I hope so
In all my writing on stem cells versus cyborgs I have always personally leaned towards cybernetics if a new body, or even better functioning parts become a available. Many of these parts are already being used for various other disabilities, like cochlear implants and prostheses that the users actually have feeling in. We have had cyborgs living among us for decades now using one device or another
I'm a little bit more of an extremist when it comes to what I want out of cybernetics. I want the Ghost in The Shell or Bladerunner cyborg body with my mind uploaded to it, and science is coming closer and closer to these types of technology.
I have obssesed over HAL-5 and it is great, but it's just an exo-skeleton you wear it on your body and for all it's exceptional technology still awkward looking
Billions of all different types of currencies are being spent in super high-tech med labs all over the world researching on how to look through the looking glass for improvements. I'm a C-6 quadriplegic and even though I can use my arms, and hands to a rudimentary degree I would love to have a neural interface prosthetic that's even capable of allowing me the feeling of my hands.
I would like to get a Functional Electrical Stimulator for my hand but it only works one hand or another and just to have three different ways of opening and closing one hand you use it with an actuator implanted in the other shoulder. A really excellent article on wisegeek.com says "Developing cyborgs of the more science fictional sense has not really been achieved yet, though it begs the question, will we ever say, "now true cyborgs actually exist?" As technology advances incrementally, each new step — unless it's a huge breakthrough — may seem relatively mundane. But judging from the science fiction of 2008 and earlier, it seems like impressive cyborgs, as in human beings with artificial eyes, ears, muscles, bones, organs, and/or advanced neural prosthetics may be developed sometime between 2030 and 2040, maybe even earlier."
Maybe it will! Pics, Claudia Mitchell before and after.
