Q: Could I actually be a cyborg?

In a 1960 paper by Manfred Clynes and Nathan Kline on astronautics, Clynes and Kline define a cyborg as an organism that "incorporates exogenous components extending the self-regulatory control function of the organism in order to adapt it to new environments.". Human have roughly been doing this since ancient times; tools are created so that work can be done more efficiently. For example, using rocks to break nuts in order to obtain food. These tools gets more and more sophisticated as time goes, such as the use of hammer and later on using mills to grind wheat. But, they are still extension of the physical self only. 

The Information Age is highlighted with technology that extends the mental self. During her talk in the TED Conference in 2010, cyber anthropologist Amber Case said technologies has eliminated the distance between individuals when it comes to communicating. Time and space is compressed by technology such as phones and internet; one person can talk with another person on the other side of the world. Our reliance on technology does not end there; computers and smart phones also act as the external brain for their owner. An average person would have so much contact details of friends, colleague, or business partners that it would be impossible to remember them without aid. So Computers helps in storing and organizing information. If we lose the digital information in the computers, we would feel like losing something in our mind. 


In the Information Age, the social relationship is enhanced by the technology, especially by the cyber world. According to Anthony Fung who studied the cyber life and its interaction with real life at Hong Kong, in the metropolitan area of Hong Kong where people interact in a hectic and crowded environment, online communities are still created to provide additional interactions (2006).  His study found  that especially for gamers, real social relationships have become inseparable with cyberlife. 

The cyber world, cyberspace, or virtual reality, can be seen as the residence of the extension of our mental self. Kevin Robins pointed out that the technology of cyber world promises to free its user to from the constraints of physical reality, allowing free experimentation in creating an alternate identity inside a space that allows unlimited freedom (2000, p.81-82). Identity in the cyber world can be created to fit our own liking. The virtual world is a place where we can do what we want. In Michael Benedikt's words, "Cyberspace can be seen as an extension, some might say an inevitable extension, of our age-old capacity and need to dwell in fiction".


For sure, the use of technology in our life, for communication purposes, or as a place to escape the physical reality, has made our life easier. We have incorporate the use of information technology as a means of adapting more successfully in our environment. Going back to the definition of cyborg, I think the people living in the Information Age are cyborgian.


References:

Case, A. (2011, January). Amber Case: We are all cyborgs now [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/amber_case_we_are_all_cyborgs_now.html

Clynes, M. and Kline, N. (1960). Cyborgs and space. Astronautics. Retrieved from: http://faculty.uca.edu/rnovy/Clynes--Cyborgs%20and%20Space.htm

Fung, A. (2006). Bridging cyberlife and real life: A study of online communities in Hong Kong. In Silver, D. M. and Adrienne Steve, J. (eds.), Critical cyberculture studies (pp. 129-139). New York: New York University Press.

Robins, K. (2000). Cyberspace and the world we live in. In Bell, D. and Kennedy, B. M. (eds.), The cybercultures reader (pp. 77-95). London: Routledge.