“Cyborg Love” by T. Ball


Tom Ball has published novels, novellas, short stories, poetry and flash in 42 publications. Website: https://tomballbooks.com Online Journal Website (he is senior editor/co-founder): https://fleasonthedog.com E-mail: tomball33@yahoo.com Facebook: tomball33@gmail.com

T. Ball has been previously featured by In Parentheses.


Cyborg Love

 I, Diana, said to Bart, “Tell me about your experiences on Venus, Love city!” He told me, “Of course everyone there is a cyborg, and people there live fast and hard. And I was temporarily a cyborg but have now restored myself to the previous version and eliminated most of my memories of being a cyborg. But I still recall my romances I had there. They were all frantic and crazy, but good. Cyborgs all have a lot of energy.  But I prefer real human relationships, despite all the faults humans have. Cyborgs seek perfection, but their life is too fast, and I even needed heart medication while I was there.”
 I said, “You are highly unusual. Most cyborgs want more brain apps and want to live in the future, fast forward and never look back.” Bart said, “I want to lead a pro-human future movement. I believe humans have a place in the future.” And so, he selected leading human thinkers and they all met to discuss times to come. They concluded that cyborgs should be banned from Earth. As it was, there were only a few thousand here; they all wanted to go to Space, which they regarded as the future anyway. Missions were leaving for deep Space, weekly and he wished them luck.
 And Bart said, “People should revel in their faults and try and be unique thinkers. And the best thinkers would get together and love one another and create a loving society. Cyborgs meanwhile have rapid sex without love. It is all about pleasure to them. They don’t really love anyone.” 
 I opined, “Some people think cyborgs are an anathema. And some even want to war with them.” Bart said, “Humans would not win such a war as cyborgs all have strong armies which they mostly use to keep one another in check. To make war with them would unite them and they’d make short work of humans. As it is most cyborgs are happy to coexist with human beings. Let’s let sleeping dogs lie.”
 I told him, “I’ve heard that cyborgs want to improve and make themselves into Superhumans.” He replied, “They are already Superhuman, just not the kind we wish for. They are not very kind; they are cold and calculating and too competitive and frown on human history. And few of them really care for humans as well. They tolerate humans, but most want to get to Space, away from humans. They are not the type of progeny we would wish for. That’s why I changed back to human, but the vast majority of people who are cyborgs are all in, totally cyborg futurists.”
  And I asked him, “What about having human children?” He answered, “I wouldn’t really want to bring children into today’s World. But we are all eternally youthful, so no real need to reproduce.” I said, “However, the suicide rate is 2.5% per annum and the birth rate is just 0.8% per year, so humans are phasing themselves out.” He replied, “I think there will always be humans, here on Earth. The cyborgs mostly ignore humans and let them be. Earth is for humans, and the vastness of Space is for Superhumans. There are billions and billions of Planets within a few years journey for these Super beings.” I said, “If Superhumans are as greedy as you say, some of them are bound to seize and colonize Earth, making slaves of us all, or even worse exterminating us, and who will care?” He said, “In hindsight it would have been better to not make clever people even cleverer. But it is too late to go back now.” I said, “What gets me is why wasn’t there a plan for the future. It all happened so haphazardly and virtually no one stood up and said enhancing intelligence is a bad thing. Now it is chaos in Space.” He said, “Superhumans thrive on chaos.”   
  I opined, “Most humans are oblivious on drugs and dreaming and don’t seem to care about the future, nothing seems to shock them. But I am shocked, and I think you should turn back into a cyborg and be a voice for humans and I would like to do the same. And I would like to love you. Love me in cyborg style.” He replied, “As I said Superhuman sex is quick and loveless. I’d rather love you in the best human style. I kind of like you too!”
 So, we loved one another, using MRT (Mind Reading Technology) and I felt I was in love for 

the first time. It was an overwhelming feeling. And I felt I’d loved him for a long time. And I asked him, “If he would stay with me, at least for a while?” He said, “I’m kind of at loose ends these days. And I would love to spend some time with you!”
And we got to talking about what we could do about the future? And we agreed to form a pan-human political party. And we planned to invite cyborgs who were friendly with humans to be our co-leaders. Some cyborgs we found actually in favor of human welfare, and they helped us to organize an army with the latest weaponry and defenses. We had no trouble finding new troops to form our army. Many said they were willing to die for humanity…
And Bart and I felt we carried humanity’s future on our shoulders and slowly but surely, we convinced many humans to join our movement. We figured we were at least giving humans a fighting chance to survive into the future.
And many people were interested in Bart and my relationship. Some people said, we made them feel good to know that love had a future. And accounts of cyborg love scared many people.
Anyway, Bart and I lived on for hundreds of years and humanity lived along with us.


From the Editor:

We hope that readers receive In Parentheses as a medium through which the evolution of human thought can be appreciated, nurtured and precipitated. It will present a dynamo of artistic expression, journalism, informal analysis of our daily world, entertainment of ideas considered lofty and criticism of today’s popular culture. The featured content does not follow any specific ideology except for that of intellectual expansion of the masses.

Founded in late 2011, In Parentheses prides itself upon analysis of the current condition of intelligence in the minds of these young people, and building a hypothesis for one looming question: what comes after Post-Modernism?

The idea for this magazine stems from a simple conversation regarding the aforementioned question, which drew out the need to identify our generation’s place in literary history.

To view the types of work we typically publish, preview or purchase our past issues.

Please join our community on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram at @inparenth.


In Parentheses Literary Magazine (Volume 10, Issue 1) October 2025

By In Parentheses in Volume 10

48 pages, published 10/15/2025

The October 2025 issue of In Parentheses Literary Magazine.

Black Lives Matter

This part of the website is under construction.




enter the discussion: