Cyborg
The term cyborg, a portmanteau of cybernetic organism, is used to designate a creature which is a mixture of organic and mechanical parts. Generally, the aim is to add to or enhance the abilities of the organism using artificial technology.
The term was popularized by Manfred E. Clynes and Nathan S. Kline in 1960 to refer to their conception of an enhanced human being 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 take place. A designer of physiological instrumentation and electronic data-processing systems, Clynes was the chief research scientist in the Dynamic Simulation Laboratory at Rockland State Hospital in New York.
According to some definitions of the term, the metaphysical and physical attachments humanity has with even the most basic technologies have already made us cyborgs. In a typical example, a human fitted with a heart pacemaker might be considered a cyborg, since s/he is incapable of surviving without the mechanical part. As a more extreme example, clothing can be seen as a cybernetic modification of skin; enabling us to survive in drastically different environments by constructing things that aren't naturally existing in those environments. A notepad can be seen as rudimentary memory augmentation. The boundary blurs even more when controlled fire or agriculture are thought of as modifications to our digestion processes. Most definitions only consider technologies made possible by the industrial revolution, especially those that are inside the body.
In the feminist thinking of Donna Haraway the cyborg becomes a starting metaphor for examining non-gendered epistemology. This line of thought is known as cyborg theory.
A book titled Cyborg was adapted into a 1970s TV series, The Six Million Dollar Man.
A book titled Cyborg: Digital destiny and human possibility in the age of the wearable computer was published by Doubleday in 2001. Some of the ideas in the book were incorporated into the 35mm motion picture film Cyberman.
Examples
See also
References
- Manfred E. Clynes, and Nathan S. Kline, (1960) "Cyborgs and Space," Astronautics, September, pp. 26-27 and 74-75; reprinted in Gray, Mentor, and Figueroa-Sarriera, eds., The Cyborg Handbook, New York: Routledge, 1995, pp. 29-34. (hardback: ISBN 0415908485; paperback: ISBN 0415908493)
- Cyborg: Digital destiny and human possibility in the age of the wearable computer, (2001), Steve Mann with Hal Niedzviecki, ISBN 0385658257 (A paperback version also exists, ISBN 0385658265)
