Human - 1 / Cyborg - 0 : a personal history of a human-machine relation

In 1995, when I began my doctoral studies on what I then called ‘cyborg theory’, it seemed as if I had found a new ‘outcast’ to champion. The shifting border and contamination between what I referred to as ‘humanity’ and ‘technology’, seemed like a suitably fresh and adventurous border-crossing for the skirmish I was planning. In the manner of all good budding academics, I had been searching for, and thought I had found, my ‘area of specialization’, my ‘object of study’, the cultural figure or character I was going to rescue from the margins of academic and cultural discourse. The cyborg. Perhaps here I could ‘make my mark’. Here I would take my stand.