. It may be disabled and painful, but dammit, it's human!"

Nobody seems to have heartburn over pacemakers, the pun notwithstanding.

Come to think of it, who needs pain or heartache to upgrade their bodies in the first place? People don't need pain or damage to monkey around with their body. Can you say 'laser hair removal,' or 'Lasik surgery'? People will do it because they can. Why? Because people simply can't resist improvements.

It's only one small step to go from walking on crutches to strapping on a prosthetic leg. And it's only another small step from wearing a plastic prosthetic leg to permanently attaching a "smart" bionic one. And yet another small step from putting bionics in the leg to putting them in the brain. ("Hey, Junior, do you see that Susan B. Anthony on the other side of the stadium? Look! Upper deck, by that white Reebok sneaker. See it there, underneath the empty popcorn bag? Run over there and get it for Daddy. Quick, before somebody else catches it!")

Why do we count Robocop and Star Trek's Lt. Cdr. Data among our modern heroes?

This is why I think the cyborg future is not only inevitable, but we'll mostly enjoy it, and wonder how we ever lived without these marvelous inventions.

(Just before the computers disconnect our brains permanently and take over, of course. Muahahahahaha!)