Cyborg

From IntegratedMedia

Contents 1 What is a Cyborg? 2 Is technology making us more Cybernetic? 3 Further reading 4 References

What is a Cyborg?

Cyborg is short for cybernetic organism, which is an organism that has both artificial and natural systems. Cyborg theorists Gray, Mentor, and Figueroa-Sarriera (1995) explain the term as “the melding of the organic and the mechanic, or the engineering of a union between separate organic systems” The term was coined in 1960 when Manfred Clynes and Nathan Kline used it in an article about the advantages of self-regulating human-machine systems in outer space [2].

According to some definitions of the term, the attachments humanity has with even the most basic technologies have already made them cyborgs. For example, a human fitted with a heart pacemaker might be considered a cyborg, since these mechanical parts enhance the body's natural mechanisms. Some theorists cite such modifications as contact lenses or hearing aids, as examples of fitting humans with technology to enhance their biological capabilities.

Is technology making us more Cybernetic?

Many cyborgologists would say that we are all cyborgs to some extent, as our daily lives become increasingly connected to technologies of all kinds. The question that has been posed nowadays (in 2008), is whether the use of technologies such as mobile phones, social networking sites, blogs and virtual words, are making us even more cybernetic?

Quotes on the topic from the cognitive scientist Andy Clark [3]:

"As our worlds become smarter, and get to know us better and better, it becomes harder 
and harder to say where the world stops and the person begins."

"The point is not to guess at what we might soon become, but to better appreciate 
what we already are: creatures whose minds are special precisely because they  
are tailor-made to mix and match neural, bodily and technological ploys."

Further reading

• A book by Andy Clark, Natural-Born Cyborgs: Minds, Technologies, and the Future of Human Intelligence.

• Natural Born Cyborgs-An essay by Andy Clark

• We Are Becoming Cyborgs by futurist Ray Kurzweil

• Mobile phone users: are we now cyborgs by Ken Thompson

References

• [1]Gray, C. H., Mentor, S., & Figueroa-Sarriera, H. J. (1995). Cyborgology: Constructing the knowledge of cybernetic organisms. In C. H. Gray (Ed.), The cyborg handbook (pp. 1-14). New York: Routledge.
• [2] Manfred E. Clynes and Nathan S. Kline. "Cyborgs and Space," in Astronautics (September 1960).
• [3] Edge. 2007 [online]. [Accessed 28 April 2008]. Available from World Wide Web: < http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/clark/clark_index.html>