Now I'm Scared of Cyborgs

Now I'm Scared of Cyborgs

From Are We Doomed? by NPR Network

July 28, 2026 · 40 min

About this episode

Ben Bradford explores the absence of cyborgs in reality despite their prevalence in science fiction, discussing emerging technologies that could lead to their creation.

For more than a century, science fiction has imagined cyborgs: humans fused with machines to outrun the limits of the body. They show up in Edgar Allan Poe, in the gleaming menace of Darth Vader, in Halo’s armored supersoldiers, and in the body horror of cyberpunk. So where are they? Ben Bradford sets out to make a whimsical episode about why the cyborgs never arrived, and instead finds the technology that could build them already underway: military enhancement programs, brain-computer interfaces, AI brain-chip ventures from Elon Musk and Sam Altman, and wearables that can read signals from outside your skull. The question might not be whether cyborgs are coming, but whether we’ll recognize the path before we’re among them. Guests: Laura Cabrera, engineering and philosophy professor at Penn State University Emily Mullin, biotechnology reporter at WIRED Support Are We Doomed? , get bonus episodes, and more: https://doompod.com/support/ Watch earlier episodes on Youtube! https://www.youtube.com/@arewedoomedpod To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below: See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your…

People in this episode

Host: Ben Bradford

Guests: Laura Cabrera, Emily Mullin

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Penn State University, WIRED

Products: brain-computer interfaces, AI brain-chip ventures

Books & works: Halo, Darth Vader, Edgar Allan Poe, cyberpunk

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