This is only the first week and there’s already so much to think about. Looking back at my lifestream there seem to be two main issues concerning the cyborg.

The first is that as homo ‘faber’ we have always used tools and machines to overcome the body’s limitations. We are a cyborg species and to be human is to be augmented, extended and enhanced by technology – think your grandmother with a pacemaker rather than Robocop. Our bodies are now more plastic, bionic, communal, interchangeable across species and more virtual/hyperreal than ever. Stelarc makes the point that ‘natural’ human evolution is stagnant and we need to embrace technological bodies. (However, there are blurred lines when it comes to augmenting the physical aspect of our bodies as cat man clearly demonstrates – reconfiguring technology in this extreme case led to Denis Avner’s alleged suicide.) Moral judgments also need be made on what is the ‘body’ and the ‘human’ (are we really only a series of codes and patterns of information?) and how technological enhancement can be used to better the human condition.

The second issue, concerning homo ‘sapiens’ and AI, seems to be more problematic. Being aware of not only our physical limitations but our limitations in intelligence, consciousness and memory, we seek to transcend them, yet also fear the consequences. Popular culture generally depicts a dystopian view of transferred consciousness (Transcendence) and enhanced memory (Memory 2.0). We are obsessed with AI and how it can benefit us as humans yet we live in fear that it may one day outsmart us: we design self driving cars then feel the need to maintain meaningful control over Haraway’s irreverent and godless ‘cyborg’. Is our dystopian fear regarding AI merely another factor of our general cultural pessimism and psychological/biological disposition – or do we really have to worry about finishing our lives as a robot’s pet?

Miller, V. (2011) Chapter 9: The Body and Information Technology, in Understanding Digital Culture. London: Sage

Haraway, D. (2007) A Cyborg Manifesto from Bell, D.; Kennedy, B. The Cybercultures Reader pp. 34-65

Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking warn of artificial intelligence dangers http://mashable.com/2015/01/13/elon-musk-stephen-hawking-artificial-intelligence/