Science Fiction and Philosophy by Schneider Susan

Author:Schneider, Susan [Schneider, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2010-05-31T22:00:00+00:00

Thus, amid a welter of convoluted prose, was born the cyborg. The acronym “cyborg” stood for Cybernetic Organism or Cybernetically Controlled Organism; it was a term of art meant to capture both a notion of human-machine merging and the rather specific nature of the merging envisaged. Cyberneticists were especially interested in “self-regulating systems.” These are systems in which the results of the system’s own activity are “fed back” so as to increase, stop, start, or reduce the activity as conditions dictate. The flush/refill mechanism of a standard toilet is a homey example, as is the thermostat on the domestic furnace. The temperature drops, a circuit is activated, and the furnace comes to life. The temperature rises, a circuit is broken, and the furnace ceases to operate. Even more prosaically, the toilet is flushed, the ballcock drops, which causes the connected inlet valve to open. Water then flows in until the ballcock, riding on the rising tide, reaches a preset level and thus recloses the valve. Such systems are said to be homeostatically controlled because they respond automatically to deviations from a baseline (the norm, stasis, equilibrium) in ways that drag them back toward that original setting - the full cistern, the preset ambient temperature, and the like.

The human autonomic nervous system, it should be clear, is just such a self-regulating homeostatic engine. It works continuously, and without conscious effort on our part, in order to keep key physiological parameters within certain target zones. As effort increases and blood oxygenation falls, we breathe harder and our hearts beat faster, pumping more oxygen into the bloodstream. As effort decreases and blood oxygen levels rise, breathing and heart rate damp down, reducing the intake and uptake of oxygen.

With all this in mind, it is time to meet the first duly-accredited-and-labeled cyborg. Not a fictional monster, not even a human being fitted with a pacemaker (although they are cyborgs of this simple stripe too), but a white laboratory rat trailing an ungainly appendage - an implanted Rose osmotic pump. This rat was introduced in the 1960 paper by Clynes and Kline as “one of the first cyborgs” and the snapshot, as Donna Haraway wonderfully commented “belongs in Man’s family album.”

Sadly, the rat has no name, but the osmotic pump does. It is named after its inventor, Dr. Rose, who recently died after a very creative life devoted to searching for a cure for cancer. So let’s respectfully borrow that, calling the capable rat-pump system Rose. Rose incorporates a pressure pump capsule role of delivering injections at a controlled rate. The idea was to combine the implanted pump with an artificial control loop, creating in Rose a layer of homeostasis. The new layer would operate like the biological without the need for any conscious attention or effort and might be used to help Rose deal with specific extraterrestrial conditions. The authors speculate, for example, that the automatic, computerized control loop monitors systolic blood pressure, compares it to some locally appropriate reference value, and administers adrenergic or vasodilatory drugs accordingly.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.