Cyborg: Myth or Reality?

Abstract

The idea of cyborg often is taken as a token for the distinction between human and machine having become irrelevant. In this essay I argue against that view. I critically analyze empirical arguments, theoretical reflections, and ultimate convictions that are supposed to support the idea. I show that empirical arguments at this time rather point in a different direction and that theoretical views behind it are at least questionable. I also show that the ultimate convictions presupposed deny basic tenets of traditional Christianity, while their claim to be based on science confuses scientific results with their interpretation on the basis of a naturalistic worldview.

Will We Know Them When We Meet Them? Human Cyborg and Nonhuman Personhood

“…Her concept of the cyborg is subtle, and operates at multiple levels, but in a very simple, practical sense, despite the great complexification of the mechanical scaffolding of all areas of human life in the last four decades, there are still very clear boundaries between machines and living organisms, regardless of how much they depend on each other (cf. Geertsema 2006).…”

“…Rather, I proceed on the basis that human beings may be technologically enhanced in all the ways imagined by science fiction, and that synthetic humanlike minds and bodies will one day be possible. Not everyone agrees this is likely to occur (e.g., Geertsema 2006; Coeckelbergh 2010; Dorobantu 2021), but this maximally different future has especially interesting implications for the understanding and development of the concept of personhood, and it can be explored without embracing the certainty professed by some that it will all come to pass.…”

Handbook of Ethics, Values, and Technological Design

“…As Geertsema has pointed out, whether one accepts the blurring of category boundaries depends on one's ontological assumptions (Geertsema 2006). As Geertsema has pointed out, whether one accepts the blurring of category boundaries depends on one's ontological assumptions (Geertsema 2006).…”