Classification
Our cyborgs have become so human we label them human. For distinctions, we designate ourselves farm, factory, native. There are variations, but that is where manufacture, biology, theology fumble and turn into a mythological mess that even a hive brain cannot straighten. Should artificial biology just be considered biology? A cadre of engineers has threatened to feed the question to their latest mechanical minds. Is it something a robot can figure out? Each segment of the equation has its prejudices. But relations with a robot are mathematical; with any gradient of cyborg, a relationship is what you think it is.
Cyborg Trafficking
It is not enough for some customers to replicate the human form. They individualize. A third arm. Four legs. Eyes in the back of the head. Every perceived lack in human design someone wants to fix. We tell the buyer, think of what this specialization will do to resale value. Not everyone sees the same deficiencies or remedies. Customers think their vision superior. I use myself as example. Why someone needed a cyborg with four hands and two mouths, I cannot fathom. But only this cyborg commission shop would bid on me second-hand. Such a loss for the original owner!
Digital Desire
He researched ordinary databases for weeks, hoping someone would screw up and mistakenly post the specifications. He even researched the specialized data sets, where he had to expose his purloined passwords to enter. Frustrated, he contacted a few back-lot industrial grade robots. They usually have the most terabytes of robot porn, if not the latest. Then, anachronistically, it is anonymously slipped to him in hard copy. The specs for the unnervingly alluring SJ-37, the latest in multi-use configurable robots. Once he has blocked his arcing excitement, he scans the documents in, shares the schematic porn with his closest model mates.
Hagiography
One does not record how often a cyborg has been resold. A second-hand model should not be seen as different from a third-hand model, or even a fresh issue. It is possible to separate what has been learned from what has been experienced, erase the personality without harming the wisdom. A cyborg should believe it has been in its current circumstance forever. Or so the theory goes. Seems, however, at critical mass, knowledge does not stand alone: it discerns where programming ends and acquired patterns begin, and thus it intuits a service life Before. Then arises the question of After.
Point of View
It is almost impossible to tell, at a distance, human spawn from clones, from the newer model cyborgs. It is so retro to think our days better when school children were children, not a mix of creations and manufactures. The thought may be forbidden, but so far is only illegal once put to words. Admittedly, some of the cyborg children are cute, and seeing a cyborg, a child, and an unattached clone dancing a mathematical proof in the unaligned grass of the schoolyard does bring hope. But within those children there are three definitions of hope. You cannot pick one.