Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Developments with artificial hearts
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Developments with artificial hearts
I am a cyborg; today we live in a world of cyborgs. This makes statements such as these much more common. In the past cyborgs were consider freaks of nature and were one in a billion. Recently our society is has become no longer worried with whether you are a cyborg or not but rather what type of cyborg you are. Cyborg technologies have invaded nearly every aspect of our lives, including technologies such as vaccination, insulin pump, artificial organs, etc.
For decades, cyborgs have been exclusively associated with science fiction and fantasy; only in the futuristic genre can the organic and inorganic combine to form a cognitive being. In novels and in other forms of media, scientists are like gods that present humans with unimaginable enhancements, thus making them greater than the average human. Cyborgs are given the rep as tangled creations of human flesh and metal, which possess incredible strength, speed, or increased mental capacity. These cyborgs are praised and glamorized as so called super humans that are distinguished as a different species that has evolved by the hands of man. Although cyborgs seem to come from the imagination, there are cyborgs walking and living among us. They are not the advertised plated metal humans and they do not talk in robotic voices, but are like regular humans. These cyborgs are medical cyborgs. Some of them have mechanical devices implanted in their ears to help with hearing and overcome deafness, wear contacts, have an insulin pump to help control diabetes, or have an artificial heart to maintain the circulation of blood in their body. Producing a medical cyborg is a collaboration of medicine and technology to enhance or restore human biological processes.
For centuries, man ...
... middle of paper ...
...tor, or a second type of man that is built against nature and possess super human powers. Although these changes are incorporating machine into man, the purpose is to restore or replicate normal biological processes in reality, and not create the man envisioned in the works of science fictions.
Works Cited
Clynes, M.E., Kline, N.S. “Cyborgs and Space”. The Cyborg Handbook. New
York, New York: Routledge, 1995.
Gaffney, F., and Fenton, Barry J. “Barney B Clark, DDS: A View From the
Medical Service”. The Cyborg Handbook. New York, New York:
Routledge, 1995.
Gray, Chris. H. “Cyborgology: Constructing the Knowledge of Cybernetic
Organisms” The Cyborg Handbook. New York, New York: Routledge, 1995.
Klugman, Craig M. “From Cyborg Fiction to Medical Reality”. Literature and
Medicine. 20, no. 1 (Spring 2001). The Johns Hopkins University
Press, 2001.
As human technology develops it is a potentiality that the use of prosthetic limbs may become more advanced that the real human limb giving people the edge on sports fields and in the workforce. An imbalance between prosthetics and human limbs may become present as people may willingly have their limbs replaced by a robotic or part biological counterpart.
Donna Haraway’s 1984 “A Cyborg Manifesto” is an enduring essay unceasingly analyzed, critiqued, and adored by scholars and students. The piece, in which Haraway uses the cyborg as a metaphor to scrutinize hegemonic problems and refuse the binary, claims that “the boundary between science fiction and social reality is an optical illusion.” In other words, like the cyborg who cannot distinguish whether it is a machine or an organism, in society there is no difference between male and female; rich and poor; black and white. There is only gray, and there are countless shades of it. “A Cyborg Manifesto” is an influential essay that has been relevant to the past and is still relevant to the present. Hence, it is no surprise that it has inspired
One of the theorists is Donna Haraway and she focuses on the cyborg theory. “The cyborg theory rejects the notions of essentialism, proposing instead a chimeric, monstrous world of fusions between animal and machine.” In Feminist, Queer, Crip chapter 5 analyzes how disability figures into the feminist imagination of the cyborg theory, as described by Haraway, as “guid[ing] us to a more liveable place” ( Kafer 103). This chapter also brings disability studies to focus on feminist cyborg theory by engaging disability studies scholars and activists. Kafer asserts that “although feminist and critical race theories have taken Haraway and other early feminist cyborg theorists to task for how women of colour and people living in the global south are used to illustrate cyborg theory while racism and colonialism remain unexamined, such critical interventions have neglected to consider the implications for how disability is deployed in renderings of cyborgs.” This is considered a theoretical gap and Chapter 3 cross-examines the ways that “disability and disabled people are decontextualized, removed from the realm of the political, and presumed to play no active role in the category breakdowns that animate both the cyborg and the manifesto” (Kafer
The two controversial topics discussed below share a single goal: to enhance the quality of life of a human individual. The first topic, transhumanism, is a largely theoretical movement that involves the advancement of the human body through scientific augmentations of existing human systems. This includes a wide variety of applications, such as neuropharmacology to enhance the function of the human brain, biomechanical interfaces to allow the human muscles to vastly out-perform their unmodified colleagues, and numerous attempts to greatly extend, perhaps indefinitely, the human lifespan. While transhumanist discussion is predominantly a thinking exercise, it brings up many important ethical dilemmas that may face human society much sooner than the advancements transhumanism desires to bring into reality. The second topic, elective removal of healthy limbs at the request of the patient, carries much more immediate gravity. Sufferers of a mental condition known as Body Integrity Identity Disorder seek to put to rest the disturbing disconnect between their internal body image and their external body composition. This issue is often clouded by sensationalism and controversy in the media, and is therefore rarely discussed in a productive manner (Bridy). This lack of discussion halts progress and potentially limits citizens' rights, as legislation is enacted without sufficient research. The primary arguments against each topic are surprisingly similar; an expansion on both transhumanism and elective amputation follows, along with a discussion of the merit of those arguments. The reader will see how limits placed on both transhumanism and elective amputation cause more harm to whole of human society than good.
When looking into the inner workings of a machine, one does not see each individual gear as being separate, but as an essential part of a larger system. Losing one gear would cause the entire system to stop working and eventually fail. This concept of mechanics lays the foundation to many issues touched on in Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. The machine imagery comes through in two conversations with men that the invisible man may idolize, though he does not realize this at the time. The first of these conversations is with the veteran, while the second is with Lucius Brockway. Though the two may not qualify as “main characters,” they both play a crucial role, or as two gears in the system of Invisible Man. While one has a more literal focus on machineries than the other, both men have similar ideas of the topics they inadvertently discuss. Both conversations pave the way to the narrator’s awakening and the realization of his use in society. Within Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, the narrator’s various interactions with people regarding machines allow him to acquire knowledge in regar...
Technology is evolving every day. Scientist are already able to modify genes using software knows as CRISPR, and one can not help but think to oneself, what’s next (Achenbach)? Androids from Science fiction may not be fiction for much longer. In Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner is a futuristic world were biomechanical androids known as Replicants roam the Earth and galaxy. The only actual way to differentiate between the man and machine is for the subject to undergo the Voight-Kampff test, which is a series of questions asked to invoke an emotional response. Humans are machine like in the sense that they are “programmed” by their cultures and social structures
The future may well involve the reality of science fiction's cyborg, persons who have developed some intimate and occasionally necessary relationship with a machine. It is likely that implantable computer chips acting as sensors, or actuators, may soon assist not only failing memory, but even bestow fluency in a new language, or enable "recognition" of previously unmet individuals. The progress already made in therapeutic devices, in prosthetics and in computer science indicate that it may well be feasible to develop direct interfaces between the brain and computers.
Bodies have instead become cyborgs. We, as humans, are a mix of organic and technological/scientific enhancement. She argues that “The cyborg is text, machine, body, and metaphor, all theorized and engaged in practice in terms of communications.” (212) Joseph Schneider, a professor of sociology at Drake University and a writer of many books about Donna Haraway, argues in his article that indeed, Haraway’s ideas were a radical redefinition of humanity, especially our relationships with other living beings. He does, however, reemphasis the limitations of the human body, and its susceptibleness to disease. His viral analysis calls into question the use of this manifesto to further the idea of human exceptionalism based on the improvement of technology. He warns that Haraway’s ideals were to keep the human “in the game” as an important being, even if not the most important or the most capable. (Schneider 300) The idea of the cyborg is profound, and has the potential to the change the construction of identity in a divided and inconsistent world. Our relations with new technologies and living beings are deviations from original expectations, jobs, and cultural needs. We should instead be aiming to change for the new requirements emerging in
Have you ever heard the phrase that robots are taking over the world? Well it seems like this unimaginable concept is becoming a reality. Robots are moving to the surgery table and there is no going back to the good old traditional surgery procedures, where the surgeons perform the operation on their own by hand. Gone are those unsteady hands and comes those metallic hands that are here to stay. Robotic surgeries are the latest trend in the surgical department these days. The first surgical robot to be approved for operation and deemed safe to use is the Da Vinci and was in the market in 1999 (source).The Da Vinci is used while the surgeon is seated comfortably at a computer console, viewing a 3-D image of the surgical field. The surgeon's fingers grasp the masters on the computer console and while viewing the surgical field through the Da Vinci Systems high resolution, three dimensional image display, the surgeon manipulates and guides Da Vinci's computer assisted robotic arms and instruments. There are other surgical robots that can perform the operation but the Da Vinci is the fi...
Terminator and Bladerunner, portrayed cyborgs or cybernetic organisms as creatures of destruction. Are they really as horrible as the movies make them out to be? They can be more useful than perceived; it is necessary to first perfect the technology involved in creating and operating them. In this paper, I will describe how these cyborgs work and how they are portrayed in the movies. Furthermore, I will explain the helpful ways that they are expected to perform in the future.
Another possible positive ramification is that we can develop enhanced senses and cognitive function by the merging of biological (brains) and mechanical (robots) systems in cyborgs (6). Even though this sounds far-fetched and extraordinary, it has some serious drawbacks. For example, we as human beings are able to feel and experience things in life, such as love, through our senses (touch, taste, smell, etc.). If we are stripped of those senses via mechanical systems, then do we destroy this ability? And could these mechanical systems produce super human strength and possibly become destructive? I think so, as the movie “Iron Man” comes to mind. Where do we draw the line between what is a benefit verses what is a risk when it comes to cyborgs? Only time will tell.
"Microchip Implants Closer to reality." The Futurist. 33.8 (1999): 9. Proquest Platinum. Proquest Information and Learning Co. Glenwood High School Lib., Chatham, IL 25 Oct. 2004
What do you think would happen if you gave a child a cybernetic arm? He then proceeds to question the reader’s perception by asking, “…do transhuman really comprehend ultimate human goods?” He believes that a person who modifies their body with biotechnologies shouldn’t be considered human any more, simply because Fukuyama believes what makes a human, “Human”, is the fact that we have the ability to process emotions such as love, sadness, fear, anger, envy, gluttony, wrath, and happiness. Fukuyama believes that this is only possible through a normal blood body because we can only process those feeling the way we do because of the perception we apply to our self. If we lost that perception or altered it there is a possibility that we will lose the ability to feel those emotions. Fukuyama then repeats his question “Are trans human still human?” or are they empty shells of apocalyptic
Scientific studies have shown that there are physical and mental effects on the human body after using technology. Ac...
The robotic technology development is gaining momentum in the 21st century. A robot can be defined as a machine that performs different tasks and can be programmed by humans (Pangka, Hui and Yan 2013). The qualities of robots such as tirelessness and lack of emotionality makes them perfect task performers. Robots are used in many spheres such as domestic service, military, and healthcare. There are also several types of robots used in medicine. Robots can be used as nurse assistants, patient companions and also robots can perform some easy surgeries or assist surgeons. The purpose of this project is to describe the impacts of using robotic technology in medicine. Robots accomplish procedures less riskily and with greater accuracy (Golub and Tkacheva 2011). One example of using the robotic technology in medicine is a humanoid robot NAO which is aimed at healing children with autism by interacting with them. Despite some limitations and the novelty of this robot, the application of the robot NAO into medicine has significant benefits and is probably the most effective solution for autism.