Cybernetics

It isn’t as though I clink or whirr. Neither do artificial hips or knees. But I’d say that “The Six Million Dollar Man” wasn’t too far off the mark, although you need more than money to value a human life. We are still testing some features. Nerve pulses are not the same as digital signals. Whereas processing must assess multiple inputs, I cannot have my arms fending when the rest of me instinctively ducks. However, surrendering governance to (let’s say) my non-original body parts works very well in certain situations. “After the operation, doctor, will I be able to play the piano?” I asked. Yes, in this case, with a software upgrade I can play Rachmaninoff with speed and grace, whereas I couldn’t do that before.