It all started with rats in space but led to the emergence of natural born cyborgs, at least in Clark's eyes (2003).

I have just finished reading his article 'Cyborgs Unplugged' where a Cyborg, acronym for Cybernetic Organism or Cybernetically Controlled Organism, is described as being an 'entity' which captures the 'notion of human-machine merging' or 'human-machine symbiosis'.

Clark's perspective is that these sort of man-machine link ups exist already without the need for puncture, surgery and implants and that they evolve with such a natural form of integration that most happen invisibly and beneath our level of conscious awareness.

This has generated a little debate on our discussion board about machines which can find cars in car-parks and 'man' and 'specticles' working together to 'extend the brain' - it certainly leads to an interesting perspective and one which I feel we seem more attune with 'socially' or in 'everyday digital life' than 'educationally' at present.

Clark already mentions 'Amazon' (or similar services) and how it tracks an individual's reading habits... 'other people who bought the same book you are looking at have also bought the following.....'

and 'Ebay' like services which track an individual's purchasing habits..... 'you might also be interested in......' or 'do you want to see what other things the seller is selling...'

IPODs and mobile phones allow you to take photos, download personalised music and video choices and transfer treasured possesions like this via blue tooth technology (which I have not quite mastered yet but my kids have!) between friends.

We also see this man-machine integration with FACEBOOK.

Have you noticed the flags for 'mutual friends'? The ones you have 'in common' with those you have listed as friends. Or have you noticed the adverts appearing when you log in? I have skiing as an interest in my profile and I get skiing holidays advertised...... ummmmmm!

At work, the portal I log into recognises my login as staff not student and I get access to information students don't see whilst they get access to information on the courses/modules they are registered on and the faculty they reside in. We all get information on our own library borrowing accounts and records.

I can set up alerts on databases to help me keep track of new material published on areas that interest me or subscribe to RSS feeds to help me keep track of new posts to blogs or websites of interest.

Also cookies on machines also act in the same way I guess, shortening processes or recognising you when you login and therefore you do not have to remember your login .......

As Clark says....

'The more closely the smart world becomes tailored to an individual's specific needs, habits and preferences the harder it will become to tell where a person stops and this tailor-made, co-evolving smart world begins.'

This too, I think will be invisible... not so much for others to see, but how we see ourselves..........

A member of our discussion board recently flagged that they do not like changing computer - as the keyboard and set ups are often different. I don't like it because my cookies are not present or my favourites to hand (unless you use delicious). These are 'intimate' feelings and highlight perhaps the 'functioning of the smart world in intimate harmony with the biological brain' that Clark (2003) is talking about?

Bringing it back educationally - spotted the following.... although this appendage is not terribly invisible......... :~) 'Robodoc'

Clark, A. (2003) Natural born cyborgs: minds, technologies and the future of human intelligence, Oxford: OUP chapter 1, 'Cyborgs unplugged' pp.13-34.

Robodoc. http://www.pbs.org/kcet/wiredscience/ [accessed November 2008]