Cyborg Research Articles

The contested cyborg. An analysis based on aesthetics of technology

espanolEste articulo propone una aproximacion a la figura del ciborg desde el punto de vista de la estetica tecnologica. En primer lugar, llevaremos a cabo una genealogia del concepto deteniendonos en los fenomenos culturales e intelectuales del siglo XX en los que surge y se despliega: las filosofias de la vida, la cibernetica y la cibercultura. A continuacion, pondremos de relieve una serie de problemas a los que deben dar respuesta las teorias que se inspiran en el ciborg para articular modelos de emancipacion y convivencia en el contexto de las sociedades de las nuevas tecnologias EnglishThis article examines the aesthetics of cyborg. First, we focus on a series of cultural movements and intellectual trends that are key to understand the idea of a cyborg as we know it today: philosophies of life, cybernetics and cyberculture. Then, we highlight problems and challenges that remain unanswered and must be faced by any model of emancipation and community in the technological era based on cyborg philosophies

От неолуддизма к трансгуманизму: сингулярность и вертикальный прогресс или утрата идентичности?

От неолуддизма к трансгуманизму: сингулярность и вертикальный прогресс или утрата идентичности?

Сущность, предпосылки и политическое самоопределение трансгуманистического движения

Сущность, предпосылки и политическое самоопределение трансгуманистического движения

Transhumanism: Evolutionary Futurism and the Human Technologies of Utopia by Andrew Pilsch

Transhumanism: Evolutionary Futurism and the Human Technologies of Utopia by Andrew Pilsch

Proposal of Anthropomorphic Robotic Hand

This article deals with the design and construction of a gripping anthropomorphic unit based on the principle of biomechanism. The new requirements for such grip units, particularly in the part of their mechanical design, require to find new principles of biomechanism applications or looking for new solutions in principle. A multi-unit biomechanical unit for gripping objects and upgrading the gripper unit has been developed. The solution is a whole unit of gripper and a 3D model with simulations.

Jenny Lind, Voice, Celebrity

Voice has a long history in modern Western culture as a transparent signifier of subjectivity and presence. This ideology of immediacy has meant that exploration of singing voices as mediated has mostly been confined to classic technological turns marked by specific sound devices. This article examines voice in connection with the mid-nineteenth-century soprano Jenny Lind and the broader London context of contemporary Lind mania. Mediation lends itself to canvassing questions at the crossroads of voice and celebrity studies, for the invocation of a linear, unmediated communication between particular individuals and their audiences lies at the heart of modern celebrity culture's apparatus. The tension between voice and technē , presence and absence, evinced by printed and visual materials suggests mediation was key to the perceptual and ideological system surrounding Lind's voice. Attending to voice within a more porous, relational framework can help us move away from a concern with individuality and authenticity, and listen to a rich tapestry of human and material encounters.

Quo vadis, humanity? Ethics on the last mile toward cybernetic organism

ABSTRACTMotivated by the recent decisive progress in the field of the Internet of Bio-Nano Things (IoBNT), and fueled by the growing social importance of emerging services and applications built on top of it, this paper seeks to understand consequences of seamless integration of out-of-body and inside-the-body nanoscale devices with a human, that is, creation of augmented human. Absence of regulatory and legal principles designed to protect humans and the environment from negative impact and non-rational use of new technologies threatens the natural human essence. In this paper, we analyze what IoBNT potentially brings to humanity, analyze some fragments of a post-human future, and think about possible issues an augmented human may experience in his/her mental life.

Count me out of Cyborg World

Count me out of Cyborg World

A Cyborg Turn in Law?

This Article deploys cybernetic theory to argue that a novel legal impact imaginary has emerged. In this imaginary, the subjects of legal interventions are performed and enacted as cybernetic organisms, that is, as entities that process information and adapt to changes in their environment. This Article, then, argues that in this imaginary, law finds its effectiveness—not by threatening, cajoling, educating, and moralizing humans as before, but by affecting the composition of cybernetic organisms, giving rise to new kinds of legal subjects that transcend the former conceptual boundary between humans and non-humans, or persons and things. The cybernetic interventions work to change the cyborgs' behavioral responses, thus giving law a new kind modality of power. This Article develops a model for understanding cyborg regulation through case studies and argues that cyborg regulation deploys three distinct strategies. Cyborgs can be controlled through affecting the informational inputs the entities receive, through agencement practices that intervene in the material constitution of the cyborg cognitions, and, finally, by psycho-morphing humans to make them useful components of the cyborg cognitive machineries. The Article ends with a discussion of the theoretical implications of the transition to the cyborg imaginary.

Executive design and hermeneutics of téchne

The study concerns the contribution of technique towards the definition of the “executive” design, according to the connections with the conceptual apparatus aimed at defining the procedures and tools, both theoretical and practical, for the necessary knowledge and action within the production and construction environment. The analysis describes the work of “mediation” of technique towards the exploration of reality, according to the processes of “transcendence” and “artificial reproduction” supporting the modelling and simulation practices of the executive experience. Furthermore, the analysis focuses on the instrumentality introduced in the project by technique, with the aid of “executive models” pointing towards the anticipation and the “rational estimate” (by means of “pro-duction” and “operational representation” criteria).

(Re)narrating the societal cyborg: a definition of infrastructure, an interrogation of integration

(Re)narrating the societal cyborg: a definition of infrastructure, an interrogation of integration

T.C. Campbell, The techne of giving. Cinema and the generous form of life

T.C. Campbell, The techne of giving. Cinema and the generous form of life

Smartphones as an extension of the human cyborg: the case of the youth from Aragon (Spain)

A lo largo de los anos se ha ido desarrollando la idea de que los avances tecnicos suponen la extension de los sentidos del ser humano. Un proceso que ha permitido a la sociedad evolucionar. De la relacion entre el ser humano y la tecnologia surge el concepto de ciborg (Clynes y Kline, 1960), con un gran desarrollo en la ciencia ficcion y que en un primer momento hacia referencia a la incorporacion de elementos exogenos al ser humano para facilitar su adaptacion a ecosistemas extraterrestres. Otras definiciones posteriores (Clarck, 2003) proponen considerar al ciborg como el resultado de la interaccion entre el ser humano y la tecnologia. Partiendo de esta definicion, el presente articulo pretende conocer el modo en el que los telefonos inteligentes cumplen actualmente la funcion de nexo entre la parte biologica y la parte tecnologica del ser humano ciborg. Para ello, a traves de una metodologia cualitativa (historias de vida) se analiza el papel de estos dispositivos en las vidas de ocho jovenes. La relevancia de investigar a jovenes reside en el papel que este colectivo social desempena a la hora de incorporar y difundir los elementos tecnologicos novedosos en la sociedad. La investigacion se desarrolla en Aragon, una comunidad autonoma espanola que continua representando un territorio periferico, con escasa presencia tanto a escala poblacional como economica en el conjunto espanol. A pesar de ello y a diferencia de lo que ocurrio en otros momentos de la historia, Aragon se ha acercado incluso en sus zonas mas perifericas a los estandares de penetracion y usos tecnologicos del resto del mundo. Los resultados de la investigacion confirman el importante papel que desempenan los telefonos inteligentes en las vidas de los jovenes como extension de sus sentidos, en particular de sus cerebros.

Building Better Humans? Refocusing the Debate on Transhumanism

Building Better Humans? Refocusing the Debate on Transhumanism

Transgresja człowieczeństwa – transhumanizm jako nowe oblicze wychowania religijnego?

Transgresja człowieczeństwa – transhumanizm jako nowe oblicze wychowania religijnego?

Morphological Freedom and the Question of Responsibility and Representation in Transhumanism

Abstract not available.

Cooking for perfection

Abstract not available.

Ambivalence and being: philosophic-religious analysis

The article deals with the problem of ambivalence that exists both in being and in human life. It is noted that the oppositions characterize not only all existing things, but they also exist in the human thinking. Binary oppositions are regarded as the beginning of life and its essence; they act as a form of posing and perception of the world, they are the basis of two opposing concepts in which one concept claims some quality and the other one denies this quality. There exposed the existential–essential nature of man, which trans–humanism seeks to overcome.

On the Way to Transhumanism

On the Way to Transhumanism

Connecting and Reconnecting: Outfitting the Figure of the Cyborg for Transnational Coalition-building

Connecting and Reconnecting: Outfitting the Figure of the Cyborg for Transnational Coalition-building