The Ghost in the Shell comic book series, film rights to which were picked up by Dreamworks co-owner Steven Spielberg in 2009, follows cyborg detective Major Motoko Kusanagi, team leader of a futuristic Japanese counterterrorism organisation focused on cyber-crime.
Mann has looked like a cyborg for two decades, having built a head-mounted computer device as a high school student in the 1970s.
The story is a future-noir thriller along the lines of Bladerunner, following a female cyborg detective on the trail of a mysterious hacker.
In 2004, this "eyeborg" extension was allowed to feature on his passport photo, a milestone in cyborg rights.
Unlike the replicants in Blade Runner, the techno-slaves of The Matrix or the robot in AI, Ghost's cyborg heroine does not seek to regain her "lost" humanity.
You want a buzzing cyborg racket?
Recalls, which bypass party primaries, can have unexpected results; California tried one in 2003 and ended up with a cyborg as governor.
The Republican governor had earlier called the vote "Judgment Day", describing the special election as "the sequel to the recall", the vote two years ago that sacked the Democratic governor, Gray Davis, and elevated the erstwhile cyborg to the position.So much for the Hollywood metaphors.
Perhaps the age of the cyborg is closer than most people had thought except writers of science fiction, of course.
In 2009 a Pentagon-sponsored project demonstrated a "Cyborg beetle" whose flight was controlled by jolting it with mild electrical charges.
So, if human trials confirm these results, the surgical-repairer's toolkit will have acquired a useful additional instrument and the age of the cyborg will be just that little bit nearer.
