The word “cyborg” first appeared in 1960, in the article “Cyborgs and Space” by Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline. Clynes and Kline describe a cyborg as an organism deliberately modified for the expansion of unconscious self-regulatory control functions, to the end of adapting to new environments. Expansion is by means of cybernetic techniques, and “cyborg” (coined by Clynes) is short for “cybernetic organism,” or “cybernetically controlled organism.” Clynes and Kline were interested in the application of cyborgs to space exploration, and in their 1961 paper “Drugs, Space, and Cybernetics: Evolution to Cyborgs,” propose various chemical and electronic means of building control systems that will cooperate with the body’s own autonomic controls to enable survival across varied environmental conditions. The concept is proposed as an improvement upon “external,” or, “unintegrated” measures of adaptation, such as oxygen tanks for deep sea diving, where the organism must be consciously concerned with supporting vital systems. The cyborg, by contrast, having integrated the adaptive element into its homeostatic system, is free from conscious maintenance of vital functions, and has greater freedom in exploring foreign environments. Clynes and Kline write: “If man in space, in addition to flying his vehicle, must continuously be checking on things and making adjustments merely in order to keep himself alive, he becomes a slave to the machine. The purpose of the Cyborg, as well as his own homeostatic systems, is to provide an organizational system in which such robot-like problems are taken care of automatically and unconsciously, leaving man free to explore, to create, to think, and to feel.” It wasn’t long after Clynes and Kline’s publication that the scientific community adopted the concept, and medical specialists began referring to patients with prosthetics and implants as “cyborgs.” In 1977 Merriam Webster defined a cyborg as, "a person whose physiological functioning is aided by, or dependent on, a mechanical or electronic device."(note: dropped reference to enhancement) The concept was also utilized in post-modernist academia, the most famous of which being Donna Haraway’s seminal feminist work of 1985, “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century.” And of course, the cyborg concept has a rich history in literature and film, where the notion existed long before the word itself. The concept of the cyborg is thought to have first appeared amidst industrialization, in 1818, with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The genesis of the concept in film has been attributed to Fritz Lang's “Metropolis” of 1927. Similar, though more sophisticated instantiations of the concept in the arts persist to this day. The cyborg of fiction often serves as a metaphor, or template for exploration and narrative on the dangers of advanced technology, to man and to society. Brenda E. Basher writes, “Cyborgs frequently serve as a counterpoint to humanness which, by contrast with it, reveals being human as a desirable or (more rarely) an undesirable trait.” Wired UK identifies 5 living cyborgs, which include both elective cyborgs, as well as those that became cyborgs through the process of medical treatment for disability. Many, though not all current dictionary definitions of the cyborg make reference to enhancement. The Oxford dictionary defines a cyborg as “A fictional or hypothetical person whose physical abilities are extended beyond normal human limitations by mechanical elements built into the body.” The American Heritage Dictionary defines a cyborg as: “An organism, often a human, that has certain physiological processes enhanced or controlled by mechanical or electronic devices, especially when they are integrated with the nervous system.” Alternatively, Dictionary.com utilizes a definition making no reference to enhancement. * Subscribe for more Educative & Truth Videos * Like & Share * go to our website http://www.advexon.com * Share your ideas and comment * WakeUp Channel --- https://www.youtube.com/user/truebiographyhd/ * Documentary HD Channel --- https://www.youtube.com/user/truedocumentaryhd/

• published: 11 Nov 2014
• views: 53354