Cyborg?
Essay by 24 • April 26, 2011 • 591 Words (3 Pages) • 1,103 Views
Cyborg, a definition of human?
You are prescribed antibiotics, if you take them are you just aiding your body's immune system or are you chemically and mechanically enhancing yourself? When you are driving a car you are human mixed with machine, you are a cyborg. What exactly is a cyborg? When we take medication, receive a prosthetic leg or even wear shoes we are adding mechanical substitutes to ourselves. Where is the line drawn between organic and artificial?
A definition of cyborg is that "cyborg" is short for cybernetic organism. Cyborg theorists Gray, Mentor, and Figeroa-Sarriera define cyborg as "the melding of the organic and mechanic or engineering of a union between separate organic systems."(p.3) In You Are Cyborg an example of a mechanical addition is wearing shoes. Haraway stated that "the interaction of medicine, diet, training practices, clothing and equipment manufacturing, visualization and time keeping" are all mechanical enhancements.
How is it that we can be defined as cyborgs? It is actually quite simple, take and energy drink for example. It is a mechanical enhancement to the body. It keeps you energized and focused. Everyone is a cyborg to some extent weather it is an immunization for a child or an artificial leg for a war veterans.
If technology today had not been around life would be so extremely different. It would be described as survival of the fittest. Even without something as simple as a jacket can change things dramatically.
I know that I and almost everyone else is very dependant on the internet. It is easy access to information, entertainment and socialization. Even doing research on this paper has made me realize how different it would be without the internet. I would be stuck in a library looking up any possible information rather that sitting on my lap top on my back porch looking up the definition for cyborg. A lot of information would not be known if the internet had not been around. Society today relies on the internet and the networking it provides.
Vehicles and transportation
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