Why we're all cyborgs

Body augmentation is a central theme to Cyberpunk art. But we’ve always been cyborgs. Not only do we wear technology daily from smartwatches and pacemakers to hearing aids, headphones, peg legs, watches, eyeglasses and contact lenses (yes that’s technology), but we go further than that. What is the blood brain barrier but the ultimate firewall?

As philosopher David Chaumers believes, we have outsourced many of the functions of our mind to our smartphones, from keeping track of time, to remembering important items, to storing information and even navigating. For a tech device to share the functions of the human mind means its part of our mind already. Ever have a mental breakdown because you lost your phone? That's why.

Now some will say the phone is not connected to our mind so it isn’t a part of our mind, but they need to remember the basic principles of cybernetics. A school of fish, a flock of geese, and even the neurons in your brain are not directly connected to one another – yet they operate as a single structure, a single system. We’re all cyborgs, augmenting ourselves with tech we take for granted.