OWL-DRAGON

Cyborg

In addition to the very real possibility that soon parents will be tempted to make changes to their children's genetic code there is the increasing likelihood that humans will be part machine (cyborg). Of course we already heavily use external devices to enhance our senses. And prostheses to aid amputees have also been around for centuries with current improvements both more human (hands that look human and respond to nerve impulses) and more tech (high tech replacements that allow sprinting). Glasses have been in use for hundreds of years and it is probably only a matter of time until a blind person is permanently connected to an external device that provides vision. Hearing aids are common and cochlear implants despite controversies are commonly done. Hip replacements are done with steel. Wearable computers are frequently the subject of tech shows. There was a buzz recently about humans being implanted with the id chips already used for dogs. In what I think was a parody but maybe not there was an illustration of how a cell phone could be placed into a tooth filling. I recently met a friend in the drug store; just casually she mentioned that she would soon go in for a surgical procedure so the battery on her pacemaker could be changed. Could it even be argued that our high-tech running shoes are cyborg devices in that they change how we run? Are we already bio-mechanical beings?

Yet all these things are just parts.

But my question is how biomechanical would you be willing to be. If a chip could be planted in you head that would give always on wireless access to the web would you do it? Could your bio brain process all the information available from your silicon implant? This is kind of the flip side of the matrix. You don't enter the net it enters you. This isn't as far fetch as it might seem. Already listservs, email and googling change how I relate to the world. It is one of the big questions that still out there just waiting for the next big step.



Do you feel that you are fundamentally different than say a hunter-gatherer. Or is human nature, human nature and these externalities have barely scratched that what makes us human?