The original definition of cybernetics is just plain wrong. It refers to control systems, with the original reference actually being to the government with Plato's Republic, and has nothing to do with replicating biological systems. In fact many biological systems are considered to be cybernetic systems in and of themselves by Norbert Weiner's definition. I wonder if the intention was to talk about the original definition of "cyborgs", not cybernetics.
Sorcerer in training
Under real life: "If we widen the definition, bicycle-riders count."
Even severely widening the usual definition of cyborgs would make it really hard to include a bicycle rider. I personally think it should be deleted. What does anyone else think?
Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving. -Terry Pratchett
Why is this Hollywood Cyborg? I understand there are aspects of this trope that rely on MST Mantra, Bellisaros Maxim, or Rule of Cool to skew a few logical limitations, but really, I thought the "Hollywood" part meant "some kind of glamorized, unrealistic depiction of a real-life thing". Suffice it to say there aren't too many cyborgs out there with an Arm Cannon (but that would be really freaking cool), but still...
Edited by Stoogebie
I moved this Real Life example from the main page: being overstated it's a natter magnet and it doesn't seem to add much to the trope over modern day prosthetics.
- In 1504, but then it was lost, and now it's back. Leave it to those automaton-loving Germans to have made the first attempt. Götz von Berlichingen
lost his arm nearly up to his elbow in combat to a stray shot, and commissioned an unknown inventor to build him one of iron. Despite being entirely metal and leather, and early Renaissance, it worked just as well as his original. He wrote just as well with a quill pen as with his original hand, and fought largely in the same fashion, but now with a permanent 'gauntlet.' Shame that such a thing was astronomically expensive for its time, the inventor deserves to be found and recognized for this achievement in engineering history. The hand has to be seen to be believed.
- No, it actually was nowhere near that good. He had to adjust it with his other had and it used a series of ratchets and straps to stay in position. Still pretty good for that day, but it was not a working replacment for his hand by any stretch of the imagination. Unfortunately, the real world is not clockwork punk.
- Furthermore, an iron prosthetic, even a hollow one is far too heavy for normal, everyday use. It's highly improbable that it had all the properties claimed above, or that the man ever used it outside formal situations or battle.
- So Guts's hand is actually not anachronistic?
- Not really. It's still somewhat unrealistic. Particularly as it also contains a friggin' CANNON. Kentaro Miura states that he hadn't even heard of Mr. von Berlichengen when he was designing his Black Swordsman.
- Nor, for that matter, does "automail" from Fullmetal Alchemist seem quite as unbelievable anymore.
- Götz's other Crowning Moment Of Awesome lies in that he was the man who invented the phrase "kiss my ass".
What about Lady Mechanika?