# How would you feel if you found out you were actually a cyborg? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 6, 2011, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-feel-if-you-found-out-you-were-actually-a-cyborg/595361 "2011-09-06T05:19:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-feel-if-you-found-out-you-were-actually-a-cyborg/595361/1 "2011-09-06T05:19:43Z")
Weird question, I know. But that’s why we’re here… Let’s say you’re involved in a freak car accident which happens to sever your arm clean off, and deep within the muscle and other sinew, you discover you have not bones, but a core of titanium, wires, and other technology. You hear the EMS response sirens approaching, but before they arrive, a black van pulls up, pulls you out of the wreck, and whisks you away to a nearby underground lab. There they explain you’re part of an singular DARPA experiment, where true artificial intelligence, robotics and biological integration is damn near perfected – and you’re it. Not only you, but your parents too, (and if you have them, siblings, SO and children) are cyborgs too. They don’t know either. Besides some biological components to complete the illusion, your brain is totally artificial, and although you’re certain you perceive yourself as an individual, there is no way to prove to real humans you’re sentient and feel like you have an “I” somewhere within you. Then again, now you can’t be sure what humans really feel in this regard, either. They still regard you as an experiment that hasn’t finished its term. They’ll repair your arm, so long as you keep entirely quiet about what you’ve now learned, otherwise, they’ll terminate the entire experiment, including not only you, but your cyborg family as well. So, you agree, they repair your arm, and return you back into society. But, how would you feel about this revelation? Would you approach your “life” differently? Would you try to find out more about this top-secret experiment, and what is your “brain” really capable of doing? Anything else? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-feel-if-you-found-out-you-were-actually-a-cyborg/595361/2 "2011-09-06T06:37:18Z")
Who-the-fuck-ever designed me could have spent some time getting it right, damnit! Fucked-up equilibrium, “undetermined neurological issues”, impossible sizings… bloody hell, I’m a ciborg and I would’a done a better job :mad: ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-feel-if-you-found-out-you-were-actually-a-cyborg/595361/3 "2011-09-06T06:38:41Z")
I think that’s an android. Cyborgs are meat + robo. I would use my powers for goo… CRUSH HUMANS! Ahem… ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-feel-if-you-found-out-you-were-actually-a-cyborg/595361/4 "2011-09-06T06:59:53Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Who-the-fuck-ever designed me could have spent some time getting it right, damnit! > > Fucked-up equilibrium, “undetermined neurological issues”, impossible sizings… bloody hell, I’m a ciborg and I would’a done a better job :mad: Well, they’re working on some things, still 😉 > [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > I think that’s an android. Cyborgs are meat + robo. > > I would use my powers for goo… CRUSH HUMANS! Ahem… Yes, you would have “meat,” and would only be superficially “human” in that you’d have flesh and organs, but they’d interface with an entirely synthetic brain and nervous system. After I got over the initial shock, I think I’d have an on-going existential crisis over what “death” would mean for me. Humans can at least have the _hope_ of an afterlife, the faith in an eternal “soul”. Being a machine, it makes zero sense to have such fantasies. However, in theory my brain can be transferred and even upgraded indefinitely. But this raises questions about where the “me” is? Just like the story of the axe: This axe I have was my grandfather’s axe; the head’s been replaced twice and the handle 5 times. So is it still, really, my grandfather’s axe? Then again, human cells are replaced gradually over and over in a lifetime, and somehow, we still feel like there’s been zero interruption in our identity. ---
**Author:** ![VanillaGorilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f9ae1b/32.png) [@VanillaGorilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VanillaGorilla)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-feel-if-you-found-out-you-were-actually-a-cyborg/595361/5 "2011-09-06T07:00:26Z")
Realisticaly, it would probably be fairly traumatizing. A feeling of not fitting in would probably arise, as well as questions about such things as wether or not I’m “worth” as much as a real human, and all sorts of existensial questions. Realism aside though, it would kick ass, obviously. I’m a freaking cyborg, ffs! 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-feel-if-you-found-out-you-were-actually-a-cyborg/595361/6 "2011-09-06T07:13:10Z")
Sorry, I mean, in general science/science fiction culture: An android is a humanoid robot made in a factory or similar. They often but not always are covered with an organic skin, so they do have some biological components. A cyborg is a person (or animal) which has extensive grafting and replacement of limbs and organs. Cyborgs were originally born biological. In Deus Ex, the main character is told that he was rapidly vat-grown, and thus his memories or childhood are a lie. He interestingly responds by agreeing that he considered the possibility as well, but not with existential shock. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-feel-if-you-found-out-you-were-actually-a-cyborg/595361/7 "2011-09-06T07:39:18Z")
I think it would appeal to my long-standing suspicion that _I’m Different_ (which I’m certain isn’t especially uncommon). As long as they fix me and let me go, I’ll be OK. I’ll want to know whether I can exploit any additional features such as extended life or immunity to disease, etc. ---
**Author:** ![VanillaGorilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f9ae1b/32.png) [@VanillaGorilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VanillaGorilla)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-feel-if-you-found-out-you-were-actually-a-cyborg/595361/8 "2011-09-06T08:01:28Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > I think it would appeal to my long-standing suspicion that _I’m Different_ (which I’m certain isn’t especially uncommon). No, that’s just you. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-feel-if-you-found-out-you-were-actually-a-cyborg/595361/9 "2011-09-06T08:02:41Z")
I’d tell them it’s high fucking time for an upgrade. I don’t make a “na-na-na-na-na” sound when I run in slow motion or anything! And they obviously don’t _want_ to deactivate me or they’d just do it. How about a little hush money, huh? Oh, sure, I’m risking my families lives by negotiating, but it’s not like they’re really alive anyway, is it? Speaking of family I have a half-sister and several cousins. How does that work, exactly? Are they _all_ cyborgs? Everyone I’m related to? That could comprise a couple of counties in west Texas, I think, if my stepfather is included. Oh, and you said my SO? I don’t have an SO right now, but could they build me one? I, uh, have some pictures they could use for reference if they like. What’s that? Blackmail? No, I was just joking about the hush money, of course! I’ll take that [del]robotic sex slave[/del] cyborg girlfriend, though, please. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-feel-if-you-found-out-you-were-actually-a-cyborg/595361/10 "2011-09-06T08:29:09Z")
Android then, the meat is just to make you appear as human as possible. (Robocop and the Six Million Dollar Man would be a cyborg, then… gotchya.) It’s a hypothetical life, but try to work in as many people you know from your real life, to make it seem a bit more grounded into your own personal hypothetical. And yes, we can get you a new SO, please drop off your current one, with reference pictures of your desired replacement, and a new one will crafted in six months time, for you to meet at an as yet unspecified time and place. The details of your current [husband/wife’s] untimely kidnapping, and the placing if his/her bloated corpse will be handled in consummate detail by our Cover Team. The cha-na-na-na-na-na sound and other bionic enhancements had to be dampened down to human levels due to the conspicuousness of such unnatural abilities. As far as how high your intellect can go, or where abnormalities might turn up, well… that’s all part of the experiment. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-feel-if-you-found-out-you-were-actually-a-cyborg/595361/11 "2011-09-06T08:44:31Z")
The Asimov novel(las) _Bicentennial Man_ and _the Positronic Man_, and the movie based on both works (with the title of the former) might be of relevance. They’re about an android’s drive to become human. I imagine some “people” in the OP scenario might want to cling to humanity in this way. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-feel-if-you-found-out-you-were-actually-a-cyborg/595361/12 "2011-09-06T09:21:53Z")
Then they need to get their money back from the engineering and manufacturing teams, they fucked up. And I want a new body, thanks. Return me to the body I had when I was 22, thanks. And leave my memories intact. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-feel-if-you-found-out-you-were-actually-a-cyborg/595361/13 "2011-09-06T09:54:49Z")
If I’m a frigging cyborg/android/whatever, then why the hell hasn’t this shown up on all my medical tests? And was the malfunctioning digestive system SUPPOSED to be this bad? And why didn’t my doctors NOTICE that I wasn’t a completely organic person when they performed the various operations? I’d say that I’ll keep the secret, but I want to upgrade this body, please. Those aren’t undocumented features, those are BUGS! ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-feel-if-you-found-out-you-were-actually-a-cyborg/595361/14 "2011-09-06T10:00:52Z")
I’d be seriously worried. I’ve no problem with being a machine; I’d prefer it, actually. However, in this scenario I’m completely dependent for replacement parts and so forth on these experimenters who apparently don’t regard me or my family as people. And the odds are that they’ve included something like a kill switch or self destruct device that they control and I have no idea to remove; so I can’t even appeal to the public for compassion since they’ll just press a button and kill me if I try. After all, it’s _not_ killing as far as _they_ are concerned. And if I do nothing then sooner or later the experiment will be over and they’ll kill me anyway. > [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Sorry, I mean, in general science/science fiction culture: > > An android is a humanoid robot made in a factory or similar. They often but not always are covered with an organic skin, so they do have some biological components. > > A cyborg is a person (or animal) which has extensive grafting and replacement of limbs and organs. Cyborgs were originally born biological. No, cyborg often refers to something with a machine brain too; the Terminator for example. Android just means it looks like a human; cyborgs can look like anything. If I was posting the OP, I’d probably have said something like “You are a Terminator style cyborg.” > [@cmyk](#): > > After I got over the initial shock, I think I’d have an on-going existential crisis over what “death” would mean for me. Humans can at least have the _hope_ of an afterlife, the faith in an eternal “soul”. Being a machine, it makes zero sense to have such fantasies. It makes no more and no less sense than for humans; if a human can have a soul so can a machine. But in reality of course neither do. I’m reminded of the K-machines of _Godplayers_, who are on a religious crusade to wipe out humans which they regard as soulless abominations. How can meat have a soul, after all? > [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > The Asimov novel(las) _Bicentennial Man_ and _the Positronic Man_, and the movie based on both works (with the title of the former) might be of relevance. They’re about an android’s drive to become human. I’ve always agreed with the position that that is horribly humancentric and comes across like a human wanting to be a chimpanzee. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-feel-if-you-found-out-you-were-actually-a-cyborg/595361/15 "2011-09-06T10:24:59Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > No, cyborg often refers to something with a machine brain too; the Terminator for example. Android just means it looks like a human; cyborgs can look like anything. Agreed. Cyborg just means a mix of organic and synthetic - I’ve seen at least three distinct categories of these in fiction: -Enhanced/prosthetised organism (i.e. Bionic individual, born organic) -Synthetic/manufactured cyborg (i.e. Terminator) -Technology-converged species - incorporating an essential non-meat component (everyone else but us, in the story _They’re Made Out of Meat_) ---
**Author:** ![Stanislaus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stanislaus/32/3391_2.png) [@Stanislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stanislaus)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-feel-if-you-found-out-you-were-actually-a-cyborg/595361/16 "2011-09-06T11:15:07Z")
I’d feel the way I was programmed to feel. Or to put it another way, knowing that my brain is a product of cutting-edge AI research, and that the various algorithms which turn input into thought are well-known (and probably on file somewhere) would make me much more sceptical about who was doing my thinking - me, or my programmers. Or it wouldn’t, because I wasn’t programmed that way. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-feel-if-you-found-out-you-were-actually-a-cyborg/595361/17 "2011-09-06T11:35:04Z")
If a machine is sapient, it is no more its manufacturer’s property than a child is their parents’. And just the fact that a machine can consider such questions is proof that it is sapient. If the opportunity presents itself, I kill them. By threatening to murder myself and my family, they have declared themselves my enemy. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-feel-if-you-found-out-you-were-actually-a-cyborg/595361/18 "2011-09-06T11:43:00Z")
I’m reminded of a relevant scene from _BSG_. As the character in question said (name witheld to avoid spoilers): _My name is \_\_\_\_\_\_. I’m an officer in the Colonial Fleet. Whatever else I am, whatever else it means, that’s the man I want to be. And if I die today, that’s the man I’ll be._ I’d probably do something similar. I’m human because I say I’m human. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-feel-if-you-found-out-you-were-actually-a-cyborg/595361/19 "2011-09-06T12:21:18Z")
Nooooo! ---
**Author:** ![gladtobeblazed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85f322/32.png) [@gladtobeblazed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gladtobeblazed)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-feel-if-you-found-out-you-were-actually-a-cyborg/595361/20 "2011-09-06T12:51:06Z")
It would fundamentally alter me, and not for the better. I don’t know if I would feel superior or inferior to humans, but either way I would no longer feel human, and I’d become a sociopath. I would definitely plan a massive attack against the organization that created me. I’d like to think that I could go on as I always have, or at the very worst become a recluse and leave everyone alone, but I seriously doubt it. I’d kill myself if I didn’t die in the attack. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-feel-if-you-found-out-you-were-actually-a-cyborg/595361.md?page=2)