The term cyborg is a combination of the terms ‘CYBernetic’ and ‘ORGanism’. It was originally coined by Manfred Clynes and Nathan Kline in their 1960 article, “Cyborgs in Space.” According to the authors, a cyborg is a being that “deliberately incorporates exogenous components extending the self-regulatory control function of the organism to adapt it to new environments”. This definition arises from the authors’ desire to formulate a way for human beings to successfully adapt to the rigors of outer space. Likening space vehicles that were tiny, metal pockets of Earth’s atmosphere to “a fish taking a small bubble of water with him to live on land”, Clynes and Kline proposed the cyborg as a means of reshaping an organism’s body to the new and different environs of deep space, instead of transporting a pressurized pocket of earth into orbit and trapping the astronaut within its limiting confines.
Computers are getting smaller, faster and smarter. Some are invading our bodies, while others are taking on lives of their own. Humans are becoming more mechanized, while computers are acquiring personalities, emotions and even desires. As human and machine continue to merge, what does this mean for the future of the human body? Is this the end of evolution as we know it? Or is this the beginning of the next unfathomable stage? We are gradually but surely getting to the unbelievable frontiers of bioengineering, robotics and micro-computing, where the line between carbon and silicon is beginning to blur. From chips in the eye to robots in the bloodstream, the excitement and promise of this new age is being felt everywhere. In the near future, we will have more and more artificial body parts - arms, legs, hearts, 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 our meat brain by a computer brain.
Cyborgs are already here. The metaphysical and physical attachments humanity has with even the most basic technologies have already made them cyborgs. In a typical example, a human fitted with a heart pacemaker or an insulin pump might be considered a cyborg, since these mechanical parts enhance the body's "natural" mechanisms through synthetic feedback mechanisms. Some theorists cite such modifications as contact lenses, hearing aids, etc as examples of fitting humans with technology to enhance their biological capabilities. Stephen Hawking type of implants are more accurately cyborg enhancements. The merging of the evolved and the developed, the integration of the constructor and the constructed, the systems of dying flesh and undead circuits, and of living and artificial cells are all in realm of cyborgs or bionic systems.
In recent years the cyborgization of sports has come to the forefront of international conscious. The subject of steroids, blood doping, prosthesis, body modification, and maybe in the future, genetic modification are all topics that should be included within cyborgs in sports. As of now, prosthetic legs and feet are not advanced enough to give athlete the extra-edge, but may soon become better than their human counterparts. The "cyborg soldier" often refers to a soldier whose weapon and survival systems are integrated into the self, creating a human-machine interface. The range of these intimate human-machine relationships is mind-boggling.
Fifty years after the dawn of the space age, hundreds of people have flown into space. A dozen of those left their boot marks on the Moon's surface, and several nations now are planning to send astronauts back to the Moon and then beyond. So you would think the expansion of humanity ever deeper into the Cosmos is a sure bet. But the notion that human explorers are destined to become an interstellar species is far from a sure thing, says Roger Launius, an eminent space historian. More likely, humans, and the machines they use to explore space, are going to evolve together in ways that are hard to predict at this early stage in the opening of the space frontier.
Humans are destined to become a multi-planetary species, but that word may take on a whole new meaning as time evolves. Given that there will be the first child born on the Moon, as well as Mars, will that person be a Homo sapien, asks Launius. Could the differences of gravity, radiation exposure mean those children would be unable to return to Earth? "I think that's problematic," Launius said. In some respects this might be an evolutionary road comparable to that taken by amphibian creatures that departed their water world to become land creatures. "There is the possibility of the evolution of human species into something different". Launius says one possibility is the evolution of the human species into something different via self-induced transformations: Create an Earth-like environment for astronauts to live in or change the astronauts in ways that they will be more capable of surviving in new and different regions of space.
Projecting hundreds of years into the future, Launius said he believed that it is likely humans will evolve in ways that cannot be fathomed today, into a form of species perhaps tagged Homo sapiens Astro. "Will our movement to places like the Moon and Mars hasten this evolutionary process? I don't know the answer," he said. Launius predicts that in the years ahead we will have machines with intelligence and more power than that of humans. This will mean that robots, not humans, make all the important decisions. It will be a robot dominated world with dire consequences for humankind.
We have fairly good idea of the products and by-products of evolution of organisms so far. But we have absolutely no idea of the products and by-products of evolution of intelligence in the future!
Computers are getting smaller, faster and smarter. Some are invading our bodies, while others are taking on lives of their own. Humans are becoming more mechanized, while computers are acquiring personalities, emotions and even desires. As human and machine continue to merge, what does this mean for the future of the human body? Is this the end of evolution as we know it? Or is this the beginning of the next unfathomable stage? We are gradually but surely getting to the unbelievable frontiers of bioengineering, robotics and micro-computing, where the line between carbon and silicon is beginning to blur. From chips in the eye to robots in the bloodstream, the excitement and promise of this new age is being felt everywhere. In the near future, we will have more and more artificial body parts - arms, legs, hearts, 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 our meat brain by a computer brain.
Cyborgs are already here. The metaphysical and physical attachments humanity has with even the most basic technologies have already made them cyborgs. In a typical example, a human fitted with a heart pacemaker or an insulin pump might be considered a cyborg, since these mechanical parts enhance the body's "natural" mechanisms through synthetic feedback mechanisms. Some theorists cite such modifications as contact lenses, hearing aids, etc as examples of fitting humans with technology to enhance their biological capabilities. Stephen Hawking type of implants are more accurately cyborg enhancements. The merging of the evolved and the developed, the integration of the constructor and the constructed, the systems of dying flesh and undead circuits, and of living and artificial cells are all in realm of cyborgs or bionic systems.
In recent years the cyborgization of sports has come to the forefront of international conscious. The subject of steroids, blood doping, prosthesis, body modification, and maybe in the future, genetic modification are all topics that should be included within cyborgs in sports. As of now, prosthetic legs and feet are not advanced enough to give athlete the extra-edge, but may soon become better than their human counterparts. The "cyborg soldier" often refers to a soldier whose weapon and survival systems are integrated into the self, creating a human-machine interface. The range of these intimate human-machine relationships is mind-boggling.
Fifty years after the dawn of the space age, hundreds of people have flown into space. A dozen of those left their boot marks on the Moon's surface, and several nations now are planning to send astronauts back to the Moon and then beyond. So you would think the expansion of humanity ever deeper into the Cosmos is a sure bet. But the notion that human explorers are destined to become an interstellar species is far from a sure thing, says Roger Launius, an eminent space historian. More likely, humans, and the machines they use to explore space, are going to evolve together in ways that are hard to predict at this early stage in the opening of the space frontier.
Humans are destined to become a multi-planetary species, but that word may take on a whole new meaning as time evolves. Given that there will be the first child born on the Moon, as well as Mars, will that person be a Homo sapien, asks Launius. Could the differences of gravity, radiation exposure mean those children would be unable to return to Earth? "I think that's problematic," Launius said. In some respects this might be an evolutionary road comparable to that taken by amphibian creatures that departed their water world to become land creatures. "There is the possibility of the evolution of human species into something different". Launius says one possibility is the evolution of the human species into something different via self-induced transformations: Create an Earth-like environment for astronauts to live in or change the astronauts in ways that they will be more capable of surviving in new and different regions of space.
Projecting hundreds of years into the future, Launius said he believed that it is likely humans will evolve in ways that cannot be fathomed today, into a form of species perhaps tagged Homo sapiens Astro. "Will our movement to places like the Moon and Mars hasten this evolutionary process? I don't know the answer," he said. Launius predicts that in the years ahead we will have machines with intelligence and more power than that of humans. This will mean that robots, not humans, make all the important decisions. It will be a robot dominated world with dire consequences for humankind.
We have fairly good idea of the products and by-products of evolution of organisms so far. But we have absolutely no idea of the products and by-products of evolution of intelligence in the future!
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