Issues of the body: Cyborgs and Artificial life

When someone first asked me what it meant for us to be networked I was always a little confused and misunderstood. Through research I looked into what it actually means to be networked, developing upon the underlying question as to weather we would all ultimately like the internet in our head? It seems a little extravagant and is true to say that 10 years ago no one could ever imagine something so extreme, but through development of technology in today’s society, that “extravagant” idea doesn’t seem so far away now, does it?

Life itself is seen as having unique and sacred properties. The notions of life, also known as “Materialism” share a lot of properties with the nonliving world. It may be a little bizarre to suggest that our life is very similar to one of a computer, but it is in fact true. Regardless of the qualities both have, a humans being their vital organs to allow it to live, and a computer being the properties that allow it to function….. They both are capable of growing, developing, and mending and changing to suit a pattern. Life simply is a self ordering pattern.

1. Cybernetics
In today’s society people are less scared of technology. How a programme works is very similar to how a body works, we recognise and address this by conforming to its codes and conventions. Ie, when a laptop needs charging we will charge it, preventing it from dying in order for us to carry on our research/ study. Then similarly, when a human is unwell, it is known that we go to the doctors and may possibly be prescribed with medication to make us better. Medicine itself is using technology, so once again we are faced with a diverse link between humans and technology that maybe we never thought we would see?!

Another question to boggle our minds is who controls our body?..... Do we as humans control our own body, or when influenced with alcohol doesn't alcohol? Can computers furthermore control our body? A common example of this is a heart pacemaker.  A pacemaker, or commonly known as an artificial pacemaker, is a medical device that uses electrical impulses, delivered by electrodes contacting the heart muscles, to regulate the beating of the heart. The primary purpose of a pacemaker is to maintain an adequate heart rate for one who is suffering from serious medical problems. Modern pacemakers are externally programmable and allow the cardiologist to select the optimum pacing modes for individual patients. Additionally, some combine a pacemaker and defibrillator in a single implantable device.

2. A recent experiement took place in the USA when a man, Kevin Warwick tried to connect himself to the internet. Warwick plugged the internet into his arm…. This may seem a little bizarre, but who is to say that we might be presented with this idea “naturally” in a few years time. Weather or not it is natural is a matter of personal opinion, but sooner rather than later in my opinion it will be the norm before we know it. The internet in ones head is slowly becoming close to the biological norm.

With the internet in our heads being an issue currently raised, the issue of viruses also occurs.  What would happen to the internet in our heads if it got a virus? Would it send us crazy and make us break? These are all issues which should be discussed before any form of invention takes place. Even though it seems unimaginable to think of, it is furthermore something we should consider, as clearly these ideas are just around the corner.

According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyborg ) The term cyborg is often today applied to an organism that has enhanced abilities due to technology, through this perhaps over simplifies the necessity of feedback for regulating the subsystem. 

Finally to conclude I have a question for you all which was raised in my lecture previously….. Would you upload yourself? Some could consider blog posts/ tumblr accounts/ Facebook/ Twitter as a form of this, but I mean proper upload yourself, officially. Weather it could be deleted or replaced is unsure, so would you do it when you die? I know I wouldn’t, but I couldn’t say certainly, because who knows where technology will leave us in 50 years time?