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I am a cyborg; today we live in a world of cyborgs. This makes statements such as these much more common. In the past cyborgs were consider freaks of nature and were one in a billion. Recently our society is has become no longer worried with whether you are a cyborg or not but rather what type of cyborg you are. Cyborg technologies have invaded nearly every aspect of our lives, including technologies such as vaccination, insulin pump, artificial organs, etc.
For decades, cyborgs have been exclusively associated with science fiction and fantasy; only in the futuristic genre can the organic and inorganic combine to form a cognitive being. In novels and in other forms of media, scientists are like gods that present humans with unimaginable enhancements, thus making them greater than the average human. Cyborgs are given the rep as tangled creations of human flesh and metal, which possess incredible strength, speed, or increased mental capacity. These cyborgs are praised and glamorized as so called super humans that are distinguished as a different species that has evolved by the hands of man. Although cyborgs seem to come from the imagination, there are cyborgs walking and living among us. They are not the advertised plated metal humans and they do not talk in robotic voices, but are like regular humans. These cyborgs are medical cyborgs. Some of them have mechanical devices implanted in their ears to help with hearing and overcome deafness, wear contacts, have an insulin pump to help control diabetes, or have an artificial heart to maintain the circulation of blood in their body. Producing a medical cyborg is a collaboration of medicine and technology to enhance or restore human biological processes.
For centuries, man ...
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...tor, or a second type of man that is built against nature and possess super human powers. Although these changes are incorporating machine into man, the purpose is to restore or replicate normal biological processes in reality, and not create the man envisioned in the works of science fictions.
Works Cited
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York, New York: Routledge, 1995.
Gaffney, F., and Fenton, Barry J. “Barney B Clark, DDS: A View From the
Medical Service”. The Cyborg Handbook. New York, New York:
Routledge, 1995.
Gray, Chris. H. “Cyborgology: Constructing the Knowledge of Cybernetic
Organisms” The Cyborg Handbook. New York, New York: Routledge, 1995.
Klugman, Craig M. “From Cyborg Fiction to Medical Reality”. Literature and
Medicine. 20, no. 1 (Spring 2001). The Johns Hopkins University
Press, 2001.
Posthuman by Nicholas Gane is a comparison of thoughts from selected scholars on the subject of the increasingly complex relationship between mankind and technology and how these technologies are breaking down the barriers that make us human. He starts by introducing us to the history of the concept of the Posthuman, which started with the cybernetic movement of the 1940’s and most influentially the writings of Norbert Wiener. The real popularity of the subject has its roots with Donna Haraways concept of the cyborg. Her concept is a postive rendition of the idea of posthumanism, which focuses on cybernetic technology and genetic modification and how these technologies could radically change humanity. Gane then defines Posthuman as when the
Organisms are limited by the structure of their bodies. Some creatures are capable to do great things because of the number of limbs they have, or the density of their skin. Humans in particular are extremely reliant in the capabilities that our bodies bring to us. Our bodies however, are not all dependable, as we can injure ourselves, and even lose parts of our body. To combat this loss of body, the great minds of our species have created false limbs to replace what we have lost. This great improvement to our lives is known as, the prosthetic. In recent years this technology has expanded into a new form, that combines prosthetics and robotics to make life for people
"Microchip Implants Closer to reality." The Futurist. 33.8 (1999): 9. Proquest Platinum. Proquest Information and Learning Co. Glenwood High School Lib., Chatham, IL 25 Oct. 2004
Donna Haraway’s 1984 “A Cyborg Manifesto” is an enduring essay unceasingly analyzed, critiqued, and adored by scholars and students. The piece, in which Haraway uses the cyborg as a metaphor to scrutinize hegemonic problems and refuse the binary, claims that “the boundary between science fiction and social reality is an optical illusion.” In other words, like the cyborg who cannot distinguish whether it is a machine or an organism, in society there is no difference between male and female; rich and poor; black and white. There is only gray, and there are countless shades of it. “A Cyborg Manifesto” is an influential essay that has been relevant to the past and is still relevant to the present. Hence, it is no surprise that it has inspired
Technology is evolving every day. Scientist are already able to modify genes using software knows as CRISPR, and one can not help but think to oneself, what’s next (Achenbach)? Androids from Science fiction may not be fiction for much longer. In Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner is a futuristic world were biomechanical androids known as Replicants roam the Earth and galaxy. The only actual way to differentiate between the man and machine is for the subject to undergo the Voight-Kampff test, which is a series of questions asked to invoke an emotional response. Humans are machine like in the sense that they are “programmed” by their cultures and social structures
Donna Haraway’s essay, ‘A Cyborg Manifesto’ is an analysis of women and advanced technology in a postmodern world. Haraway uses various illustrations to focus on women’s relation to the technologically scientific world, she uses the metaphor of a cyborg to challenge feminists and engage in a politics beyond naturalism and essentialisms. She also uses the idea of the cyborg to offer a political strategy for the dissimilar interests of socialism and feminism. In her manifesto, Haraway describes a cyborg as a hybrid of machine and organism or a cybernetic organism, created by the advances in technology.
The two controversial topics discussed below share a single goal: to enhance the quality of life of a human individual. The first topic, transhumanism, is a largely theoretical movement that involves the advancement of the human body through scientific augmentations of existing human systems. This includes a wide variety of applications, such as neuropharmacology to enhance the function of the human brain, biomechanical interfaces to allow the human muscles to vastly out-perform their unmodified colleagues, and numerous attempts to greatly extend, perhaps indefinitely, the human lifespan. While transhumanist discussion is predominantly a thinking exercise, it brings up many important ethical dilemmas that may face human society much sooner than the advancements transhumanism desires to bring into reality. The second topic, elective removal of healthy limbs at the request of the patient, carries much more immediate gravity. Sufferers of a mental condition known as Body Integrity Identity Disorder seek to put to rest the disturbing disconnect between their internal body image and their external body composition. This issue is often clouded by sensationalism and controversy in the media, and is therefore rarely discussed in a productive manner (Bridy). This lack of discussion halts progress and potentially limits citizens' rights, as legislation is enacted without sufficient research. The primary arguments against each topic are surprisingly similar; an expansion on both transhumanism and elective amputation follows, along with a discussion of the merit of those arguments. The reader will see how limits placed on both transhumanism and elective amputation cause more harm to whole of human society than good.
Have you ever heard the phrase that robots are taking over the world? Well it seems like this unimaginable concept is becoming a reality. Robots are moving to the surgery table and there is no going back to the good old traditional surgery procedures, where the surgeons perform the operation on their own by hand. Gone are those unsteady hands and comes those metallic hands that are here to stay. Robotic surgeries are the latest trend in the surgical department these days. The first surgical robot to be approved for operation and deemed safe to use is the Da Vinci and was in the market in 1999 (source).The Da Vinci is used while the surgeon is seated comfortably at a computer console, viewing a 3-D image of the surgical field. The surgeon's fingers grasp the masters on the computer console and while viewing the surgical field through the Da Vinci Systems high resolution, three dimensional image display, the surgeon manipulates and guides Da Vinci's computer assisted robotic arms and instruments. There are other surgical robots that can perform the operation but the Da Vinci is the fi...
Haraway, Donna J. "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century". Simians, Cyborgs, and Women. The Reinvention of Nature. London: Free Association Books, 1991.
Haraway, Donna. `A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the 1980's', Socialist Reivew, Vol. 15, No. 80, 1985
3. Simians, Cyborgs, and Woman: The Reinvention of Nature. Haraway, Donna J. Routledge. Florence, KY, USA
At first glance, transhumanism is an impressive and fascinating idea, for it intends to enhance the human in order to guarantee them a better life, thus making endless improvements and upgrades the goal. (Mossman, 141) There are different types of transhumanism ranging from technologies that are already accessible such as different medical and pharmaceutical technologies that enable better physical and cognitive abilities, to scenarios that are far in the future if not completely science-fictional such as “discarding the human body entirely and uploading the human consciousness unto artificially intelligent “immortal” machi...
Human enhancement is any attempt to temporarily or permanently overcome the current limitations of the human body through natural or artificial means. It is in our human nature that we somehow increase our life expectancy, become stronger, fearless, independent and smarter. It is no surprise we turn to all sorts of technologies – neurotechnology, nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology – to improve human performances. While they might improve our performances and abilities, their use raises serious health, ethical and economic issues, furthermore, not enough is known about the long-term consequences.
Harroway, Donna . "Cyborgs to Companion Species: Reconfiguring Kinship in Technoscience." English 387 Course Pack. Regina: Professor J. Battis, 2009. 304-311. Print.
The robotic technology development is gaining momentum in the 21st century. A robot can be defined as a machine that performs different tasks and can be programmed by humans (Pangka, Hui and Yan 2013). The qualities of robots such as tirelessness and lack of emotionality makes them perfect task performers. Robots are used in many spheres such as domestic service, military, and healthcare. There are also several types of robots used in medicine. Robots can be used as nurse assistants, patient companions and also robots can perform some easy surgeries or assist surgeons. The purpose of this project is to describe the impacts of using robotic technology in medicine. Robots accomplish procedures less riskily and with greater accuracy (Golub and Tkacheva 2011). One example of using the robotic technology in medicine is a humanoid robot NAO which is aimed at healing children with autism by interacting with them. Despite some limitations and the novelty of this robot, the application of the robot NAO into medicine has significant benefits and is probably the most effective solution for autism.