[extropy-chat] newsvine: "Sure, make me a cyborg"

[Natasha Vita-More]

At 10:17 PM 1/29/2007, Kevin wrote:

Natasha wrote:
> > > How do you see the distinction between cyborg and transhuman?  Do you
> > > think the terms are interchangeable?


>for me, I think any future cyborgs will simply be a classifiable
>subset of 'human', much how the 'transhumans' of today are very much
>just normal humans with a fetish for futurism & self-improvement.

I think you mean transhumanists, not transhumans.  There are the very early 
signs of transhumans today and many probably don't have a fetish for 
futurism.  I am saying this because the early transhumans may very well be 
those who have overcome sever damage to their physiology and have had to be 
augment to remain alive and/or functioning.

Donna Hathaway writes about cyborgs, but I truly think she is referring to 
transhumans but did not use that term out of lack of information/knowledge 
or because cyborg was more widely known.  But a cyborg is a cybernetic 
organism does not have "humane" characteristics, perhaps quite different 
from a transhuman which is a evolutionary transitional stage.

Samantha wrote:

> > They are not intechageable.  One is about whether the body has all
> > organic parts or not.

>this is the 'vanilla sapien' interpretation of humanity; see above. In
>short, I think this is hogwash. 'Human' means one thing, 'Homo Sapien'
>another, and 'Cyborg' is a term that negates ones' membership in
>neither.

??

> > The other is about the goals, views and ideals of
> > the brain/mind realized in that body.  Conceivably a person could even
> > be tranferred fully into an artificial body or uploaded without being in
> > the least interested in or a proponent of transhumanism.

Of course. A transhuman is not necessary a transhumanist.

>I think It'd be fair to say that if you're a cyborg you're a
>transhumanist,

I don't think so.

Best wishes,
Natasha

<http://www.natasha.cc/>Natasha <http://www.natasha.cc/>Vita-More
Design Media Artist - Futurist
PhD Candidate, 
<http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/researchcover/rcp.asp?pagetype=G&page=273>Planetary 
Collegium
Proactionary Principle Core Group, <http://www.extropy.org/>Extropy 
<http://www.extropy.org/>Institute
Member, <http://www.profuturists.com/>Association of Professional Futurists
Founder, <http://www.transhumanist.biz/>Transhumanist Arts & Culture

If you draw a circle in the sand and study only what's inside the circle, 
then that is a closed-system perspective. If you study what is inside the 
circle and everything outside the circle, then that is an open system 
perspective. - Buckminster Fuller


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