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How cyber are we already?

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Mon, 2009-12-28 02:18

It that must no... It that must not be named's picture

How cyber are we already?

I was walking to a friend's house recently and, for no good reason whatsoever, it occur ed to me that in some ways I was loaded up with a relatively large amount of "cyberware", if you define that as electronic devices meant to preform various functions. It's just that I carry them externally rather than having them affixed/implanted and therefore more accessible and less likely to get lost. Let's see now, hanging from my neck I had a 2 gig mp3 player that doubled as a flash drive and carried my eclectic music collection which it delivered to me via neodymium eapbuds rather than direct audiotary nerve connection. On my belt I had a cheap cellphone with extremely limited net capacity (None, really, but technically it could connect to the net, it just didn't have the memory to display pages or much. It sure gets the junk messages the company sends me about 'deals' tho.) The phone had digital communication ability, limited graphic display, radio playability which I never use as it's not worth wasting the phone's battery when I can get a cheap AAA radio if I want it and a really low res digicam that's more or less useless due to the low res, lack of flash, etc. In my wallet there nestled an 8 gig flash drive that could store two whole movies in hi res or thousands of text and image files which I could not access without a computer as the drive wasn't linked to my sensory nerves. My keychain sports an LED flashlight that is basically a vision enhancement allowing me to see in low light conditions at close range. Lastly, I have a very accurate digital watch with some secondary functions on my wrist. So as I'm strolling to my friend's house it just comes to me that essentially I'm a half assed cyborg that carries around all it's cyberware in inconvenient and possibly losable forms instead of having them all integrated into me where I can access them just by thinking about it. Then again, it also occurs to me that maybe I have some advantages over the whole hog cyborg in that if one of my devices malfunctions I don't have to go to a cyber doc to get it extracted and replaced, and if someone manages to "hack" my cell phone for some nefarious reason I can at worst toss it onto a trash truck and send them on a wild goose chase as they trace it. Likewise having nothing directly linked to my nerves means no one can hack into my nervous system for some horrific purpose. So, in a way I guess I'm a sorta cyborg given all the gear I carry, essentially data storage devices, communication modules, etc. I have some disadvantages over the 'real' cyborgs in that I can lose or misplace some gear, have to keep track of various devices charge levels and replace or recharge them individually. I can't access the net or call someone just by thinking about it and using some of my gear ties up my hands, but then again I can easily replace or upgrade my gear by just getting a better mp3 player, flash drive or cell phone and carrying it with me, and no one's got access to my nervous system either. Just some 'cyber thoughts" that came to me a while ago. Since cybernetics relates a lot to EP I thought I'd share them here.

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"I learned the hard way that if you take a stand on any issue, no matter how insignificant, people will line up around the block to kick your ass over it." -Jesse "the mind" Ventura.

Mon, 2009-12-28 22:35

7thSeaLord 7thSeaLord's picture

Re: How cyber are we already?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyborg Given all the stuff already out there, and soon to come, the defintion is getting rather fuzzy. My dog is micro-chipped - does that make him a cyborg? How about if he also had some artificial teeth and/or an implanted hearing aid and/or an artificial hip joint? All this is done for people (and pets). Also, Martin Caidin discusses the concept in a few of his books. By his standards (which seem valid), somebody operating a vehicle (or presumably, a computer) can be regarded as edging into cyborg territory - using technology to directly extend / enhance one's capabilities. Skilled drivers / pilots / operators aren't just pushing buttons and levers, the tech they are using is, in a very real sense, an extension of their own minds and bodies.

—

"Do it? ... Dan, I'm not a Republic serial villain. Do you seriously think I'd explain my master-stroke if there remained the slightest chance of you affecting its outcome? I did it thirty-five minutes ago." Ozymandias, The Watchmen

Mon, 2009-12-28 23:04

It that must no... It that must not be named's picture

Re: How cyber are we already?

The interesting thing here is that one of the greatest writers in history, H.G. Wells, saw all this in the 19th century when he wrote "War of the worlds", and if you haven't read the original novel, do it. The martians were said to operate their machines as extensions of their own bodies, and theyr machines had a definite organic tone to them, lacking wheels and using legs and tentacles, for example. Wells didn't have the terms "cyborg" or "neural interface" to work with, but he conveyed the ideas and concepts that didn't really become mainstream for decades. I guess we're creeping into cybertech now, with eye implants and such. And what about those new military systems that tract the pilots eye movements and aim the gun of a helicopter gunship where he's looking? We're still a way from daleks or cybermen, of course, but we seem to be getting closer all the time.

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"I learned the hard way that if you take a stand on any issue, no matter how insignificant, people will line up around the block to kick your ass over it." -Jesse "the mind" Ventura.

Mon, 2010-01-04 05:16

Re: How cyber are we already?

I have artificially implanted metallic structures behind my teeth. In fact, half of the population underwent a dental treatment to "correct" teeth alignment. A trip to a country where this was not that common 20 years ago like China shows it pretty well. I have bioware : I got vaccinated against several strains of diseases that would have been lethal a century or two ago. My body has been improved to be resistant to several strains. All the newspaper (at least here in France) are talking about a bioware debacle : the swine flu vaccine may or not be dangerous, may or not be good for the general health of the population, there has even been some talks about making it mandatory. I have a friend whose heart would stop without the implanted chip he has.

Mon, 2010-02-08 09:10

Xahn Borealis Xahn Borealis's picture

Re: How cyber are we already?

Iv wrote:
I have a friend whose heart would stop without the implanted chip he has.

Tell him to stay away from Jeff Bridges :D

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[img]http://boxall.no-ip.org/img/fallevac_userbar.png[/img] [img]http://boxall.no-ip.org/img/nano_userbar.jpg[/img] [img]http://boxall.no-ip.org/img/rec_userbar.jpg[/img] [img]http://boxall.no-ip.org/img/lla_userbar.jpg[/img] I want that planet back

Mon, 2010-02-15 23:34

Sepherim

Re: How cyber are we already?

Iv wrote:
I have a friend whose heart would stop without the implanted chip he has.

Yes, this is a good example of how we've crossed the line into cyberware. All kinds of medical implants and prothesis exist. Maybe rudimentary/prototype, but there are already cybernetic hands which move their fingers and all, legs, etc. And all the other examples are good. Still, we're far from being cyborgs. As far as I know, though I'm no expert in the matter, those are fully mechanical but with a biological brain (see, for example, Ghost in the Shell). As for the use of technology, counting cars and computers as cybernetic makes the term useless. All technology extends the reach of the human in one way or another. So, do charriots count? Or swords? The answer should be no, even though very skilled people using them could think that they are extensions of themselves... or else we would could go back into the Stone Age and still find there cybernetic people.

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The mind is information... hack it! [IMG]http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j166/Sepherim/Otros/F_Rep.jpg[/IMG] +4 http://tribulaciones.es/

Tue, 2010-02-16 12:03

Arenamontanus Arenamontanus's picture

Re: How cyber are we already?

Clynes' original definition of cyborg from 1960 was essentially a self-regulating human-machine system - the point was that the human and machine would form a synergy by exchanging information intimately and unconsciously. That would actually cover cars and computers, at least for some of us. However, another definition from about the same time was

Quote:
...a man-machine system in which the control mechanisms of the human portion are modified externally by drugs or regulatory devices so that the being can live in an environment different from the normal one.

Even by this, more bionic definition, a cyborg doesn't have to be an organic brain inside a robot body. There is plenty of freedom here. The edges of our selves have become fuzzier: a large part of my knowledge resides online, in various databases and on various gadgets; I really do regard my website as part of me (or my exoself), and I discovered a few years back that I unconsciously check things on Wikipedia far more often than I consciously notice. By Chalmers' "extended mind hypothesis" these systems really do form a part of my diffuse mind. Perhaps a good way of checking whether something has become part of you is whether you blush if someone praises it (this idea is from Sasha Chislenko, who coined the term fyborg for systems where we outsource functions of ourselves to other people, machines or systems).

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Wed, 2010-02-17 00:04

It that must no... It that must not be named's picture

Re: How cyber are we already?

Well, I suppose we need to define a cyborg then, and I'll go with the definition posted earlier, a complete combination of human/organic parts and artificial/technological components to form a new entity. By this definition I would NOT call the classic T-800 a cyborg as the machine component was completely independent of the organic parts, which were just a disguise. A dalek s a cyborg, as without the organic brain the machine is just an inert shell, a'la Dalek zek's cool black chassis after he became a human dalek, and the dalek organism is largely weak and powerfless without the mechanized shell. As to future or advanced cyborgs, as is now a so-called 'cyborg" might be a person with an implant of some sort to correct a flaw or just to keep him alive. The implanted tech really is just a (usually poor) substitute for a defective or damaged part of his natural body whereas an advanced cyborg might be able to have functions that a natural creature can't have, like, say, total recall thanks to implanted "chip memory" or the ability to control a machine thru direct neural interface. I really wouldn't want to be a cyborg in the sense that I had implants just to keep me alive, like, say, Darth Vader. I might want to be one if the implants actually improved me or allowed me to do things I could not do otherwise.

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"I learned the hard way that if you take a stand on any issue, no matter how insignificant, people will line up around the block to kick your ass over it." -Jesse "the mind" Ventura.