Memory, knowledge acquisition, data visualization, decision-making, and the creation of social and business bonds – an enormous part of what we do with our brains – is now being mediated and extended by machines. In the 1960s the word “cyborg” was coined from the combination of cybernetics (a 1940s word for the science of communication systems) and organism. Cyborg was defined then (and in some dictionaries still) as:
“…a fictional or hypothetical person whose physical abilities are extended beyond normal human limitations by mechanical elements built into the body” — New Oxford American Dictionary
But extending our physical abilities is no longer fictional or hypothetical. A procedure as simple and commonplace as cataract surgery (over 3 million are performed every year in the US according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology) involves the placement into the eye through a small incision an artificial lens made of plastic, silicone or acrylic that performs the function of the eye’s natural lens. Even more radical surgery is now regularly done to replace or augment limbs or organs and to repair a wide variety of damage done to our bodies by age, accident, or disease.
While these are examples of mechanical enhancements, computers are increasingly becoming an integrated part of our bodies as well. Computers are used, for example, in artificial hearts in order to monitor and control operation in the body. In most cases today the enhancements are intended to merely restore a person’s faculties to those that they enjoyed before an accident (or age) deprived them of “normal human” ability. But using tools to extend our abilities is a basic human activity, it is what sets us apart from other animals. Having these tools “built into the body” simply extends this behavior.
Today the connection between computers and our bodies is usually through looking at a screen and typing on a keyboard. But “built into the body” interfaces are already appearing, for example in hearing aides. Over time these capabilities will expand and our integration with computers and will increase human capabilities “beyond normal human limitations.” Some people will be frightened by these changes while others will embrace and accelerate this process of adaptation.
