The net result is an endless string of women in starring roles (usually of the midyear action/comedy blockbuster variety) who not only extol the virtues of the atypical gal who can look after herself but claim to be the embodiment of them.

Search for ‘bionics’ on the web and you’ll find a huge array of electronic devices that attach to injured, diseased or otherwise damaged bodies. Exoskeleton legs that look like robotic sci-fi warriors give paraplegics the power to walk. A procedure that re-routes muscles from a severed arm into chest muscles can give an amputee control over an artificial arm simply by thinking about it.

Though we’re no closer to discovering the soul today, we know about dendrites, axons (cell components) and synapses (empty, electro-conductive space).