Why we're already augmented cyborgs

When was the last time you left your house without your phone? I can't remember either. When I realise I've forgotten it, I'll go through the motions of sudden panic, a phantom vibration in my empty pocket, and the feeling that I've lost a part of myself.

I can spend up to five hours a day looking at my phone screen (hideous). I use it for reading websites, checking emails, messaging, and writing. My access to information, navigation ability, social connections, and memory of appointments all live in that rectangle. When it's missing from my pocket, those capabilities vanish. That device is an extension of how I think.

So I might already be a cyborg. Perhaps we’ve all been like that for years.

When you hear "cyborg," you probably picture the Terminator or RoboCop. Metal limbs, glowing eyes, exposed wiring. But that's Hollywood. The reality of human-machine integration is already here.

The word comes from "cybernetic organism," a being that combines biological and artificial components into a single integrated system. The term was coined in 1960 by Manfred Clynes and Nathan Kline, who were thinking about how humans might survive in space by modifying our bodies to adapt to hostile conditions.

By that definition, millions of people are already cyborgs. Anyone with a pacemaker has their heart rhythm regulated by a machine. People with insulin pumps have outsourced part of their pancreatic function to a device. We just call them patients who've received medical treatment. But the technology is inside their bodies, integrated with their biological systems, keeping them alive or restoring function they'd otherwise lack.

Back in 1998, two philosophers named Andy Clark and David Chalmers proposed something called "extended mind theory." Their argument was that our minds don't stop at our skulls. When we use tools consistently and reliably, they become part of our cognitive process.

When you do maths on paper, the paper becomes part of the thinking process itself. When you use GPS to navigate, your phone has become your sense of direction. Your smartphone holds your memories in every photo, every message, every place you've been. When you can't remember something, you search for it.

A 2011 study published in Science by Betsy Sparrow found that people were less likely to remember information if they knew it would be stored somewhere they could access later. The researchers called this "the Google effect." Our brains are reorganising around the assumption that we have constant access to external information. The average person checks their phone 96 times per day.

Right now, over 400,000 people worldwide have cochlear implants. These devices bypass damaged parts of the ear and directly stimulate the auditory nerve with electrical signals. The technology has existed since the 1980s. We're sending digital audio directly into human brains.

Modern prosthetics now include bionic arms that connect to nerves and restore the sense of touch. Users can control them with their thoughts and feel pressure when gripping objects. Carbon fibre running blades have made amputee sprinters competitive with able-bodied athletes.

Then there's Neil Harbisson, often called the world's first legally recognised cyborg. Born with complete colour blindness, he had an antenna implanted in his skull in 2004 that converts colour frequencies into sound vibrations. He can now "hear" colours, including ultraviolet and infrared that most humans can't perceive. The UK government allowed him to wear the antenna in his passport photo, effectively acknowledging it as part of his body.

"I don't feel like I'm wearing technology," Harbisson has said. "I feel like I am technology."

In January 2024, Elon Musk's company Neuralink announced it had successfully implanted its first brain chip in a human patient. The first patient, Noland Arbaugh, is paralysed from the shoulders down. With the implant, he's been playing chess, browsing the web, and playing video games controlled by his thoughts alone.

By mid-2025, several people have Neuralink implants. A company called Synchron has been implanting their devices since 2021. Their "Stentrode" device is inserted through blood vessels, navigating through the vascular system to reach the brain without open surgery. Patients are now texting, emailing, and browsing online through direct brain-to-computer interface.

These devices are currently focused on medical applications, helping people with paralysis or neurological conditions. But Musk has been explicit that the long-term goal is broader: to achieve what he calls "AI-human symbiosis." To give healthy humans direct, high-bandwidth connections to artificial intelligence.

When you use ChatGPT or Claude to help write something, when you use AI to generate images or code, you're creating what researchers call "centaur" teams. Human-AI collaborations where the combined output exceeds what either could produce alone. A recent paper in Trends in Cognitive Sciences argues we're becoming "intellectual cyborgs," with AI functioning as a cognitive prosthetic.

But what happens when that connection isn't through a screen and keyboard? When the boundary between your thoughts and AI processing becomes invisible? Are you still you? Or have you become something else?

The cyborg transition isn't something that might happen. It's happening. It's been happening for decades. We're not going to wake up one day and suddenly be cyborgs. We're going to wake up one day and realise we've been cyborgs all along.

The question isn't whether we should merge with technology. We already have. The bigger questions are about how we do it. How we ensure access, how we protect privacy and security, and how we preserve what matters about being human while expanding what's possible.

The future has a habit of arriving faster than we expect. That device in your pocket, those earbuds in your ears, that smartwatch on your wrist are all extensions of your capabilities, woven into how you think and act and navigate the world. You might not have chosen to become a cyborg, but you can choose what kind of cyborg you become.