When considering the question, "What is your definition of human-computer symbiosis and the cyborg?" The first couple of images that appear in my head are from Science Fiction, including Data and the Borg from Star Trek, City of Lost Children, Surrogates, Ghost in the Shell and the more popular characters like Darth Vader or Terminator.
So, after we get beyond the science fiction stereotypes, what do we really have? In my own opinion, I feel as though there are real life cyborgs and a very real human-computer symbiosis going on in our everyday life, and we seem to have a very beneficial relationship. At the time of Licklider's paper, how could he foresee the technological advances which have made our live more and more dependent on computer technology. Licklider states, "The hope is that, in not too many years, human brains and computing machines will be coupled together very tightly, and that the resulting partnership will think as no human brain has ever thought and process data." If you look at the computing advances, like the mass popularity and usage of the internet, hand held devices, and personal computing, there are very few who do not in some way use these computing devices in order to process information. Could these technologies be considered a human-computer symbiosis? I think that they do, iphones are not any use without their human, and humans (in some cases) can not perform their everyday work tasks without their iphone. This is an interesting relationship of man and machine and in some cases is disturbing, and in some is exciting, to see what is store for the future.
On the idea of cyborgs, Haraway explains that Cyborgs are cybernetic organisms, hybrid of machine and organism, and creatures of fiction and reality. Most believe that in fiction, they definitely exist, but do they in reality? Are people with defibrillators cyborgs? Did Data in Star Trek become a cyborg when the borg added a piece of human flesh to his arm? Moreover, was Data a cyborg when he turns his emotion chip on? When someone come home from war, and his or her legs have been amputated, and given new "robotic" legs is he or she then a cyborg? According to myself and Haraway, the answer would be yes.
So what do I think about all this mumbo jumbo? I think we're moving in a direction where technology is becoming more and more apart of our lives, and there's really no way that we can stop it. To keep up with everyone, and in a way the direction people are evolving, is to embrace technology and integrate it into our lives. My own grandmother emails me now, and realizes its a useful tool. When I die, I would like my brain cryogenically frozen, and maybe someday day in the future long after my body has died, I will awaken with an awesome robot body.
Here's one last thing for the road!
