Natural-Born Cyborgs: Minds, Technologies, and the Future of Human Intelligence
| 2003-04-01 00:00:00 | | 0 | Robotics
From Robocop to the Terminator to Eve 8, no image better captures our deepest fears about technology than the cyborg, the person who is both flesh and metal, brain and electronics. But philosopher and cognitive scientist Andy Clark sees it differently. Cyborgs, he writes, are not something to be feared--we already are cyborgs. In Natural-Born Cyborgs, Clark argues that what makes humans so different from other species is our capacity to fully incorporate tools and supporting cultural practices into our existence. Technology as simple as writing on a sketchpad, as familiar as Google or a cellular phone, and as potentially revolutionary as mind-extending neural implants--all exploit our brains' astonishingly plastic nature. Our minds are primed to seek out and incorporate non-biological resources, so that we actually think and feel through our best technologies. Drawing on his expertise in cognitive science, Clark demonstrates that our sense of self and of physical presence can be expanded to a remarkable extent, placing the long-existing telephone and the emerging technology of telepresence on the same continuum. He explores ways in which we have adapted our lives to make use of technology (the measurement of time, for example, has wrought enormous changes in human existence), as well as ways in which increasingly fluid technologies can adapt to individual users during normal use. Bio-technological unions, Clark argues, are evolving with a speed never seen before in history. As we enter an age of wearable computers, sensory augmentation, wireless devices, intelligent environments, thought-controlled prosthetics, and rapid-fire information search and retrieval, the line between the user and her tools grows thinner day by day. ``This double whammy of plastic brains and increasingly responsive and well-fitted tools creates an unprecedented opportunity for ever-closer kinds of human-machine merger,`` he writes, arguing that such a merger is entirely natural. A stunning new look at the human brain and the human self, Natural Born Cyborgs reveals how our technology is indeed inseparable from who we are and how we think.
User review
Natural-Born Cyborgs
This book is an elementary, disorganized look at how the brain interprets its input and applies tools external to the body to augment, diminish or replace its processes; and how medical and computer technology can be a means to a variety of such changes.
Two hints, not from the book, from which the rest should be obvious: (1) an automobile rear-view mirror is metaphorically equivalent to `eyes in the back of the head`; (2) a word-processor is metaphorically equivalent to the `mental space` in which you determine what you want to say and how you want to say it, along with an augmentation of the `memory space` in which you keep track of your choices. [For a more accurate reading, replace second-person pronouns with the nominative or possessive of 'the brain'.]
The author moves from metaphorical equivalence to functional identity to a confused, unarticulated conceptual identity. His purpose is to persuade the reader that our use of technology is ever present (he claims language itself is a technology: see page 80) and so any future use of computer-based technology is only a difference of degree, not of kind. With the advent of language, we became, in effect, cyborgs. This is nonsense, of course, and is a conclusion that can only be reached by uncritical thinking.
Once upon a time it was admirable to make critical and intellectually valuable distinctions which to the unsophisticated mind appeared indistinguishable and were thus treated during uncritical thinking as equivalent or even identical. For some, it seems, that time has passed.
The moral naiveté of the author is stunning and is typical of that breed of technophile who can't wait to have their refrigerator check their milk supply and send off an order when it `determines` a need. The less physical effort the future might require, the more wonderful it seems to this type of thinking; and the more instantaneous the response to the demands of effortless personal desire, the better the life it will bring. `Faster and with less effort` is the mantra; and `oh what a wonderful world it will be` is the constant refrain. This gee-whiz technotopian thinking is unfounded. Although every tool, every technology is morally neutral, and it is the hands that employ it which make the moral difference, all of our history shows that humankind brings its moral imperfections into any future it makes.
User review
I did not find it worth reading
I find this book quite boring. It seems that it was written superficially without going into the depth. Most of examples were quite banal. I did not find that the author did any kind of research in writing this book. Title was great, but the contents were poor. It did not provide me any insight. Sorry.
User review
Cyborgs in the Flesh
Clark presents an argument that we do not need to implant microchips or electronic prostheses in our body to become Cyborgs, - We are already Cyborgs. The argument is based in our natural ability to use tools and technics to enhance our capabilities for movement, cognition and perception.
The book is easy to read and draws upon research from the fields of robotics, cognitive science, neuroscience, cybernetics, dynamic systems theory, feminist theory, cognitive anthropology and english litterature studies.
The fact that he draws upon such diverse fields of research does not reduce the logic or persuasiveness of his arguments, but rather show the interdisciplinary basis for the book. The breadth of the arguments' basis is a major plus with this book, showing that the interplay between humans and technology are not merely technical but also something which changes who we are and how we understand our selves.
User review
Yes, we certainly are cyborgs!
Normally, we think about 'cyborgs' in terms of 'Star Trek'-like creatures, such as the Borg: a mixture of organic and inorganic stuff, quite unpleasant to look at and even more unpleasant if you encounter one. And here we have a cognitive scientist and philosopher who writes a book with an incredibly odd-sounding title: natural-born cyborg - isn't that a contradiction in terms?
No, it isn't. Read Andy Clark's book and be amazed. When I read it, I was completely converted. What Clark does is not simply write a book describing how modern cognitive science (especially the science of embodied and distributed cognition) is dealing with human action (that too!), but what Clark does here is rewrite a lot of Western anthropology: the way we think about human nature.
Clark's idea of humans as natural-born cyborgs is not that we are all in some sense Borg, but simply that humans have remarkable capabilities of dealing with the things that surround them. Especially, in using things that are around us as tools (in the widest sense of the word; hammers, computers, libraries are all tools), we are able to blur the boundaries between our bodies and technology - as in the practice of hammering the difference between the hand and the hammer disappears, as both are now one in the activity of hammering - but with informational tools such as computers, encyclopedias or simply pen and paper, we are also able to blur the distinction between our mind and the world. We are cyborgs because we are able to relate to and interact with our surroundings in a myriad of different ways. And we're doing that quite naturally. Clark brilliantly describes what philosophers and cognitive scientists are nowadays discovering about our ancient technological skills.
For me, this book was an eye-opener in the best possible way. That may seem strange, given the fact that I am a philosopher of religion and theologian. But for me Clark's approach makes sense. I will not go into details, but if you're interested, read Clark's book first and afterwards Philip Hefner's `The Human Factor` and his `Technology and Human Becoming` (both available through Amazon.com) and hopefully you'll know what I'm getting at,,.
I can't wait for Andy Clark to write a follow-up on this one!
User review
A recommended read but has some weaknesses,,.
In this accessible, provocative, and thought provoking text Andy Clark argues nothing less than what the title suggests: Human nature is predisposed and especially adapted to create and interact with technologies in a way which advances human cognition. Thus, `human-machine symbiosis` is not only a fact of our future; it is that of our present and our past. We are, in a phrase, `natural-born cyborgs`. The arguments that Clark presents to establish this are in fact persuasive, and I encourage anyone interested in the relationship between human beings and technology to read this book. For, whether the reader has at anytime in the past considered this complicated relationship or not, they are not likely to look at it the same way after coming away from the text.
That is not to say that all is well in Professor Clark's analysis, for he tends to take what has been referred to as a techno-enthusiast approach to technology, blatantly negating any undesirable consequences that may arise from such an intimate acceptance of technology into our everyday lives. This despite the fact that he devotes an entire chapter to supposedly addressing some of the potential negative impacts that technology poses. Yet, these are so minimized that it is obvious that for Andy Clark no price is too high for what he sees as the inevitable evolutionary advance of the human species. In addition, Clark tends to overlook the political aspects of technology involving the decisions over what sorts of technologies will be developed and how they will be implemented. Without going in to too much detail it is suffice to say that Clark's analysis is in no way comprehensive and tends to overlook the ethical dimensions of the question of technology. Still, his book is a worthwhile read (and an easy one at that) and I think as long as the reader keeps these things in mind can take much away from the text. No matter what it's lacking I do not want to minimize Clark's insight into human nature and the human-technology relationship for which he makes the strongest argument. I am convinced after reading this book that we are `natural-born cyborgs` and I suspect others will feel the same. It's when Clark starts delving into the implications of the `human-machine symbiosis` that he becomes a little shortsighted and unconvincing.