杏吧原创

KEVIN WARWICK, professor of cybernetics at Reading University, has a lifelong wish: 鈥淚 want to be a cyborg.鈥� His early role models were the sinister Daleks of Dr Who.

For 鈥淐aptain Cyborg鈥�, as IT news website The Register disrespectfully nicknames him, the essential goal is enhancement through surgically implanted technology. So Stelarc, the performance artist who interacts with computers and the Net through muscle sensors and stimulators attached to his skin, doesn鈥檛 count. Warwick resolved to become the first cyborg 鈥渁part from hip replacements, cochlear implants, heart pacemakers and the like.鈥� They don鈥檛 count either.

His first cyborg experiment was faintly anticlimactic. Implanting a transponder over which he had no actual control but which caused suitably equipped doors to open for him was faintly anticlimactic. It seemed more performance art than science, and was followed immediately by a press conference: 鈥淭he room was lit with a spooky blue light, with a spotlight on me鈥︹�� Naturally, Warwick鈥檚 media-wise promotional tactics irritate many other scientists.

The latest venture began with a wince-inducing operation. Warwick attached an array of tiny electrodes to his median arm nerve. Our cyborg could issue detectable electric impulses by finger-wiggling, and control devices ranging from a wheelchair to trifles such as the LED jewellery worn by his wife. It鈥檚 of almost religious importance to Warwick that this simple control is achieved directly from a nerve, not via muscles activated by the nerve.

Unfortunately, in informal, autobiographical mode, Warwick is a poor writer. Clich鈥檚 abound, as do gushing adjectives such as 鈥渋ncredible鈥� and 鈥渇antastic鈥�. Calmer passages of semi-technical exposition come as a distinct relief. After doomy hints that removing the electrodes could be hazardous, Warwick tiresomely ends his narrative three days before the event. Can publishing when the story is still hot be more important than completing the experiment?

Instead, I, Cyborg closes with a dotty science-fictional vision of a 2050 Utopia where 鈥渃yborgisation鈥� has somehow brought free energy and intergalactic travel. The views of others on cyborgs and their implications are relegated to bare bibliographical entries. No index is included. Despite interesting and provocative nuggets, there鈥檚 less to this book than meets the eye.