Cyborgs Among Us

Depending on how you choose to define cyborgs, you might count as one.

- Sean Mossadeg

 

AMBER CASE, an American cyborg anthropologist, argued in a 2011 TED Talk that “every time you look at a computer screen or use one of your cell phone devices,” you are, in fact, being a cyborg.

Based on the traditional definition of a cyborg, she’s not wrong. A 1960 paper on space travel defined a cyborg as “an organism to which exogenous components have been added for the purpose of adapting to new environments.”

What is humanity’s current environment then? Already, our constant exposure to technological devices and online social platforms puts us a world apart from say, 25 years ago. Navigating this new landscape using “exogenous components”, which must count our smartphones, laptops and tablets (they are more a part of us now than we may admit), solidifies the standing that we just might be the cyborgs we had read about as children.