A

SEMINAR REPORT

ON

“CYBORGS”

SUBMITTED IN THE PARTIAL

FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT

OF DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF
TECHNOLOGY FROM
RAJASTHAN TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY, KOTA
IN COMPUTER SCIENCE ENGINEERING
SESSION-2010-2011

Submitted to - Submitted By –
Mr.Sunil Dhankhar Parul Gupta
(HOD CE Dept.) (8th Semester)

RAJASTHAN COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING FOR WOMEN

BHAKROTA, JAIPUR (RAJASTHAN)

CERTIFICATE

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This to certify that PARUL GUPTA , student of B.TECH. (Computer Engineering) final
year of RAJASTHAN COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING FOR WOMEN, Jaipur
(Rajasthan) has successfully completed her seminar report on “CYBORGS”.

Mr. Sunil Dhankhar

(H.O.D., C.S. Dept.)

PREFACE

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I, Parul Gupta student of 4th year, Computer Engineering, has completed my seminar
report at RCEW labs, working under Mr. V.S. Tamra. I have gained knowledge about
cyborgs and its origin.

CYBORGS is hard to crack a concept and it is very difficult to acquire complete knowledge
about it in such a short span. I have tried to get maximum knowledge about designing and
main concepts involved there in. I tried to be honest with my efforts and sincerely hope that it
produces the desired results.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

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In making this Seminar Presentation successful I have been benefited from the help and
support of my guide. My guide has given me his precious time and effort freely to make this
Seminar Presentation accurate and knowledge conveyable. So for this I would like to thank.
“Mr. SUNIL DHANKHAR” for providing me the opportunity to work on my topic of
seminar “CYBORGS” which is the emerging technology,and he also shared his thoughts and
opinion to the upbringing of my knowledge in this topic.
I would also like to take this opportunity to acknowledge “Mr. V. S. TAMRA” our Seminar
Co-coordinator for all his guidance and co-operation.
Last but not the least; I thank my teacher, friends and my family members for their constant
encouragement and their thoughts which actually gave me a reason to present my seminar on
this future technology.

Parul Gupta

C.S.E.

07ERWCS046

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 ABSTRACT

Cyborgs-cybernetic organisms, hybrids of humans and machines, have pervaded everyday

life, the military, popular culture, and the academic world .Cyborgs are ongoing becomings
of a doubly “in-between” temporality of humans and machines. Materially made from
components of both sorts of beings, cyborgs gain increasing function through an
interweaving in which each alters the other, from the level of “neural plasticity” to software
updates to emotional breakthroughs of which both are a part. One sort of temporal in-
between is of the progressive unfolding of a deepening becoming as “not-one-not-two” and
the other is a “doubling back” of time into itself in which moments that were once disparate
are conjoined or enjambed.
There are two senses of the cyborg which have been discussed by those interested in the
human/machine in-between. The first and more traditional sense of the case of organic
beings who are physically and functionally united with mechanized beings to constitute what
some consider “true” cyborgs. The second sense of “cyborg” claims that we have all become
cyborgs in the sense of becoming enfolded within a world in which machines not only
perform many of our key actions but also make possible how we know ourselves, express
ourselves, modify our intentions, and open new avenues for who we might become.
"Cyborg" is a science-fictional shorting of "cybernetic organism". The idea is that, in the
near future, we may 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 your meat
brain by a computer brain.

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 CONTENTS

1. LIST OF FIGURES

2. LITERATURE SURVEY

3. INTRODUCTION TO CYBORGS

 BASICS

 ORIGIN

 DEFINITIONS

 KINDS OF CYBORG ENTITIES

 INDIVIDUAL CYBORGS / SOCIAL CYBORGS
 CYBORGS PROLIFERATION IN SOCIETY
 POSITIVE ARGUMENTS
 NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES
 ARGUMENTS ON BALANCE
 IMPLICATIONS
 CHALLENGES

4. FUTURE SCOPE

5. CONCLUSION

6. BIBLIOGRAPHY

7. CHECKLIST

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 LIST OF FIGURES

1. EXAMPLE OF CYBORG 13

2. PROSTHESIS 16

3. ORTHOTICS 17

4. INDIVIDUAL CYBORG 21

5. CYBORG IN MEDICINE 23

6. CYBORG IN MILITARY 24

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 LITERATURE SURVEY

Remarkably, there appear to be very few publications that address the topic of cyborg rights
in the instrumentalist manner being attempted here. There is a sci-fi literature (which is
mostly about cyborgs as threats to mankind), a speculative literature (cyborg as posthuman),
and a derivative media criticism literature.

Few papers have been located, however, that examine cyborgs as they exist at present and
appear likely to increasingly exist in the near future, and consider rights as they apply to
augmented human beings. See, however, questions asked in the final paragraph of Warwick
(2003) and in a use case scenario in FIDIS (2008), and the tentative 'Cyborg Bill of Rights'
suggested in Gray (2001), but also the argument in Levy (2003) to the effect that the
challenges arising from cyborgisation are not radical.

In the absence of an established body of theory and evidence, the approach adopted in the
present paper is to investigate dimensions of the issues through case studies of various
cyborgs operating in various contexts. In order to ensure richness of material, the set
intentionally includes a diversity of prostheses, of orthoses, and of contexts.

(1) Access to Quality-of-Life Exo-Prostheses

The assistance of vision through the use of shaped glass dates back at least two thousand
years, of lenses at least one thousand years, of spectacles at least 600-700 years, and of
contact lenses 500 years in principle and 200 years in practice. An emergent right to have a
pair of spectacles to correct sight can be detected in health and welfare systems that provide

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them on a cost-less or heavily subsidised basis. Similar developments exist in relation to
hearing-aids.

Particularly in the USA and the UK, military service personnel returning from war-zones
have better access to opportunities for replacement limbs than, for example, victims of
industrial and traffic accidents. A recent review of research work on neural control of
artificial arms funded by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is
in (Adee 2009). Another group that has superior access to expensive, new treatments is the
aging rich. A ready justification for this is that the research and experimentation needed
demands funding, and only the rich and the government can provide it.

By mid-century, it is conceivable that shoulder reconstructions, hip-joint replacements and

knee replacements could have become a legitimate expectation for all who need them, rather
than the expensive option for the war-maimed and the well-off and/or well-insured that they
generally are at present.

(2) Access to Matter-of-Life-and-Death Exo-Prostheses

Spectacles and hearing-aids recover impaired senses, and hence enhance quality of life. Even
wheelchairs and replacement limbs can be argued to be facilities affecting quality-of-life
rather than survival. A range of prostheses are likely to be associated not merely with
improved quality of life but also increased life expectancy. Examples include stents,
pacemakers, renal dialysis and artificial hearts and kidneys.

Debate can reasonably be anticipated as to whether patriotism and financial wealth should be
such dominant factors in determining the priority of allocation of quality-of-life but
especially matter-of-life-and-death prostheses.

(3) Cyborgs in Public Places

Some sight-impaired people depend on guide dogs, and many mobility-impaired people
depend on a walking-stick, or access to their own custom-designed wheelchair. Contention

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has arisen where such external prostheses have been banned from premises, e.g. dogs from
coffee lounges, for health reasons. In some circumstances, a ban on the use of a personal
wheelchair within particular premises - such as an airport or an aeroplane - represents a
denial of access to important services, and harms the principle of equality of rights for the
impaired. A variety of new external prostheses may create further challenges. For example,
portable renal dialysis machines would demand both space and power.

Some exo- and endo-prostheses have also already given rise to difficulties, such as artificial
hips made of steel and pacemakers, which may be incompatible with airport security
equipment. The prospect also exists of exo- and endo-orthoses that represent security threats.

(4) Exo- and Endo-Orthoses for Location and Tracking

Anklets with embedded chips to facilitate detection of non-compliance with movement

restrictions were first officially sanctioned in 1983, in New Mexico. Anklets have since been
applied in a variety of circumstances, not only to prisoners, but to parolees as a condition of
parole, and even to remandees (who have yet to be convicted of an offence, and may well
never be). It represents an extension of the prison beyond the prison walls and reduces costs
to the state. There is accordingly an incentive to extend it to further categories, particularly
recidivist criminals and detested (ex-?)criminals (e.g. those who have completed their
sentences for child sex offences), but also dementia sufferers, comatose patients and perhaps
other kinds of patients as well. Generally, an anklet is a form of overt involuntary exo-
orthosis.

Chips have been implanted in livestock and pets since abut 1990. Chips have been offered for
implantation in humans since about 1998, first in tooth-enamel and then in soft tissue. There
have been a number of reported instances of chips being implanted in humans (Masters &
Michael 2006), although to date no reliable reference has been located for them being
imposed involuntarily. A chip-implant is a form of endo-orthosis, and may be voluntary,
overt involuntary, or even covert involuntary in nature.

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Like other endo-prostheses and endo-orthoses, the chip-implantation process may give rise to
infection, it may be rejected by the body, and it may interfere with tissue, organs or bodily
functions (CEJA-AMA 2007, Foster & Jaeger 2007). The U.S. Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) provided the Verichip for implantation in 2004, some years after it
had first been implanted in humans. The decision was widely but misleadingly reported as
being US government approval for the conduct of chip-implantation in humans.

(5) Handicapped Sports

Many categories of handicapped sportspeople, particularly those participating in athletics and

swimming, compete against others with similar disabilities and/or levels of disability.
Commonly, the handicapped are protected from the prosthetes, and both the handicapped and
prosthetes are protected from the able-bodied, e.g. by segregation into separate events or at
least categories.

Wheelchair racers compete separately from the able-bodied as well. However, they go faster
than runners. In the case of the New York Marathon, for example, the winner of the
wheelchair event is about 35% faster than the winner of the foot-race. Hence segregation into
separate events works the other way around, protecting the able-bodied from the orthots. The
potential exists for the able-bodied to be precluded from competing in wheelchair events, or
to be permitted to compete, and even for them to demand the right to do so.

A particular case of sports orthosis was drawn to attention in the presentation accompanying
Clarke (2005a), in Hood (2005a and (2005b) and in some other media outlets around that
time. Oscar Pistorius is a South African athlete, who competes in 200m and 400m events. In
2005, it was speculated that, if he continued his improvement, he would qualify for the 2008
Olympic Games, and by 2012 could be at least a semi-finalist. Oscar was born without lower
legs, and has artificial legs that include carbon fibre blades.

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) determined that Pistorius'

prosthetics "should be considered as technical aids which give him an advantage over other
athletes not using them" (Robinson 2008). They accordingly banned him from competing

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against able-bodied athletes at the 2008 Olympics. This was based on an amendment to their
rules, passed the previous year, that precludes use of "any technical device that incorporates
springs, wheels or any other element that provides a user with an advantage over another
athlete not using such a device".

Pistorius challenged the ruling, and won, on the basis that the IAAF had failed to show that
the legs gave him sufficient advantage (i.e. that the exo-prostheses were in fact exo-orthoses).
Due to an injury-plagued preparation, however, he missed the qualifying standard by 0.70
seconds and did not satisfy the criteria for selection for his national team.

A media report has subsequently suggested that the IAAF may now have the required
evidence (SD 2009), and hence may now succeed in banning double-amputees using such
devices in able-bodied events. Ironically, the brand-name of the legs Pistorius uses is
'Cheetah' - doubtless intended to imply speed, but perhaps now to be interpreted as an
admission that they provide an unfair advantage to orthots over the able-bodied athletes.

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 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION TO CYBORGS

BASICS

A cyborg, also known as a cybernetic organism, is a being with both biological and artificial
(e.g. electronic, mechanical or robotic) parts. The cyborg is often seen today merely as an
organism that has enhanced abilities due to technology ,but this perhaps oversimplifies the
category of feedback.

AN EXAMPLE OF CYBORG

Fictional cyborgs are portrayed as a synthesis of organic and synthetic parts, and frequently
pose the question of difference between human and machine as one concerned with morality,
free will, and empathy. Fictional cyborgs may be represented as visibly mechanical or as
almost indistinguishable from humans. Cyborgs in fiction often play up a human contempt
for over-dependence on technology, particularly when used for war, and when used in ways
that seem to threaten free will. Cyborgs are also often portrayed with physical or mental

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abilities far exceeding a human counterpart (military forms may have inbuilt weapons,
among other things).

Real (as opposed to fictional) cyborgs are more frequently people who use cybernetic
technology to repair or overcome the physical and mental constraints of their bodies. While
cyborgs are commonly thought of as mammals, they might conceivably be any kind of
organism.

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 ORIGIN OF CYBORGS

The term 'cyborg' is a contraction of 'cybernetic organism', and entered the language in the
early 1960s. The term 'cybernetics' was coined by Norbert Wiener in 1948. It referred to the
then-new notion of controlling human-designed processes through feedback and response, in
ways similar to those evident in natural organisms (Wiener 1948, 1949). He contrived the
word from the Greek word for 'steersman'.
The origin of the contraction 'cyborg' is commonly attributed to two US research scientists,
who used it to refer to an enhanced human being who could survive in extraterrestrial
environments, or, in their own words "the exogenously extended organizational complex
functioning as an integrated homeostatic system unconsciously" (Clynes & Kline 1960).
More generally, a cyborg is a human with whom mechanical and/or electronic parts have
been integrated. Driven by feature films that depict imaginings of sci-fi authors, popular
culture envisages a cyborg as necessarily having functionality that has been extended beyond
that of a normal human being. Indeed, the OED adopts that element of Clynes & Kline
(1960). Although one definition is "an integrated man-machine system", the other is "a
person whose physical tolerances or capabilities are extended beyond normal human
limitations by a machine or other external agency that modifies the body's functioning"
(emphasis added). For the purposes of this analysis, however, it is necessary to distinguish
enhancements from more mundane, but highly valuable interventions.

Also in popular culture, a cyborg's enhancements are physically inserted into the person. This
paper will, however, also encompass circumstances in which this condition is not satisfied.
Consideration has also been given to the notion of 'bionic implants'. The concept is, however,
largely confined to entertainment arena, as a result of a 1973 novel called 'Cyborg', which
gave rise to television series called 'The Six Million Dollar Man' and 'The Bionic Woman' -
who had 'bionic' eyes, legs and arms.

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 DEFINITION

1. PROSTHETICS

The OED defines a prosthesis or prosthetic as "[a] replacement [for] defective or absent parts
of the body [in the form of] artificial substitutes". Its use in this manner is traced to 1706.
A more appropriate definiton for a prosthetic may be an artefact that provides the body with
previously missing or overcomes defective functionality.This definition is narrower than the
OED, in that it requires the artefact to enable the performance of a function, and thereby
excludes merely cosmetic or ornamental artefects such as glass eyes and breast implants.

A prosthesis may have various relationships with the human body, and hence the following
categories are usefully distinguished:

 External Prosthesis. This is a prosthesis separate from the human body, but
connected to it, or interfaced with it. Examples include spectacles, walking sticks and
crutches, but also renal dialysis and heart-lung machines

2. Exo-Prosthesis. This is a prosthesis on an outer extremity of the human body and

effectively integrated with it. Examples include contact lenses, artificial hands, arms
and legs

3. Endo-Prosthesis. This is a prosthesis internal to the human body and effectively

integrated with it. Examples include artificial hips and knees, stents, pacemakers,
cochlear impants and implanted lenses .

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 2. ORTHOTICS

The OED defines an orthosis or orthotic as "An external orthopaedic appliance or apparatus,
such as a brace or splint, that serves to support, assist the function of, or prevent movement in
a body part such as a limb or the spine". A more expansive definition of orthosis is
appropriate to the present purpose, as an artefact that supplements or extends a human's body,
or a human's capabilities.

It also enables a parallel set of terms to be devised, in order to distinguish the following sub-
categories:

 External Orthosis. This is an orthosis separate from the human body, but connected
to it, or interfaced with it. Examples include telescopes and microscopes; golf-clubs
and snorkels; body-suits such as those for knights, deep-sea divers, astronauts and
competitive swimmers;.

 Exo-Orthosis. This is an orthosis on an outer extremity of the human body and

effectively integrated with it. Examples include artificial limbs that do something
more than the natural limb would have done.

 Endo-Orthosis. This is an orthosis internal to the human body and effectively

integrated with it. Examples include chip impants that disclose an identifier or other

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 data, whether to assist the person's location to be found or tracked, or to, for example,
automatically open a door.

4. CYBORGS, PROSTHETES AND ORTHOTS

To facilitate discussion, it is useful to have short-form terms for the various categories of
person arising from prosthetic and orthotic processes. The OED definition of cyborg appears
to require enhancement of the person, and hence could be interpreted as necessarily involving
what was defined above as an orthosis. This would, however, lead to an unfortunate
ambiguity. A person may be missing functionality due to the loss, or absence since birth, of a
body-part, or due to some defect in a body-part. If the person regains the functionality by
means of a prosthesis, then the person is enhanced relative to the state that the person was in
prior to the prosthetic being applied. So the person is arguably a cyborg even though they
have a prosthesis rather than an orthosis. In any case, for the purpose of analysing cyborg
rights, it is important to encompass humans with prostheses as well as orthoses.

It is therefore problematic to use the OED definition in the analysis of rights. Moreover, in
the terms proposed in this paper, the original concept of cyborg in Clynes & Kline (1960) is
highly restrictive, being a human with a very special kind of exo-orthosis. For the purposes
of this paper, it is necessary to use a definition of 'cyborg' much closer to that proposed in
Mann & Niedzviecki (2001): "a person whose physiological functioning is aided by or
dependent upon a mechanical or electronic device".

The definitions adopted in the remainder of this paper are as follows:

 Prosthete - a human with a prosthesis

 Orthot - a human enhanced by means of an orthosis

 Cyborg - a human with either or both of a prosthesis or an orthosis

Where needed, the terms prosthetisation, orthotisation and cyborgisation could be applied
to the process of installing respectively a prosthesis, an orthosis, and either or both of them.

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Further distinctions need to be drawn, to reflect the extent to which the person is an informed
and willing subject, or the prosthesis or orthosis has been imposed on them:

 Voluntary Prosthetisation / Orthotisation / Cyborgisation. This arises where a

person requests, or consents to, the prosthetic or orthotic process. The key
characteristics of a valid consent are that it be informed and freely-given (Clarke
2002)

 Involuntary Prosthetisation / Orthotisation / Cyborgisation. This arises where the

person does not consent to the prosthetic or orthotic process, but it is imposed upon
them. Two further sub-categories need to be distinguished:

o Overt, Involuntary Prosthetisation / Orthotisation / Cyborgisation. In this

case, the person is aware of the imposition. An example is chip-enabled
anklets for people in institutions (although, by definition, not for dementia
patients)

o Covert, Involuntary Prosthetisation / Orthotisation / Cyborgisation. In

this case, the person not only did not consent, but also is not aware that the
process has been undertaken. An example is the attachment of a tracking
device to a person without it being brought to their attention, or otherwise
coming to their attention

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 KINDS OF CYBORG ENTITIES

CYBORG

Convenient Conditional

CYBORGS are categorized into two types based on their structural and functional role
play.Convenient cyborgs may refer to any external provision of an exoskeleton for satisfying
the altered fancy needs of body.Conditional cyborgs include bionic implants replanting the
lost or damaged body part for normal living in the present environment

Cyborg technologies can be of four types:-

Restorative : In that they restore lost functions and replace lost organs and limbs.

Normalizlng: In that they restore some creature to indistinguishable normality.

Reconfiguring: creating posthuman creatures equal to but different from humans, like what
one is now when interacting with other creatures in cyberspace or, in the future, the type of
modifications proto-humans will undergo to live in space or under the sea having given up
the comforts of terrestrial existence.

Enhancing: The aim of most military and industrial research, and what those with cyborg
envy or even cyborgphilia fantasize. The latter category seeks to construct everything from
factories controlled by a handful of "worker-pilots" and infantrymen in mind-controlled

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exoskeletons to the dream many computer scientists have-downloading their consciousness
into immortal computers

SOCIAL / INDIVIUAL CYBORGS

SOCIAL CYBORG

More broadly, the full term "cybernetic organism" is used to describe larger networks of
communication and control. For example, cities, networks of roads, networks of software,
corporations, markets, governments, and the collection of these things together. A
corporation can be considered as an artificial intelligence that makes use of replaceable
human components to function. People at all ranks can be considered replaceable agents of
their functionally intelligent government institutions, whether such a view is desirable or not.
The example above is reminiscent of the "organic paradigm" popular in the late 19th century
due to the recent breakthroughs in understanding of cellular biology.

INDIVIDUAL CYBORG

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Neil Harbisson is sometimes claimed to be a cyborg.

Generally, the term "cyborg" is used to refer to a human with bionic, or robotic, implants.In
current prosthetic applications, the C-Leg system developed by Otto Bock HealthCare is used
to replace a human leg that has been amputated because of injury or illness. The use of
sensors in the artificial C-Leg aids in walking significantly by attempting to replicate the
user's natural gait, as it would be prior to amputation. Prostheses like the C-Leg and the more
advanced iLimb are considered by some to be the first real steps towards the next generation
of real-world cyborg applications. Additionally cochlear implants and magnetic implants
which provide people with a sense that they would not otherwise have had can additionally
be thought of as creating cyborgs.

In 2002, under the heading Project Cyborg, a British scientist, Kevin Warwick, had an array
of 100 electrodes fired in to his nervous system in order to link his nervous system into the
Internet. With this in place he successfully carried out a series of experiments including
extending his nervous system over the Internet to control a robotic hand, a loudspeaker and
amplifier. This is a form of extended sensory input and the first direct electronic
communication between the nervous systems of two humans.

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In 2004, under the heading Bridging the Island of the Colourblind Project, a British and
completely colorblind artist, Neil Harbisson, started wearing an eyeborg on his head in order
to hear colors. His prosthetic device was included within his passport photograph which has
been claimed to confirm his cyborg status.

CYBORGS PROLIFERATION IN SOCIETY

IN MEDICINE:

In medicine, there are two important and different types of cyborgs: these are the restorative
and the enhanced. Restorative technologies “restore lost function, organs, and limbs”.The
key aspect of restorative cyborgization is the repair of broken or missing processes to revert
to a healthy or average level of function. There is no enhancement to the original faculties
and processes that were lost.
A brain-computer interface, or BCI, provides a direct path of communication from the
brain to an external device, effectively creating a cyborg. Research of Invasive BCIs, which
utilize electrodes implanted directly into the grey matter of the brain, has focused on

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restoring damaged eyesight in the blind and providing functionality to paralyzed people,
most notably those with severe cases, such as Locked-In syndrome.

Retinal implants are another form of cyborgization in medicine. The theory behind retinal
stimulation to restore vision to people suffering from retinitis pigmentosa and vision loss due
to aging.

IN MILITARY:

DARPA-Cyborg
Military organizations' research has recently focused on the utilization of cyborg animals for
inter-species relationships for the purposes of a supposed tactical advantage. DARPA has
announced its interest in developing "cyborg insects" to transmit data from sensors implanted
into the insect during the pupal stage. Similarly, DARPA is developing a neural implant to

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remotely control the movement of sharks. The shark's unique senses would be exploited to
provide data feedback in relation to enemy ship movement and underwater explosives.

IN ART:

The concept of the cyborg is often associated with science fiction. However, many artists
have tried to create public awareness of cybernetic organisms; these can range from paintings
to installations.
Stelarc is a performance artist who has visually probed and acoustically amplified his body.
He uses medical instruments, prosthetics, robotics, virtual reality systems, the Internet and
biotechnology to explore alternate, intimate and involuntary interfaces with the body. He has
made three films of the inside of his body and has performed with a third hand and a virtual
arm.

POSITIVE ARGUMENTS

Certainly, there have been a number of positive responses to this 'cyborg' phenomenon. There
have been a number of AI researchers like Hans Moravec who have unabashedly declared
that it may be time for carbon-based biological life to yield control of the planet to its 'mind
children,' silicon-based life. They claim that the phenomenon, seen from a grand evolutionary
perspective, can be seen as part of the grand design of evolution. The human cyborg
represents a 'transitional species' of sorts, before the human enters total post-biological
obsolescence. If evolution is theorized from an abstract perspective as an attempt to increase
the information-processing power latent in matter, in the struggle against entropy, it is clear
that hardware (artificial life) will eventually win out against wetware (organic life) since it is
more durable and more efficient.

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There are others who foresee perhaps a more peaceable coexistence for human beings and
electronic 'life,'. One recent theory that has been bantered about lately is that the human race
may have reached the saturation point for economic growth, but this is fortunate since it has
arrived in time for it to work on 'human growth,' i.e. the re-engineering of the human species.
We can 'graduate' from being victims of natural selection to masters of self-selection. It
seems hard to argue against increasing human longevity, intelligence, or strength, since
human beings seem to live too short a span, to make too many mistakes in reasoning, and to
lack the physical endurance necessary to make great accomplishments. Indeed, there are
those who feel that without technological modification, the human being might be simply too
"shortchanged" from an evolutionary standpoint to accomplish the race's greatest dreams,
such as peaceful coexistence, environmental sustainability, and space exploration.The search
for human perfectibility is one of the oldest of utopian dreams.

Lastly, there are the postmodern theorists, normally noted for their antitechnological stance,
who have taken a favorable position on the coming of the cyborg. The "cyborg
anthropologists" have followed the line of Donna Haraway, who declared that she would
rather be a cyborg than a goddess any day, in a sort of cynical repudiation of ecofeminism
and the fetishizing of nature.

The advantages of becoming a cyborg:

1. Returning Function
If you have had parts of you damaged, such as you are blind, you can have to eyes replaced
with electromechanical devices that return function.

2. Increased Strength
Assuming that it is possible to replace or enhance the human endoskeleton with metal and
pneumatic/hydraulic pumps, the strength of a cyborg could be drastically increased above a
normal human. A metal skeleton would even possibly allow you to even take hits a normal
human couldn't survive (eg. A sledgehammer to the chest, or a gunshot to the head)

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3. Added Functionality
A cyborg does not have the limits of a standard human. For example due to increased weight,
they could replace or add appendages such as a building a gun inside the arm, that can extend
out and shoot, with there being less recoil thanks to weight and strength.

4. Possibly Longer Lifespan

Because you are replacing a lot of your body parts, you are making some of your organs
obsolete and since you aren't relying on them, it doesn't matter if they fail or are taken out.
How ever until research into extended or replenishing the state of the brain, you will still
only have as long to live as your brain will allow. Unless you could somehow transfer your
conscience into the computer that eventually replaces your brain, you are screwed.

5. Increased Intelligence/Computational Power/Perception

A possibility of a cyborg can be to add microchips to the brain, which would allow your
brain to offload commands such as doing calculations to the chip, which could do the
calculations instantaneously and return the answers to the brain. Perception could be
increased by assisting parts of the brain that deal with awareness.

NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES

The critics of bioelectronics and biocomputing foresee numerous potential negative social
consequences from the technology. One is that the human race will divide along the lines of
biological haves and have-nots. People with enough money will be able to augment their
personal attributes as they see fit (which is what they already do with techniques such as
spas, plastic surgery, etc.) as well as to utilize cloning, organ replacement, etc. to stave off
death for as long as they wish, while the majority of humanity will continue to suffer from
plague, hunger, 'bad genes,' and infirmity. It's hard not to see the biological 'haves'
advocating separation and/or extinction inevitably for their unmodified peers.

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It's inevitable that there will be those who see the potential of a sort of master race from this
technology. Certainly, the military has already considered the possibility of the super-soldier,
augmented by technology so that he has faster reflexes, deadlier accuracy, greater resistance
to fatigue, integrated weaponry, and most importantly, lesser inclinations toward fear or
doubt in combat. Such soldiers could be created through combinations of biochemicals,
bioelectronics, and DNA manipulation. They might have available arsenals of new biological
warfare components, synthetically generated within their own bodies. But it's not clear that
these 'cyborgs' would not turn on their creators. Indeed, there's no reason at all to think they
would forever allow themselves to be controlled by inferiors. They could easily become a
new sort of dominant caste, forcing the rest of untechnologized humanity into serfdom. Or
perhaps they might decide simply to eliminate it.

For that reason, it's logical to suspect that one of the other dangers inherent in bioelectronics
might be the ability to control and monitor people. This would be a tremendous violation of
human privacy, but the creators of human biotech might see it as necessary to keep their
subjects under control.Once implanted with bio-implant electronic devices, 'cyborgs' might
become highly dependent on the creators of these devices for their repair, recharge, and
maintenance. It could be possible to modify the person technologically so that their body
would stop producing some essential substance for survival, thus placing them under the
absolute control of the designers of the technology.

The Disadvantages of becoming a cyborg:

1. Possible loss of humanity

Due to having microchips installed in your brain that can alter your behaviour, it is possible
that you would lose or overwrite the parts of you, that make you who you are. When your
brain dies, people aren't likely to let your body go to waste and will therefore replace the
deceased brain with Artificially Intelligent computers, leading to your body becoming an
android.

2. Expensive

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Unless you are being subjected to becoming a cyborg against your will by secret
underground science teams, all this tech is going to be coming out of your pocket, and it will
not be cheap.

3. Loss of Acceptable Appearance

Assuming that you had your muscles mostly replaced with pumps, you aren't going to have
all that much blood, so there won't be a whole lot keeping your skin (and your member)
alive. This could be included under loss of humanity but it is important to know that you
won't look the same.

4. Likely to Die in the Creation Procedures

Adapting to cyborg life wouldn't be even nearly as hard as surviving all the surgery that you
would have to go through to have entire parts of your body replaced. Unless research teams
develop some way to replace body parts with other things in an instant, you will probably be
dead before you know it.

5. You Are Now Property of a Government

Expanding on the expensive point, now that you have somehow managed to survive the
expensive surgery that an underground government has paid for, they basically now own you
and you are in their service until your brain dies and they turn you into an android to keep
forever.

ARGUMENTS ON BALANCE

The proponents of bioelectronics are inevitably correct in suggesting that it holds out
incredible benefits for the human race. (Admittedly, those who argue for human
obsolescence as a benefit should be discounted by any reasonable humanist.) Likewise, it is
undeniably the case that some of the skepticism toward bioelectronics arises out of the
superstitious attitude that people hold toward computers and electronic technology, as well as

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medical and reproductive procedures that they don't fully understand. However, they are
incorrect in arguing that regulation and oversight will only hinder research in this area and
prevent scientific progress in the relevant areas. In marginalizing the social and ethical issues
generated by research in biocomputing, these researchers are showing a side of science that
people have routinely expressed anger about - its refusal to accept social responsibility for
unforeseen consequences. In order for bioelectronic research to progress, it will have to
accept that the potential dangers are real, and that the concerns of some skeptics are valid.
Otherwise, something disastrous might occur which might create a 'death-blow' for the
industry, much as has happened with nuclear power in the U.S., and nothing positive will
ever have been attained.

IMPLICATIONS

This section draws on the cases outlined above in order to identify the kinds of rights that
may be emergent, or may be at least asserted, claimed or desired, variously by cyborgs and
by non-cyborgs in reaction to the cyborgisation of others.

Rights of the Non-Cyborg (or Pre-Cyborg)

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  a claim right on service-providers, to take due care in the design and testing of
prostheses and orthoses and procedures for installing them - case (4) - chip-
implantation

 a claim right on the state, to receive quality-of-life prostheses - case (1) - spectacles
and hearing-aids

 a claim right on the state, to receive matter-of-life-and-death prostheses - case (2) -

renal dialysis, stents and pacemakers

 a liberty right to decline a prosthesis or orthosis - case (4) - RFID-anklets and chip-
implants, and case (7) - RFID chips as the norm

 a claim right on the organisers of sporting events, to enable participation in events

with cyborg athletes - case (5) - wheelchair sports

 a claim right on service-providers, preventing the denial of access to services by non-

cyborgs - case (7) - RFID chips as the norm.

Rights of the Cyborg

 a claim right by prosthetes, on operators of facilities, to be able to use external, exo-

and endo-prostheses in facilities used by the public - case (3) wheelchairs on aircraft

 a claim right by prosthetes, on the organisers of sporting events, to enable

participation in events separately from able-bodied athletes - case (5) - double-
amputees

 a claim right by prosthetes, on the organisers of sporting events, to enable

participation in events with able-bodied athletes - case (5) - double-amputees

 a claim right by orthots, on the organisers of sporting events, to enable participation

in events with able-bodied athletes - case (5) - double-amputees

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 a claim right by orthots, on the organisers of sporting events, to enable participation
in events separately from able-bodied athletes - case (5) - double-amputees

 a claim right by orthots, against others, to be able to utilise their enhanced functional
capability, perhaps only within a particular context, but perhaps generally - case (8) -
military and security personnel.

CHALLENGES

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Technology advancement and life extension programs are accelerating across a range of
fields of longevity studies. It might turnout that the future of cybernetics transcends human
kind into a biologically immortal Cyborg.

Technology has driven the world from a primitive state towards a highly sophisticated and
complex modern world. The primitive man would properly not imagine that he would be the
founder of this mechanistic world. Everything started from discovering fire and inventing the
wheel to modern times. People like Neil Armstrong, the first man ever to put the footprint
outside the atmosphere of earth, did on 20 th July 1969 step on the Moon. It is an important
date in human history but what awaits us is far beyond going to the moon. With progressive
state of technology a new era of human cybernetics are evolving.

Human Cybernetics in the field of life extension refers to how technology has, is and will
evolve to support the ideology of extending human lifespan. We are already hearing about
new tools associated with the term ‘nanotechnology’. Not far in the future, only in a few
decades, it will be plausible to re-engineer our whole body. Our physical and mental systems
will be repairable and replaceable with the use of ‘nanobots’. Scientists do already possess
prosperous knowledge in how to avoid some degenerative disease through supplements and
nutrition consumptions. These are some medical progresses, which will enrich the
biotechnology revolution and transcend a fruitful birth to nanotechnology.

The term ‘nanobots’ is futuristic, it doesn’t really exists. Today, the terms used are
‘software’, ‘biotechnology’, ‘plastic’, ‘organism’ or even ‘cybernetics’. In the future,
‘nanobots’ being blood-cell-seized robots will be the major doctors. They will be able to
identify any disequilibrium in the body and give recourse to nutrition and supplements for
treatment.

We are aware of common technology. However, medical advancement does seldom hit the
headlines for many weeks; they are often given little attention. They are veiled behind
contemporary technology and cheapskate news such as latest gadgets; PCs, Mobile Devices,
and cheapskate news on violence, private life of pop-stars. However, intelligent machines are
already spurring to the surface. There are a number of projects focusing on creating

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biological microelecromechanical systems (bioMEMS). Their intent is from diagnostic to
offer therapeutical treatment to pathologies identified through our blood stream. It is far from
science fiction. Since the early days, nano-machine was proposed by Richard Feynman. The
latter stated that machines would create smaller ones and these would in turn build more
diminutive ones. This refines into a state where nano-molecular systems can be controlled by
nano-robotics or simply nanobots.

The University of Illinois at Chicago did some years ago create a ‘capsule’ of seven
nanometers. This ‘nano-capsule’ was used in experiments to protect organs and cells such as
the pancreatic islet cells from antibodies. This method has proven to cure diabetes type I for
rats. This could perfectly work for humans. Alike methodologies can be used to treat diabetes
and Parkinson’s disease by providing more dopamine to the brain. Furthermore, Kensall
Wise, a professor of electrical engineering from the University of Michigan, has created
sophisticated nano-neural probe technology that scrutinizes the electrical activities of patient
having any neural diseases. This makes it possible to monitor activities in the brain. This
prowess will make it possible to inject medicine to precise regions in the brain. Kazushi
Ishiyama at Tohoku University of Japan has already created an advanced micromachine that
enables microscopic-sized spinning drills to inject drugs to tiny cancer tumors.

Raymond Kurzweil, a futurist, inventor and author of several books on health,

transhumanism and artificial intelligence believes that by 2020 this type of technology
(nanobots) will already have reached a maturity state. Nano-scale machines will already be in
our bloodstream to constantly evaluate our health conditions. The dynamism of sensors
within our body will be able to communicate wirelessly with technology identifying the
degree of nutrition and supplements that are lacking in our body. The essence of
supplementing the body with a balance intake of nutrition is that fewer side effects will be
experienced such as digestion (gastro). The body will live a healthy life and so will the
beholder. Cybernetics in life extension goes beyond finding cures to even replacing organs.
For instance, our heart is a performing machine yet with a myriad of failures. These failing
weaknesses are tarnishing longevity. The heart is an organ that can prematurely cause death
through heart disease and heart attacks. Nowadays, artificial hearts are available and slowly

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advancing. Artificial hearts are far from being perfect, but will gradually improve, and thus
when signs of premature weaknesses are spotted in the heart it can be replaced.

The most complex organ to deal with is the brain. Our actual advanced state of technology is
unable to identify where memory is precisely located and how it is processed. We only know
that the brain has a mind, and this mind might be the whole brain or only a part of the brain.
Besides, there is a misconception, the brain is not an isolated organ it is an interconnected
one. It has an evolutionary history. However, we are not that far from unraveling it. People
who are deaf can now communicate via telephones after cochlear implant, a particular tool
interacting with the auditory nervous system. Other implant system such as replacing
damaged retinas are only few examples of how medicine is going away from the soup
concept of adding chemicals towards a mechanistic way to cut, delete, add and replace old
organs with new ones.

This is an advance state of metamorphosis for human to become ‘Cyborgs’. Technology from
being separated from human, in terms of distanced computer system has moved from the
table to our pockets (PDA’s) and now they are entering our body. Our natural biological
condition might in the future be constituted of non-biological and technical components. The
radical cybernetic evolution that is taking-off may substantially reengineer our body and
extend our lifespan to a biologically immortal state. The prognosis of such changes will in
the near future. Improvement will only be seen after 2020 and concretize by 2040. It might
just be like the typewriter phenomenon; replaced by new technology and human through
cybernetics transcends to biologically immortal cyborgs.

CHAPTER II
FUTURE SCOPE

'Cyborg' is actually a science fiction shortening of 'cybernetic organism'. The idea is that, in
the future, we may have more and more artificial body parts—arms, legs, hearts, eyes and so

35
on—till one might end up finally as a brain in a wholly artificial body. The fact that our ideas
about what constitutes a machine have changed notably is evident in the ubiquitous desktop
personal computer that's capable of instantaneously morphing from a word processor into an
entertainment centre playing music and video. Or from an accounting machine into a speech
synthesizer or a game station within the span of a mouse click. A far cry from the oil-
spewing, smoke-belching, noisy clumps of twisted metal that represented machines of the
past.
As the attributes of machines changed, our basic attitudes toward them underwent a
remarkable shift. For many of us, the computer is no longer a cold grey machine, but a
trusted assistant without which everyday business would come to a grinding halt. In the
mid-'80s, science fiction writer William Gibson coined the term 'cyberspace', and offered the
vision of a man-machine linkup at the neurological level hinting at some sort of techno-
transcendence. A decade later we have the World Wide Web or the Internet, which is
actually a machine, and the race to achieve such a man-machine linkup is on. The idea is to
be linked to the Internet through surgically-implanted chips capable of wireless
communication with the Net: making you physically here and virtually embodied in
cyberspace. Virtual reality as a technology is still in its infancy, but once perfected we would
have individuals with the implants for wireless linkup opting to spend most of their time in
designer realities and virtual heavens.

This Gibsonian world of man-machine symbiosis is a direction we are definitely moving

towards, amply demonstrated by the recent chip implant on 44-year-old professor of
cybernetics, Kevin Warwick from the University of Reading, Britain. The implanted chip in
his left arm wirelessly linked him to the network, made his office welcome him in the
morning, turned on his computer, switched on the lights in the office corridor, opened doors
and even helped his secretary track him irrespective of where he was on the campus. After a
week of this, when the implant was removed from his body terminating the linkup, Professor
Warwick experienced a sense of loss as though he was cut off from something, similar to a
shared sense of being with the computer network. He later admitted that with the implant he
had felt "an affinity to the computer".This shift in our attitude towards machines and machine
intelligence is gradually gaining legitimacy. Identified as 'post-humanism', this new ideology

36
endorses the idea that humans need to involve intelligent machines in the evolutionary
process. The proponents of post-humanism perceive this involvement as using technology to
overcome our physical and mental limits.

As machines continue their rapid evolution towards increased miniaturization and

functionality, and as we keep tinkering with our bodies and brains at the molecular and
genetic level, this involvement will become more feasible. For instance, the problem of how
to increase human intelligence is being approached from various angles. One approach is the
use of chemicals like Vasopressin to enhance already existing processes in the brain such as
memory. The other is an attempt to link the brain directly to computers. Such brain-
computerinterfaces could amplify the processes that constitute the human mind to
unimaginable levels. The computers could be small enough to be implanted within the body
of the user.According to post-humanist thinker Max More: "A human brain reasons, creates,
feels, plans, calculates, appreciates. These properties of living, conscious beings result from
the immensely complicated connections among our billions of neurons. An individual neuron
by itself displays no consciousness, reasoning, or creativity. The neuron is a biochemical
machine. We should therefore be able to replace or repair damaged neural tissue with
implants and supplement biological neurons with synthetic neurons while retaining the same
functions. We should be able to add memory, processing power, and new abilities by doing
so. In principle, we could replace all our neurons until we had an entirely synthetic or
prosthetic brain. If the new neurons worked similarly to the old, and were connected up the
same, we would never notice the difference."By far the most ambitious project of this kind is
'migration through silicon' or 'uploading', which involves putting the mind into a machine.
Uploading or 'migration through silicon' plainly means transferring or duplicating the mental
processes of a living person along with his/her identity on to a specially designed computer.
Once a mind is successfully transferred on to silicon, one could modify that mind by
increasing the scope of the senses or even add new senses. Or increase and enlarge the
memory functions by creating remote links to all the existing records in human cultural and
intellectual history. One could eliminate unnecessary activities like sleeping, or eliminate
unwanted personality traits, instal new ones, invent new emotions, dream while fully awake,
choose what emotions and moods to experience, inhabit artificial bodies of either sex or of

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completely new sexes, experience completely imaginary states
The truth is those among us who use a pacemaker to sustain the normal heart functions and
be alive are in effect part-machine and part-human, a minor cyborg. But in the vision of the
future, presented by people like Gibson, intelligent technology intrudes into the hitherto
sacred space of the human body to morph into a tool that offers transformation and
transcendence. The future is no longer seen to be existing out there, where life is full of pain
and all-too-human suffering, but within a digitally constructed space, melded with the nerves
and by all-knowing machines.

Post-humanism and other technocentric New Age philosophies seem to be preparing us for
this radically different world we are going to inhabit, where we will coexist with intelligent
machines by integrating them into our own being. Perhaps that is the only way we can
prevent ourselves from being at the mercy of our own magnificent creation-the super-
intelligent machine.

CHAPTER III
CONCLUSION

As many scientists have eloquently argued, once a technology is out there, you cannot make
it go away. The genie simply will not go back in the bottle. There never was a technology

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that the human race ever abandoned wholesale, even the hydrogen bomb or other weapons of
mass destruction with the power to wipe out all life on Earth. You might eventually be able
to ban the production of H-bombs, but it would take a long time to kill everybody who knew
how to make one or eliminate all blueprints and specifications for the design. While scientists
discussed the possibility of a ban on recombinant DNA research at the Asilomar Conference,
they knew it was not feasible. Even if overt public funding for such research was cut off,
covert private funding would continue to flow from various interested parties, as has
happened with even disproven technologies like cold fusion.

Thus, once invented, bioelectronic technologies cannot be wished away. Once given the
opportunity to improve themselves in any form, human beings rarely surrender the
opportunity, whether it's "pumping iron" or exercise to raise physical fitness, so-called "smart
drugs" to raise intelligence, or vitamin therapies to stem the onslaught of the aging process.
When human beings are offered the chance to utilize computers and electronic technologies
within their bodies to achieve these same results, it is almost certain they will embrace them
regardless of the risks. Based on this, it would be unrealistic to try and ban such technologies,
however one might worry about their ethical and social consequences. A ban would only
probably force them into a large, criminal black market, as illegal drugs and weapons already
have been.

A new "cyborg bioethics" may be necessary. While it cannot be possible to foresee all the
consequences resulting from bioelectronics, most scientists are already aware of what some
of the major dangers are. Researchers in biocomputing may be required to adopt protocols on
acceptable research with human subjects, much as genetic engineers did back in the 1970s. In
drafting bioethical imperatives for bioelectronics research, it will probably be imperative to
consider the concerns of groups such as the religious community, since to ignore their
concerns simply out of the insistence that they are merely acting out of "anti-science"
ignorance will leave an important group "out of the loop" of this research. This is uncharted
territory for the human race, and it is the first time in which our own "built environment"
may be directly incorporated into our own sense of self and human nature. Our own
biocomputers (the human mind) evolved under a very specific set of evolutionary

39
circumstances, after all, and they may not be equipped with the foresight and moral sense to
keep up with the accelerating pace of technology.

Since this is the case, it is probably imperative for society to assert that the scientists and
engineers charged with creating this new technology exert the proper amount of social
responsibility. Safeguards will have to be insisted on to prevent the possible negative impacts
discussed above, and many of these things will have to be built in at the instrumental level,
since they probably cannot be achieved only through policy and regulation. Critical public
awareness and vigilance, of the kind already shown by Jeremy Rifkin and the Foundation on
Economic Trends with regard to biotechnology, will be essential. But ultimately, bioethicists
will have to grapple with the fundamental issues involved, which touch on aspects of human
existence and human nature which reach to the core of what most people think is involved in
what it means to be human, and this will not be an easy dilemma to resolve.

CHAPTER IV
BIBLIOGRAPHY

 www.google.com
 www.fiu.edu
 www.wikipedia.com
 www.amswers.com

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 www.absoluteastronomy.com
 www.scribd.com
 www.librarything.com

CHAPTER V
CHECKLIST

1. LIST OF FIGURES 7

2. LITERATURE SURVEY 8

3. INTRODUCTION TO CYBORGS 13

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  BASIC 13

 ORIGIN 15

 DEFINITIONS 16

 KINDS OF CYBORG ENTITIES 20

 INDIVIDUAL CYBORGS / SOCIAL CYBORGS 21
 CYBORGS PROLIFERATION IN SOCIETY 23
 POSITIVE ARGUMENTS 25
 NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES 27
 ARGUMENTS ON BALANCE 29
 IMPLICATIONS 30
 CHALLENGES 32

4. FUTURE SCOPE 35

5. CONCLUSION 38

6. BIBLIOGRAPHY 40

7. CHECKLIST 41

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