14-08-2012, 03:00 PM
CYBORGS
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CHAPTER I
1. INTRODUCTION TO CYBORGS
1.1 BASICS
A cyborg, also known as a cybernetic organism, is a being with both biological and artificial (e.g. electronic, mechanical or robotic) parts. The cyborg is often seen today merely as an organism that has enhanced abilities due to technology ,but this perhaps oversimplifies the category of feedback.
1.1 AN EXAMPLE OF CYBORG
Fictional cyborgs are portrayed as a synthesis of organic and synthetic parts, and frequently pose the question of difference between human and machine as one concerned with morality, free will, and empathy. Fictional cyborgs may be represented as visibly mechanical or as almost indistinguishable from humans. Cyborgs in fiction often play up a human contempt for over-dependence on technology, particularly when used for war, and when used in ways that seem to threaten free will. Cyborgs are also often portrayed with physical or mental abilities far exceeding a human counterpart (military forms may have inbuilt weapons, among other things). Real (as opposed to fictional) cyborgs are more frequently people who use cybernetic technology to repair or overcome the physical and mental constraints of their bodies. While cyborgs are commonly thought of as mammals, they might conceivably be any kind of organism.
1.2 ORIGIN OF CYBORGS
The term 'cyborg' is a contraction of 'cybernetic organism', and entered the language in the early 1960s. The term 'cybernetics' was coined by Norbert Wiener in 1948. It referred to the then-new notion of controlling human-designed processes through feedback and response, in ways similar to those evident in natural organisms (Wiener 1948, 1949). He contrived the word from the Greek word for 'steersman'.
The origin of the contraction 'cyborg' is commonly attributed to two US research scientists, who used it to refer to an enhanced human being who could survive in extraterrestrial environments, or, in their own words "the exogenously extended organizational complex functioning as an integrated homeostatic system unconsciously" (Clynes & Kline 1960).
More generally, a cyborg is a human with whom mechanical and/or electronic parts have been integrated. Driven by feature films that depict imaginings of sci-fi authors, popular culture envisages a cyborg as necessarily having functionality that has been extended beyond that of a normal human being. Indeed, the OED adopts that element of Clynes & Kline (1960). Although one definition is "an integrated man-machine system", the other is "a person whose physical tolerances or capabilities are extended beyond normal human limitations by a machine or other external agency that modifies the body's functioning" (emphasis added). For the purposes of this analysis, however, it is necessary to distinguish enhancements from more mundane, but highly valuable interventions.
Also in popular culture, cyborgs enhancements are physically inserted into the person. This paper will, however, also encompass circumstances in which this condition is not satisfied. Consideration has also been given to the notion of 'bionic implants'. The concept is, however, largely confined to entertainment arena, as a result of a 1973 novel called 'Cyborg', which gave rise to television series called 'The Six Million Dollar Man' and 'The Bionic Woman' - who had 'bionic' eyes, legs and arms.
1.3 KINDS OF CYBORG ENTITIES
CYBORGS are categorized into two types based on their structural and functional role play. Convenient cyborgs may refer to any external provision of an exoskeleton for satisfying the altered fancy needs of body. Conditional cyborgs include bionic implants replanting the lost or damaged body part for normal living in the present environment
Cyborg technologies can be of four types:-
Restorative: In that they restore lost functions and replace lost organs and limbs.
Normalizing: In that they restore some creature to indistinguishable normality.
Reconfiguring: creating post human creatures equal to but different from humans, like what one is now when interacting with other creatures in cyberspace or, in the future, the type of modifications proto-humans will undergo to live in space or under the sea having given up the comforts of terrestrial existence.
Enhancing: The aim of most military and industrial research, and what those with cyborg envy or even cyborgphilia fantasize. The latter category seeks to construct everything from factories controlled by a handful of "worker-pilots" and infantrymen in mind-controlled exoskeletons to the dream many computer scientists have-downloading their consciousness into immortal computers
CHAPTER II
2. LITERATURE SURVEY
Remarkably, there appear to be very few publications that address the topic of cyborg rights in the instrumentalist manner being attempted here. There is a sci-fi literature (which is mostly about cyborgs as threats to mankind), a speculative literature (cyborg as post human), and a derivative media criticism literature.
Few papers have been located, however, that examines cyborgs as they exist at present and appear likely to increasingly exist in the near future, and consider rights as they apply to augmented human beings. See, however, questions asked in the final paragraph of Warwick (2003) and in a use case scenario in FIDIS (2008), and the tentative 'Cyborg Bill of Rights' suggested in Gray (2001), but also the argument in Levy (2003) to the effect that the challenges arising from cyborgisation are not radical.
In the absence of an established body of theory and evidence, the approach adopted in the present paper is to investigate dimensions of the issues through case studies of various cyborgs operating in various contexts. In order to ensure richness of material, the set intentionally includes a diversity of prostheses, of orthoses, and of contexts.
(1) Access to Quality-of-Life Exo-Prostheses
The assistance of vision through the use of shaped glass dates back at least two thousand years, of lenses at least one thousand years, of spectacles at least 600-700 years, and of contact lenses 500 years in principle and 200 years in practice. An emergent right to have a pair of spectacles to correct sight can be detected in health and welfare systems that provide them on a cost-less or heavily subsidized basis. Similar developments exist in relation to hearing-aids.
Particularly in the USA and the UK, military service personnel returning from war-zones have better access to opportunities for replacement limbs than, for example, victims of industrial and traffic accidents. A recent review of research work on neural control of artificial arms funded by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is in (Adee 2009). Another group that has superior access to expensive, new treatments is the aging rich. A ready justification for this is that the research and experimentation needed demands funding, and only the rich and the government can provide it.
By mid-century, it is conceivable that shoulder reconstructions, hip-joint replacements and knee replacements could have become a legitimate expectation for all who need them, rather than the expensive option for the war-maimed and the well-off and/or well-insured that they generally are at present.
(2) Access to Matter-of-Life-and-Death Exo-Prostheses
Spectacles and hearing-aids recover impaired senses, and hence enhance quality of life. Even wheelchairs and replacement limbs can be argued to be facilities affecting quality-of-life rather than survival. A range of prostheses are likely to be associated not merely with improved quality of life but also increased life expectancy. Examples include stents, pacemakers, renal dialysis and artificial hearts and kidneys.
Debate can reasonably be anticipated as to whether patriotism and financial wealth should be such dominant factors in determining the priority of allocation of quality-of-life but especially matter-of-life-and-death prostheses.
(3) Cyborgs in Public Places
Some sight-impaired people depend on guide dogs, and many mobility-impaired people depend on a walking-stick, or access to their own custom-designed wheelchair. Contention has arisen where such external prostheses have been banned from premises, e.g. dogs from coffee lounges, for health reasons. In some circumstances, a ban on the use of a personal wheelchair within particular premises - such as an airport or an airplane - represents a denial of access to important services, and harms the principle of equality of rights for the impaired. A variety of new external prostheses may create further challenges. For example, portable renal dialysis machines would demand both space and power.
Some Exo- and endo-prostheses have also already given rise to difficulties, such as artificial hips made of steel and pacemakers, which may be incompatible with airport security equipment. The prospect also exists of Exo- and endo-orthoses that represent security threats.
(4) Exo- and Endo-Orthoses for Location and Tracking
Anklets with embedded chips to facilitate detection of non-compliance with movement restrictions were first officially sanctioned in 1983, in New Mexico. Anklets have since been applied in a variety of circumstances, not only to prisoners, but to parolees as a condition of parole, and even to remandees (who have yet to be convicted of an offence, and may well never be). It represents an extension of the prison beyond the prison walls and reduces costs to the state. There is accordingly an incentive to extend it to further categories, particularly recidivist criminals and detested (ex-?)Criminals (e.g. those who have completed their sentences for child sex offences), but also dementia sufferers, comatose patients and perhaps other kinds of patients as well. Generally, an anklet is a form of overt involuntary exo-orthosis.
Chips have been implanted in livestock and pets since abut 1990. Chips have been offered for implantation in humans since about 1998, first in tooth-enamel and then in soft tissue. There have been a number of reported instances of chips being implanted in humans (Masters & Michael 2006), although to date no reliable reference has been located for them being imposed involuntarily. A chip-implant is a form of endo-orthosis, and may be voluntary, overt involuntary or even covert involuntary in nature.
Like other endo-prostheses and endo-orthoses, the chip-implantation process may give rise to infection, it may be rejected by the body, and it may interfere with tissue, organs or bodily functions (CEJA-AMA 2007, Foster & Jaeger 2007). The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) provided the Verichip for implantation in 2004, some years after it had first been implanted in humans. The decision was widely but misleadingly reported as being US government approval for the conduct of chip-implantation in humans.