Friday, February 20, 2009

Cavemen or Cyborgs?

At the beginning of this week I thought that a cyborg was something that could only be found in Star Trek. I consider a cyborg to be something that is part technology and part human. After the readings and discussions in class, I soon realized that many people (including myself) are cyborgs. At first I blamed this phenomenon on newer technologies such as iPods and cell phones. Then I started thinking back to our previous discussions about Thoreau and the pencil. As a class, we established about three weeks ago that the pencil is indeed a technology. If this is the case, then mankind really has been a cyborg since the pencil! However, why start at a pencil? Humans have been using technology ever since cavemen started crafting tools. I guess it all really depends on how you define a cyborg and what you consider technology to be. There's definitely a difference between a sharp rock attached to a stick and a mechanical third arm.
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4 comments:

  1. Alex GFebruary 22, 2009 at 3:08 PM

    This brings up an interesting point, if you were to make a timeline of the history of science, where would you begin? In Carl Sagan’s Cosmos (1980), he claims it should begin around 500 B.C.

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  2. JRobersFebruary 22, 2009 at 3:13 PM

    This is true. It's interesting to consider that speech is also one of those technologies we rely on. So we've never been "human" or what we think of as human - we've always been cyborgs!

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  3. Izzy PlaceFebruary 22, 2009 at 3:48 PM

    I also think this is really interesting, because I felt the same way. At first, I never would have considered myself a cyborg either! I think you bring up a good point about cavemen using tools. Without people being cyborgs, many things we use and know today would not be a part of our daily lives....like speech and pencils.

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  4. AddisonFebruary 22, 2009 at 7:52 PM

    Starting this class, I would have never considered many of the things we talk about to be technology. Therefore, I would never thought us to be cyborgs. Boy was I wrong, I've been a cyborg since birth I guess. Even when you only consider the little things we use everyday, there are still a multitude of different technologys influencing our daily actions

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