Jamais Cascio is a futurist who found himself thrust into the role of cyborg as his hearing degraded to the point that he now relies on programmable audio-processors (hearing aids).

The demographics of the disabled are changing, as is the power of assistive technologies. And these changes have serious implications both for the role and visibility of the disabled in Western society and the ongoing debate between augmentation as “therapy” and augmentation as “enhancement.”

Later in the article, Cascio presents a perspective that adds a nice nuance to my idea that non-destructive enhancement (exoskeletons) will win out over more intrusive measures. 

Herr claims he would not swap his prosthetic legs for natural legs, even if he could. “Would you buy a computer system if you were told you couldn’t upgrade it for 50 years?” he says.

Open the Future: The Accidental Cyborg