One of the clearest manifestations of cyberpunk's post- or anti-humanist sensibility is the cyborg; a fusion of human and machine.

However, the cyborg differs fundamentally, from the robot and its humanoid form, android. A cyborg is a human being, or other organic creature, whose body is wholly or partially replaced with artificial parts. The purpose of this may to enhance physical capabilities or replace damaged body parts. In theory, a person who has a prosthetic limb, or even contact lenses, is a cyborg but in the science fiction context the meaning is limited to enhancing the human body through sophisticated technology.

The cyborg it has become a science fiction archetype appearing in all fields of science fiction from children's cartoons to underground movies. Especially the superhumanly strong and resilient warrior cyborg is a device often used in the action movies such as the Terminator and Nemesis series'.

Cyborgs appearing in science fiction fall roughly into two categories that represent slightly different attitude to techonology and the human body. The more traditional one is the cyborg as a victim. Paul Verhoeven's RoboCop is an example of the prosthetic approach: A police officer is maimed by a gang of criminals when on duty and falls into a coma. The company who he was working for gives him an invincible cybernetic body and turns him into a brutally efficient crime fighter and a PR figure. These kinds of cyborgs usually appear in movies and non- or superficially cyberpunk science fiction.

The use of cyborgs is not resticted to cyberpunk but the genre has taken the concept to it's extreme. The cyberpunk cyborg is not usually a victim but chooses to modify his or her body and fuse with cutting-edge technology to gain advantage. Body modifications can even be a fashion statement.

She shook her head. He realized that the glasses were sur- gically inset, sealing her sockets. The silver lenses seemed to grow from smooth pale skin above her cheekbones, framed by dark hair cut in a rough shag.
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She held out her hands, palms up, the white fingers slightly spread, and with a barely audible click, ten double-edged, four- centimeter scalpel blades slid from their housings beneath the burgundy nails.

William Gibson, Neuromancer

The cyberpunk cyborg as a concept has been of interest to feminist science fiction writers and theorists. The modifiability of the human body seems to make the traditional biological gender distinction obsolete. When the body is constructed of sexless metal, the gender division, if one is even necessary has to be done on other grounds. This idea is developed in philosopher Donna Haraway's socialist-feminist Cyborg Manifesto.