Human beings are born naked. Within moments after birth however, the process of becoming a cyborg begins.

A cyborg is a human being who applies technology to the problem of survival. Clothing is a technology. Put on a piece of clothing and you become a cyborg. Take medicine to safeguard against disease and you become a cyborg.

Each generation is comfortable with the cyborgs of their culture. Each generation is also cautious or rejecting of the new cyborgs of emerging generations. The horse and buggy generation did not feel at home with the motorized world of emerging generations. The cycle continues and is intensified as the pace of change of cyborgs proceeds.

There is a generation that is not comfortable with the idea of wearing computers on the body, of becoming a walking computer network. There is a generation not comfortable with implanting computers inside the body. There is a generation not comfortable with altering the machinery of the genes and creating nanotechnologies that swim in the human bloodstream.

The study of cyborgs and the associated research and development with wearable computers continues at a blistering pace. MIT's Media Lab has been a leader in this field from the beginning. Research students from that MIT program have gone on to make their own contributions to the field. In particular, the leadership of Steve Mann at the University of Toronto is important. Dr. Mann is the inventor of Eyetap, a laser system that projects images on the retina.

Early wearable technologies will eventually change what it means to see. They will change what it means to be an eye doctor. They will alter human perception.