Cyborgs Report

A SEMINAR REPORT ON

‘CYBORGS’

T. E. (COMPUTER ENGINEERING)

BY

JADHAV AMIT B. ROLL NO. : 87

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF

PROF. V.B. SHIVADE

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER ENGINEERING

STES’S SMT KASHIBAI NAVALE COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

VADGAON BK, OFF SINHGAD ROAD

PUNE 411041

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MAY- JUNE 2011

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the seminar report entitles

“CYBORGS”

Submitted by

JADHAV AMIT B. Roll No. : 87

is a bonafide work carried out by him under the supervision of Prof. V.SHIVDE and it is approved for the partial fulfillment of the requirement of University of Pune, Pune for the award of the degree of Bachelor of Engineering (Computer Engineering)

Prof. V.B. Shivade Prof. Mrs. M. A. Shukla Guide Head,Department of Computer Engineering Department of Computer Engineering

Dr. A. V. DeshpandePrincipal

Smt Kashibai Navale College of Engineering Vadgaon bk, off sinhgad road

Pune 411041

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Place: PuneDate:

ABSTRACT

Cyborgs-cybernetic organisms, hybrids of humans and machines, have pervaded

everyday life, the military, popular culture, and the academic world .Cyborgs is ongoing

becoming of a doubly “in-between” temporality of humans and machines. Materially made

from components of both sorts of beings, cyborgs gain increasing function through an

interweaving in which each alters the other, from the level of “neural plasticity” to software

updates to emotional breakthroughs of which both are a part.

The first and more traditional sense of the case of organic beings that are physically

and functionally united with mechanized beings to constitute what some consider “true”

cyborgs. The second sense of “cyborg” claims that we have all become cyborgs in the sense

of becoming enfolded within a world in which machines not only perform many of our key

actions but also make possible how we know ourselves, express ourselves, modify our

intentions, and open new avenues for who we might become.

"Cyborg" is a science-fictional shorting of "cybernetic organism". The idea is that, in

the near future, we may have more and more artificial body parts - arms, legs, hearts, and

eyes - and digital computing and communication supplements. The logical conclusion is that

one might become a brain in a wholly artificial body. And the step after that is to replace

your meat brain by a computer brain.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

In making this Seminar Presentation successful I have been benefited from the help and

support of my guide. My guide has given me her precious time and effort freely to make this

Seminar Presentation accurate and knowledge conveyable. So for this I would like to thank.

“Mrs. V.B.SHIVADE” for providing me the opportunity to work on my topic of seminar

“CYBORGS” which is the emerging technology, and She also shared her thoughts and

opinion to the upbringing of my knowledge in this topic.

I would also like to take this opportunity to acknowledge “Mrs. G.R.SHINDE” our Seminar

Co-coordinator for all her guidance and co-operation.

Last but not the least; I thank my teacher, friends and my family members for their constant

encouragement and their thoughts which actually gave me a reason to present my seminar on

this future technology.

AMIT JADHAV

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CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES 4

CHAPTER TITLE PAGE NO

1. INTRODUCTION 5

1.1 BASICS 5

1.2 ORIGIN 6

1.3 KINDS OF CYBORG ENTITIES 7

2. LITERATURE SURVEY 8

3. DEFINITIONS 13

3.1 SOCIAL CYBORGS / INDIVIDUAL CYBORGS 17

3.2 CYBORGS PROLIFERATION IN SOCIETY 19

3.3 POSITIVE ARGUMENTS 20

3.4 NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES 23

3.5 IMPLICATIONS 25

3.6 CHALLENGES 28

4. FUTURE SCOPE 31

5. CONCLUSION 34

6. References 36

7. CHECKLIST 37

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LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE ILLUSTRATION PAGE NO.

1.1 EXAMPLE OF CYBORG 5

2.1 PROSTHESIS 13

3.1 INDIVIDUAL CYBORG 17

3.2 CYBORG IN MEDICINE 19

3.3 CYBORG IN MILITARY 20

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CHAPTER I

1. INTRODUCTION TO CYBORGS

1.1 BASICS

A cyborg, also known as a cybernetic organism, is a being with both biological and artificial

(e.g. electronic, mechanical or robotic) parts. The cyborg is often seen today merely as an

organism that has enhanced abilities due to technology ,but this perhaps oversimplifies the

category of feedback.

1.1 AN EXAMPLE OF CYBORG

Fictional cyborgs are portrayed as a synthesis of organic and synthetic parts, and frequently

pose the question of difference between human and machine as one concerned with morality,

free will, and empathy. Fictional cyborgs may be represented as visibly mechanical or as

almost indistinguishable from humans. Cyborgs in fiction often play up a human contempt

for over-dependence on technology, particularly when used for war, and when used in ways

that seem to threaten free will. Cyborgs are also often portrayed with physical or mental

abilities far exceeding a human counterpart (military forms may have inbuilt weapons,

among other things). Real (as opposed to fictional) cyborgs are more frequently people who

use cybernetic technology to repair or overcome the physical and mental constraints of their

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bodies. While cyborgs are commonly thought of as mammals, they might conceivably be any

kind of organism.

1.2 ORIGIN OF CYBORGS

The term 'cyborg' is a contraction of 'cybernetic organism', and entered the language

in the early 1960s. The term 'cybernetics' was coined by Norbert Wiener in 1948. It referred

to the then-new notion of controlling human-designed processes through feedback and

response, in ways similar to those evident in natural organisms (Wiener 1948, 1949). He

contrived the word from the Greek word for 'steersman'.

The origin of the contraction 'cyborg' is commonly attributed to two US research scientists,

who used it to refer to an enhanced human being who could survive in extraterrestrial

environments, or, in their own words "the exogenously extended organizational complex

functioning as an integrated homeostatic system unconsciously" (Clynes & Kline 1960).

More generally, a cyborg is a human with whom mechanical and/or electronic parts have

been integrated. Driven by feature films that depict imaginings of sci-fi authors, popular

culture envisages a cyborg as necessarily having functionality that has been extended beyond

that of a normal human being. Indeed, the OED adopts that element of Clynes & Kline

(1960). Although one definition is "an integrated man-machine system", the other is "a

person whose physical tolerances or capabilities are extended beyond normal human

limitations by a machine or other external agency that modifies the body's functioning"

(emphasis added). For the purposes of this analysis, however, it is necessary to distinguish

enhancements from more mundane, but highly valuable interventions.

Also in popular culture, cyborgs enhancements are physically inserted into the person. This

paper will, however, also encompass circumstances in which this condition is not satisfied.

Consideration has also been given to the notion of 'bionic implants'. The concept is, however,

largely confined to entertainment arena, as a result of a 1973 novel called 'Cyborg', which

gave rise to television series called 'The Six Million Dollar Man' and 'The Bionic Woman' -

who had 'bionic' eyes, legs and arms.

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1.3 KINDS OF CYBORG ENTITIES

CYBORG

Convenient Conditional

CYBORGS are categorized into two types based on their structural and functional

role play. Convenient cyborgs may refer to any external provision of an exoskeleton for

satisfying the altered fancy needs of body. Conditional cyborgs include bionic implants

replanting the lost or damaged body part for normal living in the present environment

Cyborg technologies can be of four types:-

Restorative: In that they restore lost functions and replace lost organs and limbs.

Normalizing: In that they restore some creature to indistinguishable normality.

Reconfiguring: creating post human creatures equal to but different from humans, like what

one is now when interacting with other creatures in cyberspace or, in the future, the type of

modifications proto-humans will undergo to live in space or under the sea having given up

the comforts of terrestrial existence.

Enhancing: The aim of most military and industrial research, and what those with cyborg

envy or even cyborgphilia fantasize. The latter category seeks to construct everything from

factories controlled by a handful of "worker-pilots" and infantrymen in mind-controlled

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exoskeletons to the dream many computer scientists have-downloading their consciousness

into immortal computers

CHAPTER II

2. LITERATURE SURVEY

Remarkably, there appear to be very few publications that address the topic of cyborg

rights in the instrumentalist manner being attempted here. There is a sci-fi literature (which is

mostly about cyborgs as threats to mankind), a speculative literature (cyborg as post human),

and a derivative media criticism literature.

Few papers have been located, however, that examines cyborgs as they exist at present and

appear likely to increasingly exist in the near future, and consider rights as they apply to

augmented human beings. See, however, questions asked in the final paragraph of Warwick

(2003) and in a use case scenario in FIDIS (2008), and the tentative 'Cyborg Bill of Rights'

suggested in Gray (2001), but also the argument in Levy (2003) to the effect that the

challenges arising from cyborgisation are not radical.

In the absence of an established body of theory and evidence, the approach adopted in the

present paper is to investigate dimensions of the issues through case studies of various

cyborgs operating in various contexts. In order to ensure richness of material, the set

intentionally includes a diversity of prostheses, of orthoses, and of contexts.

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(1) Access to Quality-of-Life Exo-Prostheses

The assistance of vision through the use of shaped glass dates back at least two thousand

years, of lenses at least one thousand years, of spectacles at least 600-700 years, and of

contact lenses 500 years in principle and 200 years in practice. An emergent right to have a

pair of spectacles to correct sight can be detected in health and welfare systems that provide

them on a cost-less or heavily subsidized basis. Similar developments exist in relation to

hearing-aids.

Particularly in the USA and the UK, military service personnel returning from war-zones

have better access to opportunities for replacement limbs than, for example, victims of

industrial and traffic accidents. A recent review of research work on neural control of

artificial arms funded by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is

in (Adee 2009). Another group that has superior access to expensive, new treatments is the

aging rich. A ready justification for this is that the research and experimentation needed

demands funding, and only the rich and the government can provide it.

By mid-century, it is conceivable that shoulder reconstructions, hip-joint replacements and

knee replacements could have become a legitimate expectation for all who need them, rather

than the expensive option for the war-maimed and the well-off and/or well-insured that they

generally are at present.

(2) Access to Matter-of-Life-and-Death Exo-Prostheses

Spectacles and hearing-aids recover impaired senses, and hence enhance quality of life. Even

wheelchairs and replacement limbs can be argued to be facilities affecting quality-of-life

rather than survival. A range of prostheses are likely to be associated not merely with

improved quality of life but also increased life expectancy. Examples include stents,

pacemakers, renal dialysis and artificial hearts and kidneys.

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Debate can reasonably be anticipated as to whether patriotism and financial wealth should be

such dominant factors in determining the priority of allocation of quality-of-life but

especially matter-of-life-and-death prostheses.

(3) Cyborgs in Public Places

Some sight-impaired people depend on guide dogs, and many mobility-impaired people

depend on a walking-stick, or access to their own custom-designed wheelchair. Contention

has arisen where such external prostheses have been banned from premises, e.g. dogs from

coffee lounges, for health reasons. In some circumstances, a ban on the use of a personal

wheelchair within particular premises - such as an airport or an airplane - represents a denial

of access to important services, and harms the principle of equality of rights for the impaired.

A variety of new external prostheses may create further challenges. For example, portable

renal dialysis machines would demand both space and power.

Some Exo- and endo-prostheses have also already given rise to difficulties, such as artificial

hips made of steel and pacemakers, which may be incompatible with airport security

equipment. The prospect also exists of Exo- and endo-orthoses that represent security threats.

(4) Exo- and Endo-Orthoses for Location and Tracking

Anklets with embedded chips to facilitate detection of non-compliance with movement

restrictions were first officially sanctioned in 1983, in New Mexico. Anklets have since been

applied in a variety of circumstances, not only to prisoners, but to parolees as a condition of

parole, and even to remandees (who have yet to be convicted of an offence, and may well

never be). It represents an extension of the prison beyond the prison walls and reduces costs

to the state. There is accordingly an incentive to extend it to further categories, particularly

recidivist criminals and detested (ex-?)Criminals (e.g. those who have completed their

sentences for child sex offences), but also dementia sufferers, comatose patients and perhaps

other kinds of patients as well. Generally, an anklet is a form of overt involuntary exo-

orthosis.

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Chips have been implanted in livestock and pets since abut 1990. Chips have been offered for

implantation in humans since about 1998, first in tooth-enamel and then in soft tissue. There

have been a number of reported instances of chips being implanted in humans (Masters &

Michael 2006), although to date no reliable reference has been located for them being

imposed involuntarily. A chip-implant is a form of endo-orthosis, and may be voluntary,

overt involuntary or even covert involuntary in nature.

Like other endo-prostheses and endo-orthoses, the chip-implantation process may give rise to

infection, it may be rejected by the body, and it may interfere with tissue, organs or bodily

functions (CEJA-AMA 2007, Foster & Jaeger 2007). The U.S. Food and Drug

Administration (FDA) provided the Verichip for implantation in 2004, some years after it

had first been implanted in humans. The decision was widely but misleadingly reported as

being US government approval for the conduct of chip-implantation in humans.

(5) Handicapped Sports

Many categories of handicapped sportspeople, particularly those participating in athletics and

swimming, compete against others with similar disabilities and/or levels of disability.

Commonly, the handicapped are protected from the prosthetes, and both the handicapped and

prosthetes are protected from the able-bodied, e.g. by segregation into separate events or at

least categories.

Wheelchair racers compete separately from the able-bodied as well. However, they go faster

than runners. In the case of the New York Marathon, for example, the winner of the

wheelchair event is about 35% faster than the winner of the foot-race. Hence segregation into

separate events works the other way around, protecting the able-bodied from the orthots. The

potential exists for the able-bodied to be precluded from competing in wheelchair events, or

to be permitted to compete, and even for them to demand the right to do so.

A particular case of sports orthosis was drawn to attention in the presentation accompanying

Clarke (2005a), in Hood (2005a and (2005b) and in some other media outlets around that

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time. Oscar Pistorius is a South African athlete, who competes in 200m and 400m events. In

2005, it was speculated that, if he continued his improvement, he would qualify for the 2008

Olympic Games, and by 2012 could be at least a semi-finalist. Oscar was born without lower

legs, and has artificial legs that include carbon fiber blades.

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) determined that Pistorius'

prosthetics "should be considered as technical aids which give him an advantage over other

athletes not using them" (Robinson 2008). They accordingly banned him from competing

against able-bodied athletes at the 2008 Olympics. This was based on an amendment to their

rules, passed the previous year that precludes use of "any technical device that incorporates

springs, wheels or any other element that provides a user with an advantage over another

athlete not using such a device".

Pistorius challenged the ruling, and won, on the basis that the IAAF had failed to show that

the legs gave him sufficient advantage (i.e. that the Exo-prostheses were in fact Exo-

orthoses). Due to an injury-plagued preparation, however, he missed the qualifying standard

by 0.70 seconds and did not satisfy the criteria for selection for his national team.

A media report has subsequently suggested that the IAAF may now have the required

evidence (SD 2009), and hence may now succeed in banning double-amputees using such

devices in able-bodied events. Ironically, the brand-name of the legs Pistorius uses is

'Cheetah' - doubtless intended to imply speed, but perhaps now to be interpreted as an

admission that they provide an unfair advantage to orthots over the able-bodied athletes.

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CHAPTER III

3. DEFINITION

1. PROSTHETICS

The OED defines a prosthesis or prosthetic as "[a] replacement [for] defective or absent parts

of the body [in the form of] artificial substitutes". Its use in this manner is traced to 1706.

A more appropriate definition for a prosthetic may be an artifact that provides the body with

previously missing or overcomes defective functionality. This definition is narrower than the

OED, in that it requires the artifact to enable the performance of a function, and thereby

excludes merely cosmetic or ornamental artifacts such as glass eyes and breast implants.

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2.2 PROSTHETICS

Prosthesis may have various relationships with the human body, and hence the following

categories are usefully distinguished:

External Prosthesis. This is a prosthesis separate from the human body, but

connected to it, or interfaced with it. Examples include spectacles, walking sticks and

crutches, but also renal dialysis and heart-lung machines

2. Exo-Prosthesis. This is prosthesis on an outer extremity of the human body and

effectively integrated with it. Examples include contact lenses, artificial hands, arms

and legs

3. Endo-Prosthesis. This is a prosthesis internal to the human body and effectively

integrated with it. Examples include artificial hips and knees, stents, pacemakers,

cochlear implants and implanted lenses .

2. ORTHOTICS

The OED defines an orthosis or orthotic as "An external orthopedic appliance or apparatus,

such as a brace or splint, that serves to support, assist the function of, or prevent movement in

a body part such as a limb or the spine". A more expansive definition of orthosis is

appropriate to the present purpose, as an artifact that supplements or extends a human's body,

or a human's capabilities.

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It also enables a parallel set of terms to be devised, in order to distinguish the following sub-

categories:

External Orthosis. This is an orthosis separate from the human body, but connected

to it, or interfaced with it. Examples include telescopes and microscopes; golf-clubs

and snorkels; body-suits such as those for knights, deep-sea divers, astronauts and

competitive swimmers;.

Exo-Orthosis. This is an orthosis on an outer extremity of the human body and

effectively integrated with it. Examples include artificial limbs that do something

more than the natural limb would have done.

Endo-Orthosis. This is an orthosis internal to the human body and effectively

integrated with it. Examples include chip implants that disclose an identifier or other

data, whether to assist the person's location to be found or tracked, or to, for example,

automatically open a door.

4. CYBORGS, PROSTHETES AND ORTHOTS

To facilitate discussion, it is useful to have short-form terms for the various categories of

person arising from prosthetic and orthotic processes. The OED definition of cyborg appears

to require enhancement of the person, and hence could be interpreted as necessarily involving

what was defined above as an orthosis. This would, however, lead to an unfortunate

ambiguity. A person may be missing functionality due to the loss, or absence since birth, of a

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body-part, or due to some defect in a body-part. If the person regains the functionality by

means of prosthesis, then the person is enhanced relative to the state that the person was in

prior to the prosthetic being applied. So the person is arguably a cyborg even though they

have prosthesis rather than an orthosis. In any case, for the purpose of analyzing cyborg

rights, it is important to encompass humans with prostheses as well as orthoses.

It is therefore problematic to use the OED definition in the analysis of rights. Moreover, in

the terms proposed in this paper, the original concept of cyborg in Clynes & Kline (1960) is

highly restrictive, being a human with a very special kind of exo-orthosis. For the purposes

of this paper, it is necessary to use a definition of 'cyborg' much closer to that proposed in

Mann & Niedzviecki (2001): "a person whose physiological functioning is aided by or

dependent upon a mechanical or electronic device".

The definitions adopted in the remainder of this paper are as follows:

Prosthete - a human with a prosthesis

Orthot - a human enhanced by means of an orthosis

Cyborg - a human with either or both of a prosthesis or an orthosis

Where needed, the terms prosthetisation, orthotisation and cyborgisation could be applied

to the process of installing respectively a prosthesis, an orthosis, and either or both of them.

Further distinctions need to be drawn, to reflect the extent to which the person is an informed

and willing subject, or the prosthesis or orthosis has been imposed on them:

Voluntary Prosthetisation / Orthotisation / Cyborgisation. This arises where a

person requests, or consents to, the prosthetic or orthotic process. The key

characteristics of a valid consent are that it be informed and freely-given (Clarke

2002)

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Involuntary Prosthetisation / Orthotisation / Cyborgisation. This arises where the

person does not consent to the prosthetic or orthotic process, but it is imposed upon

them. Two further sub-categories need to be distinguished:

o Overt, Involuntary Prosthetisation / Orthotisation / Cyborgisation. In this

case, the person is aware of the imposition. An example is chip-enabled

anklets for people in institutions (although, by definition, not for dementia

patients)

o Covert, Involuntary Prosthetisation / Orthotisation / Cyborgisation. In

this case, the person not only did not consent, but also is not aware that the

process has been undertaken. An example is the attachment of a tracking

device to a person without it being brought to their attention, or otherwise

coming to their attention

3.1 SOCIAL/INDIVIUAL CYBORGS

SOCIAL CYBORG

More broadly, the full term "cybernetic organism" is used to describe larger networks of

communication and control. For example, cities, networks of roads, networks of software,

corporations, markets, governments, and the collection of these things together. A

corporation can be considered as an artificial intelligence that makes use of replaceable

human components to function. People at all ranks can be considered replaceable agents of

their functionally intelligent government institutions, whether such a view is desirable or not.

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The example above is reminiscent of the "organic paradigm" popular in the late 19th century

due to the recent breakthroughs in understanding of cellular biology.

INDIVIDUAL CYBORG

3.1 INDIVIDUAL CYBORG

Neil Harbisson is sometimes claimed to be a cyborg.

Generally, the term "cyborg" is used to refer to a human with bionic, or robotic, implants. In

current prosthetic applications, the C-Leg system developed by Otto Bock HealthCare is used

to replace a human leg that has been amputated because of injury or illness. The use of

sensors in the artificial C-Leg aids in walking significantly by attempting to replicate the

user's natural gait, as it would be prior to amputation. Prostheses like the C-Leg and the more

advanced iLimb are considered by some to be the first real steps towards the next generation

of real-world cyborg applications. Additionally cochlear implants and magnetic implants

which provide people with a sense that they would not otherwise have had can additionally

be thought of as creating cyborgs.

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In 2002, under the heading Project Cyborg, a British scientist, Kevin Warwick, had an array

of 100 electrodes fired in to his nervous system in order to link his nervous system into the

Internet. With this in place he successfully carried out a series of experiments including

extending his nervous system over the Internet to control a robotic hand, a loudspeaker and

amplifier. This is a form of extended sensory input and the first direct electronic

communication between the nervous systems of two humans.

In 2004, under the heading Bridging the Island of the Colourblind Project, a British and

completely colorblind artist, Neil Harbisson, started wearing an eyeborg on his head in order

to hear colors. His prosthetic device was included within his passport photograph which has

been claimed to confirm his cyborg status.

3.2 CYBORGS PROLIFERATION IN SOCIETY

IN MEDICINE:

In medicine, there are two important and different types of cyborgs: these are the restorative

and the enhanced. Restorative technologies “restore lost function, organs, and limbs”. The

key aspect of restorative cyborgization is the repair of broken or missing processes to revert

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to a healthy or average level of function. There is no enhancement to the original faculties

and processes that were lost.

A brain-computer interface, or BCI, provides a direct path of communication from the

brain to an external device, effectively creating a cyborg. Research of Invasive BCIs, which

utilize electrodes implanted directly into the grey matter of the brain, has focused on

restoring damaged eyesight in the blind and providing functionality to paralyzed people,

most notably those with severe cases, such as Locked-In syndrome.

3.2

Retinal implants are another form of cyborgization in medicine. The theory behind retinal

stimulation to restore vision to people suffering from retinitis pigmentosa and vision loss due

to aging.

IN MILITARY:

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3.3 DARPA-Cyborg

Military organizations' research has recently focused on the utilization of cyborg animals for

inter-species relationships for the purposes of a supposed tactical advantage. DARPA has

announced its interest in developing "cyborg insects" to transmit data from sensors implanted

into the insect during the pupal stage. Similarly, DARPA is developing a neural implant to

remotely control the movement of sharks. The shark's unique senses would be exploited to

provide data feedback in relation to enemy ship movement and underwater explosives.

IN ART:

The concept of the cyborg is often associated with science fiction. However, many artists

have tried to create public awareness of cybernetic organisms; these can range from paintings

to installations.

Stelarc is a performance artist who has visually probed and acoustically amplified his body.

He uses medical instruments, prosthetics, robotics, virtual reality systems, the Internet and

biotechnology to explore alternate, intimate and involuntary interfaces with the body. He has

made three films of the inside of his body and has performed with a third hand and a virtual

arm.

3.3 POSITIVE ARGUMENTS

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Certainly, there have been a number of positive responses to this 'cyborg' phenomenon. There

have been a number of AI researchers like Hans Moravec who have unabashedly declared

that it may be time for carbon-based biological life to yield control of the planet to its 'mind

children,' silicon-based life. They claim that the phenomenon, seen from a grand evolutionary

perspective, can be seen as part of the grand design of evolution. The human cyborg

represents a 'transitional species' of sorts, before the human enters total post-biological

obsolescence. If evolution is theorized from an abstract perspective as an attempt to increase

the information-processing power latent in matter, in the struggle against entropy, it is clear

that hardware (artificial life) will eventually win out against wetware (organic life) since it is

more durable and more efficient.

There are others who foresee perhaps a more peaceable coexistence for human beings and

electronic ‘life,’ One recent theory that has been bantered about lately is that the human race

may have reached the saturation point for economic growth, but this is fortunate since it has

arrived in time for it to work on 'human growth,' i.e. the re-engineering of the human species.

We can 'graduate' from being victims of natural selection to masters of self-selection. It

seems hard to argue against increasing human longevity, intelligence, or strength, since

human beings seem to live too short a span, to make too many mistakes in reasoning, and to

lack the physical endurance necessary to make great accomplishments. Indeed, there are

those who feel that without technological modification, the human being might be simply too

"shortchanged" from an evolutionary standpoint to accomplish the race's greatest dreams,

such as peaceful coexistence, environmental sustainability, and space exploration. The search

for human perfectibility is one of the oldest of utopian dreams.

Lastly, there are the postmodern theorists, normally noted for their antitechnological stance,

who have taken a favorable position on the coming of the cyborg. The "cyborg

anthropologists" have followed the line of Donna Haraway, who declared that she would

rather be a cyborg than a goddess any day, in a sort of cynical repudiation of ecofeminism

and the fetishizing of nature.

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The advantages of becoming a cyborg:

1. Returning Function

If you have had parts of you damaged, such as you are blind, you can have to eyes replaced

with electromechanical devices that return function.

2. Increased Strength

Assuming that it is possible to replace or enhance the human endoskeleton with metal and

pneumatic/hydraulic pumps, the strength of a cyborg could be drastically increased above a

normal human. A metal skeleton would even possibly allow you to even take hits a normal

human couldn't survive (e.g. A sledgehammer to the chest, or a gunshot to the head)

3. Added Functionality

A cyborg does not have the limits of a standard human. For example due to increased weight,

they could replace or add appendages such as a building a gun inside the arm, that can extend

out and shoot, with there being less recoil thanks to weight and strength.

4. Possibly Longer Lifespan

because you are replacing a lot of your body parts, you are making some of your organs

obsolete and since you aren't relying on them, it doesn't matter if they fail or are taken out.

How ever until research into extended or replenishing the state of the brain, you will still

only have as long to live as your brain will allow. Unless you could somehow transfer your

conscience into the computer that eventually replaces your brain, you are screwed.

5. Increased Intelligence/Computational Power/Perception

A possibility of a cyborg can be to add microchips to the brain, which would allow your

brain to offload commands such as doing calculations to the chip, which could do the

calculations instantaneously and return the answers to the brain. Perception could be

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increased by assisting parts of the brain that deal with awareness.

3.4 NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES

The critics of bioelectronics and biocomputing foresee numerous potential negative social

consequences from the technology. One is that the human race will divide along the lines of

biological haves and have-nots. People with enough money will be able to augment their

personal attributes as they see fit (which is what they already do with techniques such as

spas, plastic surgery, etc.) as well as to utilize cloning, organ replacement, etc. to stave off

death for as long as they wish, while the majority of humanity will continue to suffer from

plague, hunger, 'bad genes,' and infirmity. It's hard not to see the biological 'haves'

advocating separation and/or extinction inevitably for their unmodified peers.

It's inevitable that there will be those who see the potential of a sort of master race from this

technology. Certainly, the military has already considered the possibility of the super-soldier,

augmented by technology so that he has faster reflexes, deadlier accuracy, greater resistance

to fatigue, integrated weaponry, and most importantly, lesser inclinations toward fear or

doubt in combat. Such soldiers could be created through combinations of biochemical’s,

bioelectronics, and DNA manipulation. They might have available arsenals of new biological

warfare components, synthetically generated within their own bodies. But it's not clear that

these 'cyborgs' would not turn on their creators. Indeed, there's no reason at all to think they

would forever allow themselves to be controlled by inferiors. They could easily become a

new sort of dominant caste, forcing the rest of untechnologized humanity into serfdom. Or

perhaps they might decide simply to eliminate it.

For that reason, it's logical to suspect that one of the other dangers inherent in bioelectronics

might be the ability to control and monitor people. This would be a tremendous violation of

human privacy, but the creators of human biotech might see it as necessary to keep their

subjects under control. Once implanted with bio-implant electronic devices, 'cyborgs' might

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become highly dependent on the creators of these devices for their repair, recharge, and

maintenance. It could be possible to modify the person technologically so that their body

would stop producing some essential substance for survival, thus placing them under the

absolute control of the designers of the technology.

The Disadvantages of becoming a cyborg:

1. Possible loss of humanity

Due to having microchips installed in your brain that can alter your behavior, it is possible

that you would lose or overwrite the parts of you, that make you who you are. When your

brain dies, people aren't likely to let your body go to waste and will therefore replace the

deceased brain with Artificially Intelligent computers, leading to your body becoming an

android.

2. Expensive

Unless you are being subjected to becoming a cyborg against your will by secret

underground science teams, this entire tech is going to be coming out of your pocket, and it

will not be cheap.

3. Loss of Acceptable Appearance

Assuming that you had your muscles mostly replaced with pumps, you aren't going to have

all that much blood, so there won't be a whole lot keeping your skin (and your member)

alive.

4. Likely to Die in the Creation Procedures

Adapting to cyborg life wouldn't be even nearly as hard as surviving all the surgery that you

would have to go through to have entire parts of your body replaced. Unless research teams

develop some way to replace body parts with other things in an instant, you will probably be

dead before you know it.

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5. You Are Now Property of a Government

Expanding on the expensive point, now that you have somehow managed to survive the

expensive surgery that an underground government has paid for, they basically now own you

and you are in their service until your brain dies and they turn you into an android to keep

forever.

ARGUMENTS ON BALANCE

The proponents of bioelectronics are inevitably correct in suggesting that it holds out

incredible benefits for the human race. (Admittedly, those who argue for human

obsolescence as a benefit should be discounted by any reasonable humanist.) Likewise, it is

undeniably the case that some of the skepticism toward bioelectronics arises out of the

superstitious attitude that people hold toward computers and electronic technology, as well as

medical and reproductive procedures that they don't fully understand. However, they are

incorrect in arguing that regulation and oversight will only hinder research in this area and

prevent scientific progress in the relevant areas. In marginalizing the social and ethical issues

generated by research in biocomputing, these researchers are showing a side of science that

people have routinely expressed anger about - its refusal to accept social responsibility for

unforeseen consequences. In order for bioelectronics research to progress, it will have to

accept that the potential dangers are real, and that the concerns of some skeptics are valid.

Otherwise, something disastrous might occur which might create a 'death-blow' for the

industry; much as has happened with nuclear power in the U.S., and nothing positive will

ever have been attained.

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3.5 IMPLICATIONS

This section draws on the cases outlined above in order to identify the kinds of rights that

may be emergent, or may be at least asserted, claimed or desired, variously by cyborgs and

by non-cyborgs in reaction to the cyborgisation of others.

Rights of the Non-Cyborg (or Pre-Cyborg)

a claim right on service-providers, to take due care in the design and testing of

prostheses and orthoses and procedures for installing them - case (4) - chip-

implantation

a claim right on the state, to receive quality-of-life prostheses - case (1) - spectacles

and hearing-aids

a claim right on the state, to receive matter-of-life-and-death prostheses - case (2) -

renal dialysis, stents and pacemakers

a liberty right to decline a prosthesis or orthosis - case (4) - RFID-anklets and chip-

implants, and case (7) - RFID chips as the norm

a claim right on the organizers of sporting events, to enable participation in events

with cyborg athletes - case (5) - wheelchair sports

a claim right on service-providers, preventing the denial of access to services by non-

cyborgs - case (7) - RFID chips as the norm.

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Rights of the Cyborg

a claim right by prosthetes, on operators of facilities, to be able to use external, Exo-

and endo-prostheses in facilities used by the public - case (3) wheelchairs on aircraft

a claim right by prosthetes, on the organizers of sporting events, to enable

participation in events separately from able-bodied athletes - case (5) - double-

amputees

a claim right by prosthetes, on the organizers of sporting events, to enable

participation in events with able-bodied athletes - case (5) - double-amputees

a claim right by orthots, on the organizers of sporting events, to enable participation

in events with able-bodied athletes - case (5) - double-amputees

a claim right by orthots, on the organizers of sporting events, to enable participation

in events separately from able-bodied athletes - case (5) - double-amputees

a claim right by orthots, against others, to be able to utilize their enhanced functional

capability, perhaps only within a particular context, but perhaps generally - case (8) -

military and security personnel.

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3.6 CHALLENGES

Technology advancement and life extension programs are accelerating across a range of

fields of longevity studies. It might turnout that the future of cybernetics transcends human

kind into a biologically immortal Cyborg.

Technology has driven the world from a primitive state towards a highly sophisticated and

complex modern world. The primitive man would properly not imagine that he would be the

founder of this mechanistic world. Everything started from discovering fire and inventing the

wheel to modern times. People like Neil Armstrong, the first man ever to put the footprint

outside the atmosphere of earth, did on 20th July 1969 step on the Moon. It is an important

date in human history but what awaits us is far beyond going to the moon. With progressive

state of technology a new era of human cybernetics are evolving.

Human Cybernetics in the field of life extension refers to how technology has, is and will

evolve to support the ideology of extending human lifespan. We are already hearing about

new tools associated with the term ‘nanotechnology’. Not far in the future, only in a few

decades, it will be plausible to re-engineer our whole body. Our physical and mental systems

will be repairable and replaceable with the use of ‘nanobots’. Scientists do already possess

prosperous knowledge in how to avoid some degenerative disease through supplements and

nutrition consumptions. These are some medical progresses, which will enrich the

biotechnology revolution and transcend a fruitful birth to nanotechnology.

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The term ‘nanobots’ is futuristic, it doesn’t really exists. Today, the terms used are

‘software’, ‘biotechnology’, ‘plastic’, ‘organism’ or even ‘cybernetics’. In the future,

‘nanobots’ being blood-cell-seized robots will be the major doctors. They will be able to

identify any disequilibrium in the body and give recourse to nutrition and supplements for

treatment.

We are aware of common technology. However, medical advancement does seldom hit the

headlines for many weeks; they are often given little attention. They are veiled behind

contemporary technology and cheapskate news such as latest gadgets; PCs, Mobile Devices,

and cheapskate news on violence, private life of pop-stars. However, intelligent machines are

already spurring to the surface. There are a number of projects focusing on creating

biological microelecromechanical systems (bioMEMS). Their intent is from diagnostic to

offer therapeutical treatment to pathologies identified through our blood stream. It is far from

science fiction. Since the early days, nano-machine was proposed by Richard Feynman. The

latter stated that machines would create smaller ones and these would in turn build more

diminutive ones. This refines into a state where nano-molecular systems can be controlled by

nano-robotics or simply nanobots.

The University of Illinois at Chicago did some years ago create a ‘capsule’ of seven

nanometers. This ‘nano-capsule’ was used in experiments to protect organs and cells such as

the pancreatic islet cells from antibodies. This method has proven to cure diabetes type I for

rats. This could perfectly work for humans. Alike methodologies can be used to treat diabetes

and Parkinson’s disease by providing more dopamine to the brain. Furthermore, Kensall

Wise, a professor of electrical engineering from the University of Michigan, has created

sophisticated nano-neural probe technology that scrutinizes the electrical activities of patient

having any neural diseases. This makes it possible to monitor activities in the brain. This

prowess will make it possible to inject medicine to precise regions in the brain. Kazushi

Ishiyama at Tohoku University of Japan has already created an advanced micromachine that

enables microscopic-sized spinning drills to inject drugs to tiny cancer tumors.

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Raymond Kurzweil, a futurist, inventor and author of several books on health,

transhumanism and artificial intelligence believes that by 2020 this type of technology

(nanobots) will already have reached a maturity state. Nano-scale machines will already be in

our bloodstream to constantly evaluate our health conditions. The dynamism of sensors

within our body will be able to communicate wirelessly with technology identifying the

degree of nutrition and supplements that are lacking in our body. The essence of

supplementing the body with a balance intake of nutrition is that fewer side effects will be

experienced such as digestion (gastro). The body will live a healthy life and so will the

beholder. Cybernetics in life extension goes beyond finding cures to even replacing organs.

For instance, our heart is a performing machine yet with a myriad of failures. These failing

weaknesses are tarnishing longevity. The heart is an organ that can prematurely cause death

through heart disease and heart attacks. Nowadays, artificial hearts are available and slowly

advancing. Artificial hearts are far from being perfect, but will gradually improve, and thus

when signs of premature weaknesses are spotted in the heart it can be replaced.

The most complex organ to deal with is the brain. Our actual advanced state of technology is

unable to identify where memory is precisely located and how it is processed. We only know

that the brain has a mind, and this mind might be the whole brain or only a part of the brain.

Besides, there is a misconception, the brain is not an isolated organ it is an interconnected

one. It has an evolutionary history. However, we are not that far from unraveling it. People

who are deaf can now communicate via telephones after cochlear implant, a particular tool

interacting with the auditory nervous system. Other implant system such as replacing

damaged retinas are only few examples of how medicine is going away from the soup

concept of adding chemicals towards a mechanistic way to cut, delete, add and replace old

organs with new ones.

This is an advance state of metamorphosis for human to become ‘Cyborgs’. Technology from

being separated from human, in terms of distanced computer system has moved from the

table to our pockets (PDA’s) and now they are entering our body. Our natural biological

condition might in the future be constituted of non-biological and technical components. The

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radical cybernetic evolution that is taking-off may substantially reengineer our body and

extend our lifespan to a biologically immortal state. The prognosis of such changes will in

the near future. Improvement will only be seen after 2020 and concretize by 2040. It might

just be like the typewriter phenomenon; replaced by new technology and human through

cybernetics transcends to biologically immortal cyborgs.

CHAPTER IV

4. FUTURE SCOPE

'Cyborg' is actually a science fiction shortening of 'cybernetic organism'. The idea is that, in

the future, we may have more and more artificial body parts—arms, legs, hearts, eyes and so

on—till one might end up finally as a brain in a wholly artificial body. The fact that our ideas

about what constitutes a machine have changed notably is evident in the ubiquitous desktop

personal computer that's capable of instantaneously morphing from a word processor into an

entertainment centre playing music and video. Or from an accounting machine into a speech

synthesizer or a game station within the span of a mouse click. A far cry from the oil-

spewing, smoke-belching, noisy clumps of twisted metal that represented machines of the

past.

As the attributes of machines changed, our basic attitudes toward them underwent a

remarkable shift. For many of us, the computer is no longer a cold grey machine, but a

trusted assistant without which everyday business would come to a grinding halt. In the

mid-'80s, science fiction writer William Gibson coined the term 'cyberspace', and offered the

vision of a man-machine linkup at the neurological level hinting at some sort of techno-

transcendence. A decade later we have the World Wide Web or the Internet, which is

actually a machine, and the race to achieve such a man-machine linkup is on. The idea is to

be linked to the Internet through surgically-implanted chips capable of wireless

communication with the Net: making you physically here and virtually embodied in

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cyberspace. Virtual reality as a technology is still in its infancy, but once perfected we would

have individuals with the implants for wireless linkup opting to spend most of their time in

designer realities and virtual heavens.

This Gibsonian world of man-machine symbiosis is a direction we are definitely moving

towards, amply demonstrated by the recent chip implant on 44-year-old professor of

cybernetics, Kevin Warwick from the University of Reading, Britain. The implanted chip in

his left arm wirelessly linked him to the network, made his office welcome him in the

morning, turned on his computer, switched on the lights in the office corridor, opened doors

and even helped his secretary track him irrespective of where he was on the campus. After a

week of this, when the implant was removed from his body terminating the linkup, Professor

Warwick experienced a sense of loss as though he was cut off from something, similar to a

shared sense of being with the computer network. He later admitted that with the implant he

had felt "an affinity to the computer”. This shift in our attitude towards machines and

machine intelligence is gradually gaining legitimacy. Identified as 'post-humanism', this new

ideology endorses the idea that humans need to involve intelligent machines in the

evolutionary process. The proponents of post-humanism perceive this involvement as using

technology to overcome our physical and mental limits.

As machines continue their rapid evolution towards increased miniaturization and

functionality, and as we keep tinkering with our bodies and brains at the molecular and

genetic level, this involvement will become more feasible. For instance, the problem of how

to increase human intelligence is being approached from various angles. One approach is the

use of chemicals like Vasopressin to enhance already existing processes in the brain such as

memory. The other is an attempt to link the brain directly to computers. Such brain-computer

interfaces could amplify the processes that constitute the human mind to unimaginable levels.

The computers could be small enough to be implanted within the body of the user. According

to post-humanist thinker Max More: "A human brain reasons, creates, feels, plans, calculates,

and appreciates. These properties of living, conscious beings result from the immensely

complicated connections among our billions of neurons. An individual neuron by itself

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displays no consciousness, reasoning, or creativity. The neuron is a biochemical machine.

We should therefore be able to replace or repair damaged neural tissue with implants and

supplement biological neurons with synthetic neurons while retaining the same functions. We

should be able to add memory, processing power, and new abilities by doing so. In principle,

we could replace all our neurons until we had an entirely synthetic or prosthetic brain. If the

new neurons worked similarly to the old, and were connected up the same, we would never

notice the difference."By far the most ambitious project of this kind is 'migration through

silicon' or 'uploading', which involves putting the mind into a machine. Uploading or

'migration through silicon' plainly means transferring or duplicating the mental processes of a

living person along with his/her identity on to a specially designed computer. Once a mind is

successfully transferred on to silicon, one could modify that mind by increasing the scope of

the senses or even add new senses. Or increase and enlarge the memory functions by creating

remote links to all the existing records in human cultural and intellectual history. One could

eliminate unnecessary activities like sleeping, or eliminate unwanted personality traits, install

new ones, invent new emotions, dream while fully awake, choose what emotions and moods

to experience, inhabit artificial bodies of either sex or of completely new sexes, experience

completely imaginary states The truth is those among us who use a pacemaker to sustain the

normal heart functions and be alive are in effect part-machine and part-human, a minor

cyborg. But in the vision of the future, presented by people like Gibson, intelligent

technology intrudes into the hitherto sacred space of the human body to morph into a tool

that offers transformation and transcendence. The future is no longer seen to be existing out

there, where life is full of pain and all-too-human suffering, but within a digitally constructed

space, melded with the nerves and by all-knowing machines.

Post-humanism and other technocentric New Age philosophies seem to be preparing us for

this radically different world we are going to inhabit, where we will coexist with intelligent

machines by integrating them into our own being. Perhaps that is the only way we can

prevent ourselves from being at the mercy of our own magnificent creation-the super-

intelligent machine.

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CHAPTER V

5. CONCLUSION

As many scientists have eloquently argued, once a technology is out there, you cannot make

it go away. The genie simply will not go back in the bottle. There never was a technology

that the human race ever abandoned wholesale, even the hydrogen bomb or other weapons of

mass destruction with the power to wipe out all life on Earth. You might eventually be able

to ban the production of H-bombs, but it would take a long time to kill everybody who knew

how to make one or eliminate all blueprints and specifications for the design. While scientists

discussed the possibility of a ban on recombinant DNA research at the Asilomar Conference,

they knew it was not feasible. Even if overt public funding for such research was cut off,

covert private funding would continue to flow from various interested parties, as has

happened with even disproven technologies like cold fusion.

Thus, once invented, bioelectronics technologies cannot be wished away. Once given the

opportunity to improve themselves in any form, human beings rarely surrender the

opportunity, whether it's "pumping iron" or exercise to raise physical fitness, so-called "smart

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drugs" to raise intelligence, or vitamin therapies to stem the onslaught of the aging process.

When human beings are offered the chance to utilize computers and electronic technologies

within their bodies to achieve these same results, it is almost certain they will embrace them

regardless of the risks. Based on this, it would be unrealistic to try and ban such technologies;

however one might worry about their ethical and social consequences. A ban would only

probably force them into a large, criminal black market, as illegal drugs and weapons already

have been.

A new "cyborg bioethics" may be necessary. While it cannot be possible to foresee all the

consequences resulting from bioelectronics, most scientists are already aware of what some

of the major dangers are. Researchers in biocomputing may be required to adopt protocols on

acceptable research with human subjects, much as genetic engineers did back in the 1970s. In

drafting bioethical imperatives for bioelectronics research, it will probably be imperative to

consider the concerns of groups such as the religious community, since to ignore their

concerns simply out of the insistence that they are merely acting out of "anti-science"

ignorance will leave an important group "out of the loop" of this research. This is uncharted

territory for the human race, and it is the first time in which our own "built environment"

may be directly incorporated into our own sense of self and human nature. Our own

biocomputers (the human mind) evolved under a very specific set of evolutionary

circumstances, after all, and they may not be equipped with the foresight and moral sense to

keep up with the accelerating pace of technology.

Since this is the case, it is probably imperative for society to assert that the scientists and

engineers charged with creating this new technology exert the proper amount of social

responsibility. Safeguards will have to be insisted on to prevent the possible negative impacts

discussed above, and many of these things will have to be built in at the instrumental level,

since they probably cannot be achieved only through policy and regulation. Critical public

awareness and vigilance, of the kind already shown by Jeremy Rifkin and the Foundation on

Economic Trends with regard to biotechnology, will be essential. But ultimately, bioethicists

will have to grapple with the fundamental issues involved, which touch on aspects of human

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existence and human nature which reach to the core of what most people think is involved in

what it means to be human, and this will not be an easy dilemma to resolve.

CHAPTER VI

6. References

[1] I CYBORG – KEVIN WARWIK

[2] II CYBORG – KEVIN WARWIK

[3] www.cyborgs.com

[4] Technology as Extension of Human Functional Architecture.htm

[5] Kevin Warwick - http://www.kevinwarwick.com

[6] Principia Cybernetica Web- http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/CYBERN.html

SKNCOE, Computer Engineering 2011 Page 40

CHAPTER VII

7. CHECKLIST

CHAPTER TITLE PAGE NO

1. INTRODUCTION 5

1.1 BASICS 5

1.2 ORIGIN 6

1.3 KINDS OF CYBORG ENTITIES 7

2. LITERATURE SURVEY 8

3. DEFINITIONS 13

3.1 SOCIAL CYBORGS / INDIVIDUAL CYBORGS 17

3.2 CYBORGS PROLIFERATION IN SOCIETY 19

3.3 POSITIVE ARGUMENTS 20

3.4 NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES 23

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3.5 IMPLICATIONS 25

3.6 CHALLENGES 28

4. FUTURE SCOPE 31

5. CONCLUSION 34

6. BIBLIOGRAPHY 36

7. CHECKLIST 37

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