Cyborg Science

Mankind’s dependence on artificial intelligence and robotics is increasing rapidly as technology becomes more advanced. Finding a way to seamlessly intertwine these two worlds will help boost productivity in society and aid in a variety of ways in modern civilization.

Androids, Cyborgs, and Robots in Contemporary Culture and Society is an essential scholarly resource that delves into the current issues, methodologies, and trends relating to advanced robotic technology in the modern world. Featuring relevant topics that include STEM technologies, brain-controlled androids, biped robots, and media perception, this publication is ideal for engineers, academicians, students, and researchers that would like to stay current with the latest developments in the world of evolving robotics.

ABSTRACT In the article, we make an attempt at discussing what it means that our reality is commodified, what the consequences of this are, how we commodify our bodies and what role in this process is played by cyborgization, as well as what the relation between commodification and disembodiment is. These issues seem to be significant, because when the consumptionist and neoliberal discourse is reconstructed, the aspect of commodification of a human through cyborgization is omitted or marginalized. And such a context of commodification seems to be especially important, as it constitutes the idea of radical questioning of a biological body as a commodity of high market value. Thus, it constitutes the paradox of the commodification of body, i.e. a situation when the most attractive (from the consumer’s point view) body is a body that is disembodied to the maximum.

In the article, we make an attempt at discussing what it means that our reality is commodified, what the consequences of this are, how we commodify our bodies and what role in this process is played by cyborgization, as well as what the relation between commodification and disembodiment is. These issues seem to be significant because when the consumptionist and neo-liberal discourse is reconstructed, the aspect of commodification of a human being through cyborgization is omitted or marginalized. Yet such a context of commodification seems to be especially important as it constitutes the idea of radical questioning of a biological body as a commodity of a high market value. Thus, it constitutes the paradox of the commodification of body, i.e. a situation when a body that is the most attractive from the consumer's viewpoint is a body that is disembodied to the maximum.

"Representations", N. 129, Winter 2015.

The essay analyzes the project of maintaining the body of V. I. Lenin in the Mausoleum in Moscow for the past ninety years, focusing on the unique biological science that developed around this project, and the unexpected political role this body has performed.

This work aims to make a comprehensive analysis related to human rights, transhumanism and posthumanism, specifically in the cyborgs, for this an analysis is made that includes animalism, humanism, transhumanism, posthumanism and machines, in order to Identify each subject conceptually and legally. At the same time, diverse epistemological frameworks are covered, creating a complete investigation with pillars in diverse law science aids. With regard to the legal, fundamental human rights theory is included, as well as their generations and the emergence of emerging rights. A catalog of all identifiable human rights is made, as well as legal-social instruments of transhumanism, to conclude with a weighting judgment in a specific case.

I propose a theoretical framework that describes how avatars incorporate media as an inherent part of their nature and find a hosting body in cyborgs to navigate and spawn in media. I propose the birth of a new scion that combines avatar, medium and cyborg into a conceptual being that I call “ICEVORG.”
The ICEVORG expands beyond representation into the actual physical world by means of media transgression—more specifically, by the use of the Strange Loop also known as Metalepsis ICEVORG find an effective soil to thrive and interrogate our ideas of reality by means of iteration, expansion, fragmentation and naturalization.
The development of the framework that explains the concept of ICEVORG happens in the interstices between fiction and reality.
The ICEVORG transgresses boundaries to reach and transcend the concepts of the avatar and cyborg in order to generate meaning and pursue relevance in contemporary society.
By dissecting the ICEVORG under the light of metalepsis that I am able to elaborate a framework to explain the world of post-hyperrealism and how ICEVORGS have become agents of change. Finally, in order to construct my argument, I employ autoethnography, a research methodology that allows for a more personal voice to be included as part of the research process.

Society is struggling with issues regarding rapid advancements in Human Enhancement Technologies (HET), especially in terms of definition, effects, participation, regulation, and control. These are global matters that legislators must sufficiently address, as was evidenced partly by debate within the 2008 European Parliament’s Science and Technology Options Assessment (STOA), among other discussions; yet, relevance must not be relegated entirely to scientists, legislators, and lobbyists who may gain power and control at the expense of those parties most affected by these life-changing technologies. Since current and future HET initiatives should be in the best interests of those who will eventually participate, research into critical pragmatic elements of HET must expand beyond government and scientific experimentation for eventual societal adoption to incorporate deeper relevant inquiry from within the humanities.

What is the genealogy of the idea of cyborgization? To what extent is the contemporary man cyborgized? Is the birth of cyborgization accompanied with changes in the perception of education? The book is an attempt at replying these questions. A thesis is posed about cyborgization being an ideological hybrid of new eugenics and transhumanism, and that it reaches eugenics genealogically. It shows that the birth of cyborgization is accompanied with a concept of the dawn of education, or the idea of superfluity, from a traditional perspective, of education in the technoworld. The dawn of education is a sort of regularity in thinking about the role of education in the technoprogress of the man; it is a sort of order in viewing the future of the relations between the man and education. This regularity, or this order,  is rarely explicit; most often it is implicit. It is explicit in the sense that texts on the systems of new eugenics and transhumanism sometimes talk directly about the fact that some technological activities replace education, and are more effective. On the other hand, it is implicit in the sense that these texts present detailed strategies for the stimulation of human progress, omitting educational effects completely; all stimulus types are exclusively of technological nature.

Jaka jest genealogia idei cyborgizacji? W jakim stopniu cyborgizowany jest współczesny człowiek? Czy narodzinom cyborgizacji towarzyszą przemiany sposobu postrzegania edukacji? Książka jest próbą odpowiedzi na te pytania. Postawiono w niej tezę, iż cyborgizacja jest ideową hybrydą nowej eugeniki i transhumanizmu oraz, że genealogicznie sięga eugeniki. Ukazuje ona, że narodzinom cyborgizacji towarzyszy konstrukcja idei zmierzchu edukacji, czyli idei zbyteczności – tradycyjnie ujmowanej – edukacji w technoświecie. Zmierzch edukacji to pewna regularność myślenia o roli edukacji w technoprogresie człowieka, to pewien porządek w spoglądaniu na przyszłość relacji człowiek-edukacja. Regularność ta (czy ów porządek) ukazuje są nam z rzadka explicite, najczęściej implicite. Explicite w tym sensie, że w tekstach z zakresu systemów nowej eugeniki i transhumanizmu mówi się czasami wprost o tym, że pewne działania techniczne zastępują edukację, że są od niej efektywniejsze. Implicite natomiast w tym znaczeniu, że w tekstach tych przedstawia się szczegółowe strategie stymulowania progresu człowieka, zupełnie z pominięciem oddziaływań edukacyjnych – wszelkie typy stymulatorów mają tu wyłącznie naturę techniczną.

I propose a theoretical framework that describes how avatars incorporate media as an inherent part of their nature and find a hosting body in cyborgs to navigate and spawn in media. I propose the birth of a new scion that combines avatar, medium and cyborg into a conceptual being that I call “ICEVORG.”
The ICEVORG expands beyond representation into the actual physical world by means of media transgression—more specifically, by the use of the Strange Loop also known as Metalepsis ICEVORG find an effective soil to thrive and interrogate our ideas of reality by means of iteration, expansion, fragmentation and naturalization.
The development of the framework that explains the concept of ICEVORG happens in the interstices between fiction and reality.
The ICEVORG transgresses boundaries to reach and transcend the concepts of the avatar and cyborg in order to generate meaning and pursue relevance in contemporary society.
By dissecting the ICEVORG under the light of metalepsis that I am able to elaborate a framework to explain the world of post-hyperrealism and how ICEVORGS have become agents of change. Finally, in order to construct my argument, I employ autoethnography, a research methodology that allows for a more personal voice to be included as part of the research process.

The concept of "cyborg" has been in existence for more than a million years. Vessels were the first cyborg prosthesis, long before the invention of clothing, or even the existence of homo sapiens. Fundamental to the essence of cyborgs is freedom, freedom to explore, and to cross borders of land, ocean, skin, clothes, and body. This thinking leads to a cyborg taxonomy/ontology based primarily on the concept of "border" as defined by skin, clothing, vessel, or fluid boundary ("interface" in both its meanings). A Type I cyborg arises when an organism enters a vessel and a Type II cyborg arises when a vessel enters an organism. The primordial essence of cyborg is fundamentally connected to border/interface, and therefore remains deeply connected to its nautical origins even as it evolved to the more cosmic/cosmonautical (i.e. from sea-ship to spaceship). Consider the idea of "superhumachines" = human-machine "cyborgs" with superhuman intelligence. The concept creates a multitude of promises, pitfalls, benefits, and risks. Consider as a "grand challenge", the idea of negative oppression, negative slavery, negative vulnerability, etc., as explored 20 years ago in a paper entitled "Can Humans Being Clerks make Clerks be Human?". These concepts are perhaps akin to Stallman's concept of negative copyright (which he calls "copyleft"), Taleb's concept of negative fragility (which he calls being "antifragile"), and Niaudet and Ayrton's concept of negative resistance. The capacity for self-determination and mastery over one's own destiny (whether exercised or not) is the single most important tenet of a code of ethics for human augmentation, leading us to extend morphological freedom from the body to also the mind, and to a kind of embodied unconcealedness (alethism) rooted in sousveillant systems, while at the same time preserving a capacity for negation of oppression, a nuanced element that will be the single most important grand challenge.

Human beings desire immortality as well as they desire the role of God. Having power and using this power over weak people is one of the oldest behaviors of humankind. One of the most important psychological causes of slave trade, almost as old as human history, is undoubtedly the desire of the human to play the immortal God role. We can see this demand in The Epic of Gilgamesh, Beowulf and The Iliad, which are the earliest written works. We witness the search for the immortality and domination of heroes and anti-heroes in works such as Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus, I, Robot and The Robots of Dawn in contemporary literary period. In many of these quests, the man's desire for absolute domination and for immortality cause him to confront God with the desire to produce (or create) something. On the other hand, in contemporary films such as Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice, which is adapted to the motion picture screen, it seems that when the man tries to go beyond himself due to his limitless desire of mastership, he confronts a god, Superman. In the science fiction works of our era, the tendency of man to dominate has begun to turn into chaotic robot-human relationship from old slavery-master relationship like in Asimov's works. The Terminator or The Matrix series are the best examples for this. Therefore, the article will try to establish the theory of confusion and chaos that people encounter while playing the role of God. In doing so, this theory will be tried to be supported by Asimov's I, Robot, The Robots of Dawn, and Robot Visions novels in the light of some quotations. This article, of course, will also examine the tendency to claim everything in what man thinks he can benefit, rather than simply centering Asimov's works. Are these robots equipped with advanced artificial intelligence going to revolt against the people who produce themselves as Cain rebels against God? Consequently, this work will discuss the point where the relentless search for power and immortality of human beings can reach in view of Asimov's selected novels and definitions.

We are cyborgs. We are transhumans; transitory people that exist in a luminal phase, waiting for a transfer to the posthuman world. Our children do not need education; it is cyborgization that ensures their development. This is the idea of transhumanistic philosophy, a thoroughly (non-/anti-)pedagogic idea. In this paper, I will present basic transhumanism ideas and stress the criticism on education created within this philosophy. This text is neither a systematic study on transhumanism nor a pedagogical analysis. It is merely an attempt at showing teachers how education can be deprecated in modern philosophies that are technologically-oriented.

This chapter argues that the cyborg reconfigures the subject of communication by putting and end to the basic concept of human subjectivity. The demonstration of this apparently monstrous assertion, will be divided into two parts. The first explores Donna Haraway's potentially disturbing proclamation, "we are already cyborgs," questioning not only how and why "we" are already implicated in this theorized and fabricated hybrid of organism and machine but also inquiring about the scope and limitations of the pronoun. The second part takes up the conclusions of the first and, assuming that we are to some extent already implicated in this posthuman figure, explores the consequences of this reconfiguration of subjectivity for the theory and practice of communication. In taking this approach, the second part deploys and exhibits the double meaning of the phrase "the subject of communication," investigating the repercussions of the cyborg not only on the communicative subject but also within the subject matter of communication.

W tekście przedstawiono jedną z upowszechniających się technologii cyborgizacji – technologię rzeczywistości rozszerzonej. Ukazano edukacyjny potencjał tej technologii oraz konstruowaną przez futurologów perspektywę jej rozwoju. Bazując na tej perspektywie pokazano jakie znaczenia będą nadawać szkole uczniowie-cyborgi - tym samym zarysowano wizję edukacji cyborgów. Bazuje ona na jednej z klasycznych, acz jakby zapomnia-nych, koncepcji pedagogicznych. Koncepcja ta – jak się zdaje – pokazuje w pewien sposób (nawiązując do tytu-łowych słów) jak działać, by nowe technologie były sprzymierzeńcem, a nie wrogiem, oraz uzmysławia, że pro-ces cyborgizacji człowieka może zmierzać do autonomizowania uczenia się w szkole. Rozważania tekstu są w dużej mierze dywagacjami futurologicznymi o specyfice eseistycznej. Jednak nawet tak „miękkie” (i – ze względu na ramy publikacji – skrótowe i upraszczające) próby poszukiwania punktów styku dyskursów edukacji i cyborgizacji są istotnymi elementami debaty nie tylko nad relacją między techniką i szkołą, ale także nad przy-szłością edukacji.

The article presents the basic assumptions of philosophies constitutive points of reference for the idea of cyborgization (new eugenics and transhumanism). It also highlights how education might be perceived in relation to these ideas. Such a presentation is important because the concept of cyborgization revolutionizes our thinking about the core of humanity. On the other hand, it is the foundation for another idea: the twilight of education, or irrelevance of traditionally understood education in the technoworld. Twilight of education is a certain regularity of reflection about the role of education in human technological progress. It is an orderly method of looking at the future of the relation between humans and education. This regularity and order are rarely expressed explicitly; instead, we encounter them implicitly. Explicitly means here that some texts in the field of new eugenics and transhumanism speak directly about how certain technological activities replace education as more effective measures. Implicitly, in turn, means that such texts present detailed strategies for stimulation of human progress but completely ignore educational influences. All types of stimulants are of technical nature. Analyses of the concept of cyborgization result in a prediction for the future: the traditionally educational activities shall somehow disappear from the ‘cyborgized society’, even though such a society still remains only a hypothesis. Thus the twilight of education mentioned in the title of this paper will become true.

Trans-humanism is a current of thinking that propagates the creation of technologies which serve to overcome human biological limitations. However, trans-humanists want to create not only technologies that make it possible to improve the man, but also to fully liberate their mind from the body. Their desire is to move the human mind to a machine and lead to the creation of super intelligence. What is more, it was revealed in the article that trans-humanists also propagate the elimination of traditional education. They believe that technologies which liberate from the body and increase intelligence are more effective than education.

The main objective of this article is the conceptualization of the term cyborgization of education and the presentation the project of educational research and analysis of the process of cyborgization. In addition, it shows a general contexts of cyborgization.

The goal of the project is to initiate a new discussion in the philosophy of economics by exploring philosophical implications of the affinities between economics and the so-called cyborg sciences: early computer science, research on artificial intelligence, operations research and cybernetics. The project builds on the historical work on the post-WWII behavioural sciences that study the influence that the cyborg sciences had on the emergence and development of modern economics. If historians are right about the origins of modern economics, then the broadly accepted view of economics as a science of human behaviour is importantly challenged and should be revised. The project will also contribute to debates on automation and artificial intelligence by pointing out that via modern economics, we have already a long history of dealing with and using models of ‘non-human’ agency in market and policy-practices. Finally, it will investigate whether economics as a cyborg science is well-suited for addressing the current societal challenges (e.g. rising inequality, social and economic consequences of new-tech transformations, economic aspects of climate change and of recent pandemic).
I work on the project at Aarhus University and at the University of Helsinki.

Machines are reality converting devices, actualizing potential often by using tools to convert energy, in often automatic systems via manipulating resources, ideas, procedures, senses of the world, and the agency through the establishment of mechanical processes that facilitate the reform and revaluation of methods and expressions that express the fusion of human consciousness with energy converting devices. These energy converting devices in effect reshape the landscape of human possibilities, aesthetic experiences, ethical realities, and social environments, through the agency of the machine or through the mechanical process.. Machine Aesthetic architecture and Machine engineered creations: Machines to drive us to work, Machines to sip Can we be free of the influence of machines ever, how embroiled are we in the language and experience of progress so much so that we depend on the mechanisms that instantiate our creative options, and with this much automation ARE they indeed CREATIVE options? Lastly is the human being essentially nothing more than a machine and if so how is it that we experience free will, the likes of which is free to redesign a lo-tech life, to reiterate are we ever free to be free of technology. Are we in a sense a civilization of Cyborgs?

In 1936 Walter Benjamin documented the “fading of [art’s] aura” as it underwent mechanical reproduction. According to Benjamin, technological advances had initiated a shift in art as a media of “cultic value” to art as a media of “display value.” Eighty years later, do his observations retain their validity in a digitally infused world which works to discover the singularity and change the genetic makeup of humanity and other species? Or, is art’s aura burning brightly again with the joining of science, art, and liturgy in operating room theatres, mythical labs, and magical tech companies which produce chimeras, clones, cyborgs, transhumans, and intelligent robots—all which inspire religious awe as the religious and display values of art crash into one another and mix artistic profanity with technological profundity? Theorist Paul Virilio writes: “After all great periods of art, after the great schools such as the classical and baroque, after contemporary expressionism, are we not now heading for that great transgenic art in which every pharmacy, every laboratory will launch its own ‘lifestyles,’ its own transhuman fashions?” Virilio does not argue explicitly that this new art movement produces religious value or authentic aura, but many of his critiques do provoke one to consider this to be a possibility. As such, this paper engages with Paul Virilio’s critique of transgenic art and will consider the degree to which the return of art’s aura has been initiated by this paradigm of technoscience. It concludes with an ethical response to this new art’s auras and liturgies.

In this article we attempt to show that men have aimed at cyborgizing themselves from the dawn of history. We will present selected current perspectives on the process of cyborgization that we symbolically call the restoring and extending ones. We will show selected exemplifications of cyborgizing activities and visions on the cyborgization of tomorrow. The analysis of these concepts is crucial for teachers, as they show the dichotomous relation between education and cyborgization. The dichotomy is related to the fact that on the one hand futurologists claim cyborgization is a technology of a tremendous educational potential, and on the other hand they conjecture about the concept of a world of cyborgs that exists without education.

The aim of this paper is to show that gender, both as a biological and social category, ceases to exist in the vision of man constructed by contemporary genetics. In the paper, I present the elementary concepts of genetic engineering and liberal genetics, and show how these two currents in genetics change gender into a feature deprived of any designata. I advance a thesis that the man of the future, a cyborg, is a man without gender.