The Cyborg: the Machine, the Myth, and the Legend

By John Yanarella

    The cyborg is an idea made popular through contemporary science fiction that proposes an intermeshing of modern technology and human flesh. It arises out of the confusing mix of emotions stirred by issues raised as we go through a period of mass computerization. It speaks of deep-rooted philosophical concerns and emerges from a rich history that spans diverse fields of human endeavor.

    My paper seeks to explore the cyborg as a human phenomenon and to trace the path of the cyborg vision. It aims to foster a better understanding of the meaning of the cyborg and of the factors that brought it into existence. The cyborg is established in philosophy with a look at the mind/body dichotomy, the concept of corruption of the flesh, and "body loathing." Delving deeper, this paper examines the role of the clock in our understanding of our place in nature and as the instigator of modern technology. The philosophy of the clock inspired automata and robots, products of our imagination first made manifest in science fiction. This science fiction is paralleled by scientific imagination which began a process of expressing in written form the idea of the cyborg. This led to "grammatical alchemy" which resulted in a paradigm shift in the meaning all words related to information and intelligence. This paradigm unfolds in the history of cybernetics and artificial intelligence. Analyzing the human thinkers who proposed these fields and their underlying beliefs, we see a progression towards the gelling of the viewpoint proposed by post-humanism. Post-humanism doctrine can be seen throughout the cyberdelia movement, exemplified by the work of Timothy Leary.

    The paper links these intellectual ideas to more tangible examples found in medical science, our modern cyborg factory. The implications or consequences of the ideas stemming from medicine are intertwined with the fields of biological science and physics. The fields explore the convergence of practicalities of medicine with the intellectual ideas proposed by cybernetics, artificial intelligence, and the post-humanistic viewpoint. The result is "strange science": black box technology and new, opaque scientific ideas.

    Through exploring the history and meaning of the cyborg vision, the notion of the cyborg as a modern phenomenon is dispelled. The cyborg is as much a product of our history as it is a vision of our future.

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