Pro Cyborg – Chris Dancy
The media calls him “The most connected human on earth”. He describes himself as a “data exhaust cartographer”. Because: Chris Dancy has his life and his physical activities meticulously monitored and recorded. Google Glass, Narrative Camera, Body Media Fit, Lumoback or Nod Ring – 300 to 700 sensors and gadgets analyze, optimize and save Americans’ every step around the clock. They monitor his sleep and heartbeat, warn against unhealthy posture or let his finger become a remote control. A “real-life cyborg” who seamlessly collects information about himself and makes the Facebook timeline look old.“Amber Case stated, 'We are all Cyborgs Now' in a Ted Talk by the same name.
Since the dawn of time, tools or the act of putting on clothing has augmented our humanity. The tools we use shape identity, a rock, wheel, watch, book or a coin instantly fuses the ability to perceive the world with the tool. As tools evolved into mechanical machines, we started to mimic our behaviors and culture after these objects. We came to expect people to act like machines. 'People are not machines, but in every situation where they are given the choice, they will behave like machines.' (Ludwig von Bertalanffy).
Today the world is ruled by humans wielding weaponized information to the most cutting temporally dripping pieces of data. Therefore our identity is fully fused when our bodies are covered in technology. Our relationship to time, identity and ownership has collapsed, we have become one with our unpinned relationship to information. Data exoskeletons enable us to complete transactions and fend off a future of uncertainty. As Donald Norman put it: “The power of the unaided mind is highly overrated. “The real powers come from devising external aids that enhance cognitive abilities.”
Contra Cyborg – Prof. Dr. Dr. Bernhard Irrgang
Oscar Pistorius, known for his participation in the Olympic Games and his murder trial, is a cyborg, but does that make him a non-human or perhaps even a super-human? He can run faster than almost any other person with his prosthetic leg, but with each new pair of prosthetic legs he has to practice for a long time until he achieves this ability. He has to learn to walk all over again, so to speak. The decisive factor in assessing humaneness is individual ability and learning to walk. Being able to handle an automobile is not called transhuman. Using technical possibilities is humane and not transhumane, just because part of the technological development still lies in the future. People will also use this technology – and it will be commonplace. This also applies to the neurochip: only if one takes a completely reductionist view of humanity as a basis, which assumes mental performance to be identical to brain processes, does the neurochip represent an intervention in the physically constituted personal subjectivity of a person. My comment on the Berlin club: There are many ways to make yourself interesting in an uninteresting way.
How do you feel about the topic? Where do you see the limit to the fusion of humans and machines? Or are we all cyborgs already?
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Pro Cyborg – Chris Dancy “The most connected human on earth” is what the media calls him. He describes himself as a “data exhaust cartographer”. Because: Chris Dancy has his life and his physical activities meticulously monitored and recorded. Google Glass, Narrative Camera, Body Media Fit, Lumoback or Nod Ring – 300 to 700 sensors and gadgets
