More Than Just a Prosthetic Limb

Half-man, half-machine. That's how Bradley Rhodes likes to think of himself.

Rhodes, a computer scientist at MIT at the time this article was written, is one of a small group of people who are pioneering the "smart outfit." This basically means that Rhodes wears a computer and uses it to help navigate his everyday life. People like him tend to call themselves "borgs," a shortening of "cyborgs."

I understand that eventually everyone will be wearing computers and Rhodes is just ahead of the curve. But calling yourself a "borg" and dressing up like a machine is the equivalent of stamping the word "nerd" across your forehead. And these few people wear their computers all day, every day. What must their lives be like?

I imagine this would be a diary entry on an average day:

8:00 a.m. – Wake up. Take a shower. Electrocuted, again.
9:30 a.m. – Weird looks on the subway. A little girl screams.
11:00 a.m. – Boss catches me playing solitaire during a boring board meeting.
12:30 p.m. – Eat lunch alone.
2:00 p.m. – Chat with other borgs online. I hate my life.
3:30 p.m. – Juice box Mom packed me spilled on my hard drive. To the repair shop in the garage! *Superman pose!*
5:00 p.m. – Watch Star Trek and ogle Uhura.
6:30 p.m. – Watch Star Wars and ogle Princess Leia.
8:00 p.m. – Eat dinner with Mom. Talk about a borg meeting next week. She cries.
9:30 p.m. – Try to sleep despite sound from Mom's kegger in the basement.