A Study in 3 Parts: Part 3 - Cyborgs

So Part 3 now. Last post in this vein. Chronologically speaking, the whole cyborg thing started at another dinner with the family. Whether it was coming or going I cannot say for certain. It would have been after the Fall 2005 semester, but I remember only wearing a light jacket. Although we did have a relatively mild winter so I suppose the timing is right here. In any event, we were eating at Avanti's in Pennington, a nice little Italian place. I had gotten on the topic of this reasearch project that I had somewhat half heartedly been doing over the past semester and its possibility for continuance in the future. It is at this point that I actually have to explain what my major is to my family. I think by then both of my parents had figured this out, as they are both technically minded people, but my brother is a different story.

Allow me to provide a little background on him. He's 3 years older than I, just for reference, should you read this at any time but the present or should I forget, and went to Colgate for undergraduate. He double majored in English and German, graduated with honors, etcetera, etcetera. Smart guy, just not technically minded like our parents. To put it another way, by which I mean no disservice to him, he will be studying Welsh literature or something at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth in the fall.

So while I'm trying to explain the various functions and sevices of the biomedical engineering community, more specifically the aspects that actually interest me, he says: "So you build cyborgs?" Which I suppose is more truth than it would seem. It may indeed be where the field leads eventually, but I get ahead of myself. The cyborg concept now seems to be the method of explanation of my major to the rest of my family. Apparently someone tried to explain it to my sister this way, and so there I was, in the window booth at PJ's Pancake House in Princeton explaining biomedical engineering, by way of cyborgs and plans of dastardly dos, over two eggs, scrambled, two pancakes, two pieces of bacon and a sausage link.

Since then it has been this running inside joke between us, me and my brother, eternally connected with the secret lair concept, which I have previously fleshed out. In the course of this intertwining of ideas, this development of a super villainous syndicate of sorts, a sort of dramatis personae of evil and what not, the cyborg idea has become an army of sorts. Housed in a barracks on the other side of the island. I mean honestly, who wants there kids growing up with bionic arms and RoboCops in their faces?