Cyborgs are now science fact as well as science fiction.

Image via WikipediaI watched my DVD of The Bionic Woman(2007) this weekend and I am still upset it was canceled(sigh) but I was thinking about the first series of The Bionic Woman(1976) and although I watched it faithfully, I liked The Six Million Dollar Man (1973) better. I wished I could run that fast and lift heavy objects and move cars and trains, etc. I was fascinated that a human could be enhanced to perform incredible feats of strength. Since I always competed in sports, of course, I wish I had those abilities so I could beat the competition.
When I began watching Star Trek: The Next Generation in the late '80s, I first thought of Data as a cyborg because he was human looking, but he even stated that he was an android. Then they introduced the Borg, a hideous cyborg creature that conquers humanoids and add the mechanical components and single mindedness that make up the Borg Collective. This was very different and dark in comparison with the unique bionic individuals from the 1970's. Even Jean Luc Picard is considered to be a cyborg because he had an artificial heart that in season two had to be replaced because the first one was defective.
Other famous cyborgs in fiction, to name just a few, are The Bicentennial Man by Isaac Asimov, Darth Vader of Star Wars and even Luke Skywalker after his hand was sliced off and replaced with an artificial hand, and of course the Cylons from BattleStar Galactica.
According to dictionary definition, a cyborg has organic and artificial systems that are integrated to work together. Therefore, under that definition, someone who has a pacemaker, has a cybernetic component, thus is a cyborg. This would include hearing aids and cochlear implants. Some people go so far as to say any enhancement to the human body is making the body function better, such as contact lenses, doping in sports, or artificial limbs, and this could count as making someone a cyborg. I, however, would stick to the stricter definition of the organic and mechanical where the mechanical is stimulating the organic with electrical impulses. I was thinking of the amazing athlete who has artificial legs and was allowed to try out for the Olympic Games but could not qualify. While he is an amazing runner and human being, he would not qualify as a cyborg because his artifial legs are not using electrical impulses.
I think it is amazing that we already have mechanical parts we can integrate into the human body to help us live longer lives or improve on what we are lacking and I hope one day we can replace a missing eye with bionic vision and a deaf person could get bionic hearing and limbs could be replaced with cybernetic limbs, etc.
In the mean time, I will keep being amazed at the cybernetic beings I read about or watch on the big and small screen.