Product Code Database
A cyborg is a being with both Organic matter and biomechatronic body parts. The name is pronounced , and it is a portmanteau of cybernetics and organism. The term was coined in 1960 by Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline. In contrast to Biorobotics and androids, the term cyborg applies to a living organism that has undergone restoration of function or enhancements of abilities due to the integration of some artificial component or technology that relies on feedback.
Unlike bionics, biorobotics, or androids, a cyborg is an organism that has restored function or, especially, enhanced abilities due to the integration of some artificial component or technology that relies on some sort of feedback, for example: Prosthesis, , implants or, in some cases, wearable technology. Cyborg technologies may enable or support collective intelligence. A related idea is the "augmented human". While cyborgs are commonly thought of as , including humans, the term can apply to any organism.
In "A Cyborg Manifesto", Donna Haraway rejects the notion of rigid boundaries between humanity and technology, arguing that, as humans depend on more technology over time, humanity and technology have become too interwoven to draw lines between them. She believes that since we have allowed and created machines and technology to be so advanced, there should be no reason to fear what we have created, and cyborgs should be embraced because they are part of human identities.Donna Haraway 2006 (1984). A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century. In The International Handbook of Virtual Learning Environments. J. Weis et al., eds.Dordrecht: Springer, pp. 117–158. However, Haraway has also expressed concern over the contradictions of scientific objectivity and the ethics of technological evolution, and has argued that "There are political consequences to scientific accounts of the world."
The emerging trend of implanting microchips inside the body (mainly the hands), to make financial operations like a contactless payment, or basic tasks like opening a door, has been erroneously marketed as more recent examples of cybernetic enhancement. The latter has not yet seen significant traction outside niche areas in Scandinavia and in actual function is little more than a pre-programmed Radio-frequency identification (RFID) microchip encased in glass that does not interact with the human body (it is the same technology used in the microchips injected into animals for ease of identification), thus not fitting the definition of a cybernetic implant.
As cyborgs currently are on the rise, some theorists argue there is a need to develop new definitions of Ageing. For instance, a bio-techno-social definition of aging has been suggested.
The term is also used to address human-technology mixtures in the abstract. This includes not only commonly used pieces of technology such as phones, computers, the Internet, and so on, but also artifacts that are not usually considered technology; for example, pen and paper, and speech and language. When augmented with these technologies and connected in communication with people in other times and places, a person becomes capable of more than they were before. An example is a computer, which gains power by using Internet protocols to connect with other computers. Another example is a social-media bot—either a bot-assisted human or a human-assisted-bot—used to target social media with Like button and Online sharing. Cybernetics technologies thus include highways, Plumbing, electrical wiring, buildings, Power station, libraries, and other Infrastructure.
Bruce Sterling, in his Shaper/Mechanist universe, suggested an idea of an alternative cyborg called 'Lobster', which is made not by using internal implants, but by using an external shell (e.g. a powered exoskeleton).Sterling, Bruce. 1985. Schismatrix. Arbor House. The computer game prominently features cyborgs called Omar, Russian for 'lobster'.
In his 2019 book Novacene, James Lovelock used the term "cyborgs" to refer to the next generation of beings who will become the "understanders of the future" and "lead the cosmos to self-knowledge". While acknowledging the organic component in Clynes' and Kline's definition, he proposed that these cyborgs "will have designed and built themselves from the artificial intelligence systems we have already constructed", and used the term cyborg "to emphasize that the new intelligent beings will have arisen, like us, from Darwinian evolution."
In 1960, the term "cyborg" was coined by Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline to refer to their conception of an Enhanced human who could survive in extraterrestrial environments:
Their concept was the outcome of thinking about the need for an intimate relationship between human and machine as the new frontier of space exploration was beginning to develop. A designer of physiology instrumentation and electronic data-processing systems, Clynes was the chief research scientist in the Dynamic Simulation Laboratory at Rockland State Hospital in New York.
The term first appears in print 5 months earlier when The New York Times reported on the " Psychophysiological Aspects of Space Flight Symposium" where Clynes and Kline first presented their paper:
Thereafter, Hamilton would first use the term "cyborg" explicitly in the 1962 short story, "After a Judgment Day", to describe the "mechanical analogs" called "Charlies," explaining that "cyborgs, they had been called from the first one in the 1960s...cybernetic organisms."
In 2001, a book titled Cyborg: Digital Destiny and Human Possibility in the Age of the Wearable computer was published by Doubleday. Some of the ideas in the book were incorporated into the documentary film Cyberman that same year.
Such work was presented by Raffaele Di Giacomo, Bruno Maresca, and others, at the Materials Research Society's spring conference on 3 April 2013. The cyborg obtained was inexpensive, light and had unique mechanical properties. It could also be shaped in the desired forms. Cells combined with MWCNT (MWCNTs) Coprecipitated as a specific aggregate of cells and nanotubes that formed a viscous material. Likewise, dried cells still acted as a stable matrix for the MWCNT network. When observed by optical microscopy, the material resembled an artificial "tissue" composed of highly packed cells. The effect of cell drying was manifested by their "ghost cell" appearance. A rather specific physical interaction between MWCNTs and cells was observed by electron microscopy, suggesting that the cell wall (the outermost part of fungal and plant cells) may play a major active role in establishing a carbon nanotube's network and its stabilization. This novel material can be used in a wide range of electronic applications, from heating to sensing. For instance, using Candida albicans cells, a species of yeast that often lives inside the human gastrointestinal tract, cyborg tissue materials with temperature sensing properties have been reported.
In vision science, direct have been used to treat non-congenital (acquired) blindness. One of the first scientists to come up with a working brain interface to restore sight was private researcher William Dobelle. Dobelle's first prototype was implanted into "Jerry", a man blinded in adulthood, in 1978. A single-array BCI containing 68 was implanted onto Jerry's visual cortex and succeeded in producing phosphenes, the sensation of seeing light. The system included cameras mounted on glasses to send signals to the implant. Initially, the implant allowed Jerry to see shades of grey in a limited field of vision at a low frame-rate. This also required him to be hooked up to a two-ton mainframe, but shrinking electronics and faster computers made his artificial eye more portable and now enable him to perform simple tasks unassisted. Vision Quest: A Half Century of Artificial-Sight Research Has Succeeded. And Now This Blind Man Can See, Wired Magazine, September 2002
In 1997, Philip Kennedy, a scientist and physician, created the world's first human cyborg from Johnny Ray, a Vietnam veteran who suffered a stroke. Ray's body, as doctors called it, was "locked in". Ray wanted his old life back so he agreed to Kennedy's experiment. Kennedy embedded an implant he designed (and named a "neurotrophic electrode") near the injured part of Ray's brain so that Ray would be able to have some movement back in his body. The surgery went successfully, but in 2002, Ray died.Baker, Sherry. "Rise of the Cyborgs", Discover 29.10 (2008): 50. Science Reference Center. Web. 4 November 2012
In 2002, Canadian Jens Naumann, also blinded in adulthood, became the first in a series of 16 paying patients to receive Dobelle's second-generation implant, marking one of the earliest commercial uses of BCIs. The second-generation device used a more sophisticated implant enabling better mapping of phosphenes into coherent vision. Phosphenes are spread out across the visual field in what researchers call the starry-night effect. Immediately after his implant, Naumann was able to use his imperfectly restored vision to drive slowly around the parking area of the research institute.Macintyre, James "BMI: the research that holds the key to hope for millions", The Independent, 29 May 2008
In contrast to replacement technologies, in 2002, under the heading Project Cyborg, a British scientist, Kevin Warwick, had an array of 100 electrodes fired into his nervous system to link his nervous system into the internet to investigate enhancement possibilities. With this in place, Warwick successfully carried out a series of experiments including extending his nervous system over the internet to control a robotic hand, also receiving feedback from the fingertips to control the hand's grip. This was a form of extended sensory input. Subsequently, he investigated ultrasonic input to Sonar. Finally, with electrodes also implanted into his wife's nervous system, they conducted the first direct electronic communication experiment between the nervous systems of two humans.Warwick, K, Gasson, M, Hutt, B, Goodhew, I, Kyberd, P, Schulzrinne, H and Wu, X: "Thought Communication and Control: A First Step using Radiotelegraphy", IEE Proceedings on Communications, 151(3), pp.185–189, 2004
Since 2004, British artist Neil Harbisson has had a cyborg antenna implanted in his head that allows him to extend his perception of colors beyond the human visual spectrum through vibrations in his skull.Alfredo M. Ronchi: Eculture: Cultural Content in the Digital Age. Springer (New York, 2009). p. 319 His antenna was included within his 2004 British passport photograph which has been said to confirm his cyborg status.Andy Miah, Emma Rich: The Medicalization of Cyberspace, Routledge (New York, 2008), p. 130 (Hardcover: Papercover: ) In 2012 at TEDGlobal, "I listen to color" , TED Global, 27 June 2012. Harbisson explained that he started to feel like a cyborg when he noticed that the software and his brain had united and given him an extra sense. Harbisson is a co-founder of the Cyborg Foundation (2004)*Miah, Andy / Rich, Emma. The medicalization of cyberspace, Routledge (New York, 2008). p.130
and cofounded the Transpecies Society in 2017, which is an association that empowers individuals with non-human identities and supports them in their decisions to develop unique senses and new organs. Neil Harbisson is a global advocate for the rights of cyborgs.
Rob Spence, a Toronto-based filmmaker, who titles himself a real-life "Eyeborg", severely damaged his right eye in a shooting accident on his grandfather's farm as a child. Many years later, in 2005, he decided to have his ever-deteriorating and now technically blind eye surgically removed, whereafter he wore an eyepatch for some time before he later, after having played for some time with the idea of installing a camera instead, contacted professor Steve Mann at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an expert in wearable computing and cyborg technology.
Under Mann's guidance, Spence, at age 36, created a prototype in the form of the miniature camera which could be fitted inside his prosthetic eye; an invention that would come to be named by Time magazine as one of the best inventions of 2009. The bionic eye records everything he sees and contains a 1.5 mm2, Low resolution video camera, a small round printed circuit board, a wireless video transmitter, which allows him to transmit what he is seeing in real-time to a computer, and a 3-volt rechargeable VARTA Micro battery. The eye is not connected to his brain and has not restored his sense of vision. Additionally, Spence has also installed a laser-like LED light in one version of the prototype.
Furthermore, many people with multifunctional radio frequency identification (RFID) microchips injected into a hand are known to exist. With the chips they are able to , open or unlock Electronic lock, operate devices such as printers or, with some using cryptocurrency, buy products, such as drinks, with a wave of the hand.
On the contrary, the enhanced cyborg "follows a principle, and it is the principle of optimal performance: maximising output (the information or modifications obtained) and minimising input (the energy expended in the process)".Lyotard, Jean François: The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1984 Thus, the enhanced cyborg intends to exceed normal processes or even gain new functions that were not originally present.
are another form of cyborgization in medicine. The theory behind retinal stimulation to restore vision for those suffering from retinitis pigmentosa and vision loss due to aging (conditions in which people have an abnormally low number of retinal ganglion cells), is that the retinal implant and electrical stimulation would act as a substitute for the missing ganglion cells (cells which connect the eye to the brain).
While the work to perfect this technology is still being done, there have already been major advances in the use of electronic stimulation of the retina to allow the eye to sense patterns of light. A specialized camera is worn by the subject, such as on the frames of their glasses, which converts the image into a pattern of electrical stimulation. A chip located in the user's eye would then electrically stimulate the retina with this pattern by exciting certain nerve endings which transmit the image to the optic centers of the brain, and the image would then appear to the user. If technological advances proceed as planned, this technology may be used by thousands of blind people and restore vision to most of them.
A similar process has been created to aid people who have lost their vocal cords. This experimental device would do away with previously used robotic-sounding Speech synthesis. The transmission of sound would start with a surgery to redirect the nerve that controls the voice and sound production to a muscle in the neck, where a nearby sensor would be able to pick up its electrical signals. The signals would then move to a Signal processor which would control the timing and pitch of a voice simulator. That simulator would then vibrate producing a multi-tonal sound that could be shaped into words by the mouth.Thurston, Bonnie. "Was blind, but now I see." 11. Christian Century Foundation, 2007. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 8 March 2010.
An article published in Nature Materials in 2012 reported research on "cyborg tissues" (engineered human tissues with embedded three-dimensional mesh of nanoscale wires), with possible medical implications.
In 2014, researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and Washington University in St. Louis had developed a device that could keep a Cardiac cycle endlessly. By using 3D printing and computer modeling, these scientists developed an electronic membrane that could successfully replace pacemakers. The device uses a "spider-web like network of sensors and electrodes" to monitor and maintain a normal heart rate with electrical stimuli. Unlike traditional pacemakers that are similar from patient to patient, the elastic heart glove is made custom by using high-resolution imaging technology. The first prototype was created to fit a rabbit's heart, operating the organ in an oxygen and nutrient-rich solution. The stretchable material and circuits of the apparatus were first constructed by Professor John A. Rogers in which the electrodes are arranged in an s-shape design to allow them to expand and bend without breaking. Although the device is only currently used as a research tool to study changes in heart rate, in the future the membrane may serve as a safeguard against heart attacks.
Deep brain stimulation is a Neurosurgery used for therapeutic purposes. This process has aided in treating patients diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, Tourette syndrome, epilepsy, chronic headaches, and . After the patient is Unconsciousness, through anesthesia, or electrodes, are implanted into the Brain regions where the cause of the disease is present. The region of the brain is then stimulated by bursts of electric current to disrupt the oncoming surge of . Like all invasive procedures, deep brain stimulation may put the patient at a higher risk. However, there have been more improvements in recent years with deep brain stimulation than any available drug treatment.
In 2006, researchers at Cornell University inventedLal A, Ewer J, Paul A, Bozkurt A, " Surgically Implanted Micro-platforms and Microsystems in Arthropods and Methods Based Thereon", US Patent Application # US20100025527, Filed on 12/11/2007. a new surgical procedure to implant artificial structures into insects during their metamorphic development.Paul A., Bozkurt A., Ewer J., Blossey B., Lal A. (2006) Surgically Implanted Micro-Platforms in Manduca-Sexta, 2006 Solid State Sensor and Actuator Workshop, Hilton Head Island, June 2006, pp 209–211. The first insect cyborgs, moths with integrated electronics in their thorax, were demonstrated by the same researchers.Bozkurt A., Paul A., Pulla S., Ramkumar R., Blossey B., Ewer J., Gilmour R, Lal A. (2007) Microprobe Microsystem Platform Inserted During Early Metamorphosis to Actuate Insect Flight Muscle. 20th IEEE International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS 2007), Kobe, JAPAN, January 2007, pp. 405–408. The initial success of the techniques has resulted in increased research and the creation of a program called Hybrid-Insect-MEMS (HI-MEMS). Its goal, according to DARPA's Microsystems Technology Office, is to develop "tightly coupled machine-insect interfaces by placing micro-mechanical systems inside the insects during the early stages of metamorphosis."
The use of neural implants has recently been attempted, with success, on cockroaches. Surgically applied electrodes were put on the insect, which was remotely controlled by a human. The results, although sometimes different, basically showed that the cockroach could be controlled by the impulses it received through the electrodes. DARPA is now funding this research because of its obvious beneficial applications to the military and other areas
In 2009 at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) MEMS conference in Italy, researchers demonstrated the first "wireless" flying-beetle cyborg.Ornes, Stephen. "THE PENTAGON'S BEETLE BORGS." Discover 30.5 (2009): 14. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 1 March 2010. Engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, have pioneered the design of a "remote-controlled beetle", funded by the DARPA HI-MEMS Program. Cyborg beetles to be the US military's latest weapon. YouTube (28 October 2009). Retrieved 29 August 2011. This was followed later that year by the demonstration of wireless control of a "lift-assisted" moth-cyborg.Bozkurt A, Lal A, Gilmour R. (2009) Radio Control of Insects for Biobotic Domestication. 4th International Conference of the IEEE Neural Engineering (NER'09), Antalya, Turkey.
Eventually researchers plan to develop HI-MEMS for dragonflies, bees, rats, and pigeons.Guizzo, Eric. "Moth Pupa + MEMS Chip = Remote Controlled Cyborg Insect." Automan. IEEE Spectrum, 17 February 2009. Web. 1 March 2010. For the HI-MEMS cybernetic bug to be considered a success, it must fly from a starting point, guided via computer into a controlled landing within of a specific end point. Once landed, the cybernetic bug must remain in place.
In 2020, an article published in Science Robotics by researchers at the University of Washington reported a mechanically steerable wireless camera attached to beetles. Miniature cameras weighing 248 mg were attached to live beetles of the Tenebrionidae genera Asbolus and Eleodes. The camera wirelessly streamed video to a smartphone via Bluetooth for up to 6 hours and the user could remotely steer the camera to achieve a bug's-eye view.
This was already a remarkable improvement, as it allowed disabled people to compete and showed the several technological enhancements that are already making a difference; however, it showed that there is still a long way to go. For instance, the exoskeleton race still required its participants to stand up from a chair and sit down, navigate a Slalom skiing and other simple activities such as walking over stepping stones and climbing up and down stairs. Despite the simplicity of these activities, 8 of the 16 teams that participated in the event drop off before the start.
Nonetheless, one of the main goals of this event and such simple activities is to show how technological enhancements and advanced prosthetics can make a difference in people's lives. The next Cybathlon that was expected to occur in 2020, was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Stelarc is a performance artist who has visually probed and acoustically amplified his body. He uses medical instruments, prosthetics, robotics, virtual reality systems, the Internet and biotechnology to explore alternate, intimate and involuntary interfaces with the body. He has made three films of the inside of his body and has performed with a third hand and a virtual arm. Between 1976 and 1988 he completed 25 body suspension performances with hooks into the skin. For 'Third Ear', he surgically constructed an extra ear within his arm that was internet-enabled, making it a publicly accessible acoustical organ for people in other places. Extended-Body: Interview with Stelarc . Stanford.edu. Retrieved 29 August 2011. He is presently performing as his avatar from his second life site.
Tim Hawkinson promotes the idea that bodies and machines are coming together as one, where human features are combined with technology to create the Cyborg. Hawkinson's piece Emoter presented how society is now dependent on technology. Tim Hawkinson. Tfaoi.com (25 September 2005). Retrieved 29 August 2011.
Marco Donnarumma is a performance artist and new media artist. In his work the body becomes a morphing language to speak critically of ritual, power and technology. For his "7 Configurations" cycle, between 2014 and 2019, he engineered and created six AI prostheses, each embodying an uncanny configuration of the machinic with the organic.Gomez Cubero, Carlos, et al. The Robot is Present
Wafaa Bilal is an Iraqi-American performance artist who had a small 10-megapixel digital camera surgically implanted into the back of his head, part of a project entitled 3rd I. Man Has Camera Screwed Into Head – Bing Videos. Bing.com. Retrieved 29 August 2011. For one year, beginning 15 December 2010, an image was captured once per minute 24 hours a day and streamed live to
Machines are becoming more ubiquitous in the artistic process itself, with Graphics tablet replacing pen and paper, and drum machines becoming nearly as popular as human drummers. Composers such as Brian Eno have developed and used software that can build entire musical scores from a few basic mathematical parameters. Generative Music – Brian Eno. In Motion Magazine. Retrieved 29 August 2011.
Scott Draves is a generative artist whose work is explicitly described as a "cyborg mind". His Electric Sheep project generates abstract art by combining the work of many computers and people over the internet.
Scholars that rely upon a strict, technical description of a cyborg, often going by Norbert Wiener's cybernetic theory and Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline's first use of the term, would likely argue that most cyborg artists do not qualify to be considered cyborgs.Tenney, Tom; " Cybernetics in Art and the Myth of the Cyborg Artist "; inc.ongruo.us; 29 December 2010; 9 March 2012. Scholars considering a more flexible description of cyborgs may argue it incorporates more than cybernetics.Volkart, Yvonne; " Cyborg Bodies. The End of the Progressive Body: Editorial"; medienkunstnetz.de; 9 March 2012. Others may speak of defining subcategories, or specialized cyborg types, that qualify different levels of cyborg at which technology influences an individual. This may range from technological instruments being external, temporary, and removable to being fully integrated and permanent. Nonetheless, cyborg artists are artists. Being so, it can be expected for them to incorporate the cyborg idea rather than a strict, technical representation of the term,Taylor, Kate; "Cyborg The artist as cyborg"
In addition, it is quite plausible for anxiety expression to manifest. Individuals may experience pre-implantation feelings of fear and nervousness. To this end, individuals may also embody feelings of uneasiness, particularly in a socialized setting, due to their post-operative, technologically augmented bodies, and mutual unfamiliarity with the mechanical insertion. Anxieties may be linked to notions of otherness or a cyborged identity.
Although the effects of spaceflight on our bodies are an important issue, the advancement of propulsion technology is just as important. With our current technology, it would take us about 260 days to get to Mars. A study backed by NASA proposes an interesting way to tackle this issue through deep sleep, or torpor. With this technique, it would "reduce astronauts' metabolic functions with existing medical procedures." So far experiments have only resulted in patients being in torpor state for one week. Advancements to allow for longer states of deep sleep would lower the cost of the trip to Mars as a result of reduced astronaut resource consumption.
These sorts of technologies are already present in the U.S. workforce as a firm in River Falls, Wisconsin, called Three Square Market partnered with a Swedish firm Biohacks Technology to implant RFID microchips (which are about the size of a grain of rice) in the hands of its employees that allow employees to access offices, computers, and even vending machines. More than 50 of the firm's 85 employees were chipped. It was confirmed that the American Food and Drug Administration approved of these implantations. If these devices are to be proliferated within society, then the question that begs to be answered is what regulatory agency will oversee the operations, monitoring, and security of these devices? According to this case study of Three Square Market, it seems that the FDA is assuming a role in regulating and monitoring these devices. It has been argued that a new regulatory framework needs to be developed so that the law keeps up with developments in implantable technologies.
In 2012, Spanish film director Rafel Duran Torrent, created a short film about the Cyborg Foundation. In 2013, the film won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival's Focus Forward Filmmakers Competition and was awarded US$100,000.Pond, Steve "Cyborg Foundation" wins $100K Focus Forward prize , Chicago Tribune, 22 January 2013
Other groups have developed cyborg insects, including researchers at North Carolina State University, UC Berkeley, and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, but the RoboRoach was the first kit available to the general public and was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health as a device to serve as a teaching aid to promote an interest in neuroscience. Several animal welfare organizations including the RSPCA and PETA have expressed concerns about the Animal ethics and welfare of animals in this project. In 2022, remote controlled cyborg cockroaches functional if moving (or moved) to sunlight for recharging were presented. They could be used e.g. for purposes of inspecting hazardous areas or quickly finding humans underneath hard-to-access rubbles at disaster sites.
In the late 2010s, scientists created cyborg jellyfish using a microelectronic prosthetic that propels the animal to swim almost three times faster while using just twice the Metabolism energy of their unmodified peers. The prosthetics can be removed without harming the jellyfish.
/ref> The prostheses – designed together with a team of artists and scientists – are useless prostheses, paradoxical objects designed for the body, but not to enhance it, rather to subtract functions from it: a skin-cutting robot with a steel metal knife, a facial prosthesis which blocks the wearer's gaze with a mechanical arm, and two robotic spines that function as additional limbs without a body. The prostheses have been created to act as performers with their own agency, that is, to interact with their human partners without being controlled externally. The machines are embedded with biomimetic neural networks, information processing algorithms inspired by the biological nervous system of mammals. Developed by Donnarumma in collaboration with the Neurorobotics Research Laboratory (DE), these neural networks endow the machines with artificial cognitive and sensorimotor skills.
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
/a> and the . The site also displays Bilal's location via GPS. Bilal says that the reason why he put the camera in the back of the head was to make an "allegorical statement about the things we don't see and leave behind." Wafaa Bilal, NYU Artist, Gets Camera Implanted In Head. Huffington Post. Retrieved 29 August 2011. As a professor at NYU, this project raised privacy issues, and so Bilal was asked to ensure that his camera did not take photographs in NYU buildings.
Artists as cyborgs
Artists have explored the term cyborg from a perspective involving imagination. Some work to make an abstract idea of technological and human-bodily union apparent to reality in an art form using varying mediums, from sculptures and drawings to digital renderings.
Artists who seek to make cyborg-based fantasies a reality often call themselves cyborg artists, or may consider their artwork "cyborg". How an artist or their work may be considered cyborg will vary depending upon the interpreter's flexibility with the term.
seeing how their work will sometimes revolve around other purposes outside of cyborgism.
In body modification
As medical technology becomes more advanced, some techniques and innovations are adopted by the body modification community. While not yet cyborgs in the strict definition of Manfred Clynes and Nathan Kline, technological developments like implantable silicon silk electronics, augmented reality and QR codes are bridging the disconnect between technology and the body. Hypothetical technologies such as digital tattoo interfaces Digital Tattoo Interface, Jim Mielke, United States would blend body modification aesthetics with interactivity and functionality, bringing a transhumanist way of life into present day reality.
In space
Sending humans to space is a dangerous task in which the implementation of various cyborg technologies could be used in the future for risk mitigation. Stephen Hawking, a renowned physicist, stated "Life on Earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster such as sudden global warming, nuclear war ... I think the human race has no future if it doesn't go into space." The difficulties associated with space travel could mean it might be centuries before humans ever become a multi-planet species. There are many effects of spaceflight on the human body. One major issue of space exploration is the biological need for oxygen. If this necessity was taken out of the equation, space exploration would be revolutionized. A theory proposed by Manfred E. Clynes and Nathan S. Kline is aimed at tackling this problem. The two scientists theorized that the use of an inverse fuel cell that is "capable of reducing CO2 to its components with the removal of the carbon and re-circulation of the oxygen ..." Cyborgs and Space, The New York Times could make breathing unnecessary. Another prominent issue is radiation exposure. Yearly, the average human on earth is exposed to approximately 0.30 rem of radiation, while an astronaut aboard the International Space Station for 90 days is exposed to 9 rem. To tackle the issue, Clynes and Kline theorized a cyborg containing a sensor that would detect radiation levels and a Rose osmotic pump "which would automatically inject protective pharmaceuticals in appropriate doses." Experiments injecting these protective pharmaceuticals into monkeys have shown positive results in increasing radiation resistance.
In cognitive science
Theorists such as Andy Clark suggest that interactions between humans and technology result in the creation of a cyborg system. In this model, cyborg is defined as a part-biological, part-mechanical system that results in the augmentation of the biological component and the creation of a more complex whole. Clark argues that this broadened definition is necessary to an understanding of human cognition. He suggests that any tool which is used to offload part of a cognitive process may be considered the mechanical component of a cyborg system. Examples of this human and technology cyborg system can be very low tech and simplistic, such as using a calculator to perform basic mathematical operations or pen and paper to make notes, or as high tech as using a personal computer or phone. According to Clark, these interactions between a person and a form of technology integrate that technology into the cognitive process in a way that is analogous to the way that a technology that would fit the traditional concept of cyborg augmentation becomes integrated with its biological host. Because all humans in some way use technology to augment their cognitive processes, Clark comes to the conclusion that we are "natural-born cyborgs."Clark, Andy. 2004. Natural-Born Cyborgs. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Professor Donna Haraway also theorizes that people, metaphorically or literally, have been cyborgs since the late twentieth century. If one considers the mind and body as one, much of humanity is aided with technology in almost every way, which hybridizes humans with technology.
Future scope and regulation of implantable technologies
Given the technical scope of current and future implantable sensory/Telemetry devices, such devices will be greatly proliferated, and will have connections to commercial, medical, and governmental networks. For example, in the medical sector, patients will be able to log in to their home computer, and thus visit virtual doctor's offices, medical databases, and receive medical prognoses from the comfort of their own home from the data collected through their implanted telemetric devices. (2013). 9781479909292 ISBN 9781479909292 However, this online network presents large security concerns because it has been proven by several U.S. universities that hackers could get onto these networks and shut down peoples' electronic prosthetics. Cyborg data mining refers to the collection of data produced by implantable devices.
Cyborg Foundation
In 2010, the Cyborg Foundation became the world's first international organization dedicated to help humans become cyborgs.García, F.C. "Nace una fundación dedicada a convertir humanos en ciborgs", La Vanguardia, 1 March 2011. The foundation was created by cyborg Neil Harbisson and Moon Ribas as a response to the growing number of letters and emails received from people around the world interested in becoming cyborgs.Rottenschlage, Andreas "The Sound of the Cyborg" The Red Bulletin, 1 March 2011. The foundation's main aims are to extend human senses and abilities by creating and applying cybernetic extensions to the body,Redacción "Una fundación se dedica a convertir humanos en ciborgs" El Comercio (Peru), 1 March 2011. to promote the use of cybernetics in cultural events and to defend cyborg rights.Calls, Albert
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> ""Les noves tecnologies seran part del nostre cos i extensió del cervell"" La Tribuna, 3 January 2011. In 2010, the foundation, based in Mataró (Barcelona), was the overall winner of the Cre@tic Awards, organized by Tecnocampus Mataró.Martínez, Ll. "La Fundació Cyborg s'endú el primer premi dels Cre@tic", Avui, 20 November 2010
In fiction
Cyborgs are a recurring feature of science fiction literature and other media. (1996). 185868188X, Carlton. 185868188X
Animal cyborgs
[[File:Rechargeable cyborg insects with an ultrasoft organic solar cell module.webp|thumb|Remote-controlled rechargeable cyborg insects
]]
The US-based company Backyard Brains released what they refer to as the "world's first commercially available cyborg" called the RoboRoach. The project started as a senior design project for a University of Michigan biomedical engineering student in 2010, and was launched as an available betaware product on 25 February 2011. The RoboRoach was officially released into production via a TED talk at the TED Global conference; and via the crowdfunding website Kickstarter in 2013, the kit allows students to use microstimulation to momentarily control the movements of a walking cockroach (left and right) using a Bluetooth-enabled smartphone as the controller.
Bacterial cyborg cells
A combination of synthetic biology, nanotechnology and materials science approaches have been used to create a few different iterations of bacterial cyborg cells. These different types of mechanically enhanced bacteria are created with so called bionic manufacturing principles that combine natural cells with abiotic materials. In 2005, researchers from the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln created a super sensitive humidity sensor by coating the bacteria Bacillus cereus with gold nanoparticles, being the first to use a microorganism to make an electronic device and presumably the first cyborg bacteria or cellborg circuit. Researchers from the Department of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley published a series of articles in 2016 describing the development of cyborg bacteria capable to harvest sunlight more efficiently than plants. In the first study, the researchers induced the self-photosensitization of a nonphotosynthetic bacterium, Moorella thermoacetica, with cadmium sulfide nanoparticles, enabling the photosynthesis of acetic acid from carbon dioxide. A follow-up article described the elucidation of the mechanism of semiconductor-to-bacterium electron transfer that allows the transformation of carbon dioxide and sunlight into acetic acid. Scientists of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of California, Davis and Academia Sinica in Taiwan, developed a different approach to create cyborg cells by assembling a synthetic hydrogel inside the bacterial cytoplasm of Escherichia coli cells rendering them incapable of dividing and making them resistant to environmental factors, and high oxidative stress. The intracellular infusion of synthetic hydrogel provides these cyborg cells with an artificial cytoskeleton and their acquired tolerance makes them well placed to become a new class of Drug delivery systems positioned between classical synthetic materials and cell-based systems.
See also
Further reading
Reference entries
External links
|
|
