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Cybernetics - a Brave New World!

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Cybernetics - a Brave New World! Cybernetics - A Brave New World! Overview This essay examines the history of cybernetics, in the narrow sense of its use in mainstream medical application as bionics and its potential lifestyle and business applications as well as possible future applications. Cybernetics Explained To the average layperson, 'cybernetics' means 'cyborgs'. Half-human, half-machine. Popular media is filled with examples of people with robotic limbs interfacing directly with computers or cyborg soldiers running around, all hard shells and soft human internals. Sometimes it can go the other way - machines using living organs for their own purposes. In 2008 Reading University in the U.K. demonstrated a working prototype of a robot which used a rat's living brain as its only form of control and decision making.[1] In fact this is an rather narrow understanding of cybernetics and has more to do with fictional notions of biology combined with electronic engineering, with some kind of advanced feedback. This relationship does exist but is still in development. (See below.)Cybernetics is really a centuries old interdisciplinary study of regulatory systems connecting fields as diverse as psychology, electrical engineering and economics. Research into cybernetics principally seeks to understand the processes and goals of a system (whether biological, mechanical or digital, for example) in order to utilise that process or just utilise it more efficiently. The American Society For Cybernetics[2] describe it as "Cybernetics is the study of systems and processes that interact with themselves and produce themselves from themselves." In the U.K., The Cybernetics Society[3] uses an image from a mandelbrot set (a mathematical expression which when allowed to iterate indefinitely, generates a fractal pattern of ever increasing complexity) as part of their website banner. For most people, to say that cybernetics is all about a system of communication and control is enough. An early example of cybernetics was a water clock developed by an ancient Egyptian mechanician called Ktesibios. His clock consisted of a water source to power the mechanism of the clock and a plug-type regulator to ensure that enough water - no more, no less, was available to power the clock. The device needed no human intervention or supervision to operate and so is an example of a self-regulating cybernetic system. Systems such as this one are ubiquitous today. A similar system to Ktesibios's is used in modern flush toilets, for example. For this essay I'll be looking at bionics. The 'cyborg' stuff. Not because it makes for sensational press about super-soldiers and Frankenstein monsters but because bionics is already here with us in the form of humanitarian medical aids. And because one way or another, readily available and reliable bionics will have a profound impact on society at large. Bionic Powers We're all familiar with the use of aids such as eyeglasses and hearing aids to improve our lives by enhancing our senses or overcoming the shortcomings of failing bodies but these are strictly temporary measures and in any case they're useless in the face of really serious body problems like heart disease and paraplegia. For this reason, medical research into bionics (as in; artificially created electronic and mechanical body part replacements) has led to the development of artificial hearts and cochlear implants for the deaf, to name just two innovations. It's also hoped that in the near future, artificial eyes and more efficient internal organs will become available. Technically, people implanted with (or surgically adapted to) these bionic aids are cyborgs but as explained below, this is just a title. Any inference of superpowers or glowing red eyes just implies that the reader watches a lot of bad TV.[4] Cybernetic Organs So while not as interesting sounding perhaps as 'Robotically Enhanced Cyber-Babes' [5], research in bionics has already provided several examples of mundane down-to-earth benefits. In a world where the extraordinary becomes commonplace in time and dazzling new innovations tend to fade into the background noise of utilitarian ubiquity, robotic cybernetics will have a greater role in providing spare parts for a growing, ageing population. Internal medical monitors, joint replacements and stronger internal organs for example, as they already do in the case of pacemakers. Although biological solutions to these problems also exist, there is still the issue of getting enough donated body parts to supply the demand that's already there. Artificial body parts can be manufactured and stored with relative ease. They don't suffer from disease or ageing and they can be upgraded. Worries about the human body rejecting them are less of a concern since the problem of human tissue rejecting the ceramics and metals of implants is much less of a problem compared to rejection of a living body part. Rejection is even less of an issue where neural implants are inserted to control externally fitted implants and prostheses.[6] The rise of research into robotic cybernetic augmentations began around 30 years ago and developed along with the rise in computer power. Most children and adults are probably familiar with cybernetics in the form of a robotic body augmentation (or even body replacement) in science-fiction. Cybernetics in fiction can often involve replacing an entire body except half a face/chest with mechanical parts and can go as advanced as having a lone brain reside inside a computer, whereas cybernetics in real life reaches its peak at interactive prosthetic limbs. Usually these are portrayed as visible or significant changes to the body in question (Star Trek's Borg and their many robot bits, etc.) and raise issues of self-image in the viewer. The cybernetic addition is often portrayed as a disfigurement akin to an amputee's hook hand or as a power enhancement, like Steve Austin's bionics. In which latter case, the cybernetics tend to be as cosmetically enhancing as possible as well, if not simply invisible. Who other than a Star Wars fan would remember that Luke Skywalker's hand runs on batteries now? This particular cliché mirrors the common perception of cybernetic enhancements many people harbour. Obvious addons are a flaw, and like a scar or beady eyes or jet black hair, they're seen as resulting from flaws in a person's character. Clearly there's a need here for intelligence enhancement in popular culture. Still, people are already vain enough about wearing mere eyeglasses simply because they feel it betrays a bodily weakness and as anyone handicapped by an illness or accident will admit, like it or not, you become part of another social class when you need to use a wheelchair. Of course, needing to have a robotic replacement leg and and choosing to have it are two separate things. Whatever the effect on social style, it's probable that a stronger and subtler effect in social status will shape the public's actual desire for artificial cybernetic enhancements. Social rejection caused by artificial cybernetic implants will be as important to people as tissue rejection. Artificial prosthetics have come a long way from showroom dummy hands and legs[7] with developments in engineering and materials enabling people to compete in athletic sports and as a side-effect, lessen any stigma towards their situation. Claudia Mitchell - Cyborg More advanced robotic limbs are becoming increasingly more available and sophisticated. In 2008 Claudia Mitchell, a former U.S. Marine had a robotic left arm fitted to her shoulder to replace her original arm which she had lost in a motorbike accident[8]. Mitchell's original arm's nerve endings were rerouted to skin on her chest and the new arm is controlled by thought impulses sent to those nerve endings being detected by sensors in the arm. Mitchell was quoted as saying: “I just think about moving my hand and elbow, and they move. I think, ‘I want my hand open’ and it happens. My original prosthesis wasn’t worth wearing - this one is.” While the arm isn't actually connected directly to her nervous system, her thoughts still operate the arm in much the same way as her original living arm. Which leaves room for potential future upgrades, if nothing else. As a sidenote to this incident, media coverage of the event was entirely positive and (mostly) avoided making weak jokes about 'cyborgs' and 'cyber-women'. It would be difficult to state that this was a freak medical event, and even more difficult put a negative slant on something so blatantly beneficial to amputees everywhere. An encouraging development as much as the advances in medical technology that let it happen in the first place. Since then, development into cybernetic artificial prostheses has continued. This is partially due to advances in computer technology but also as a result of the increased need to provide prosthetic replacements for military amputees. Particularly in America. Dean Kamen Operation Iraqi Freedom produced 1214 amputation injuries by 2008, according to the United States Department Of Defence[9] In the same year, DARPA, a research branch of the U.S. Department Of Defence contracted a company called DEKA[10] to work on a brain-controlled prosthetic limb called the 'Luke Arm'[11] (a name which speaks volumes about the influence of popular media on cybernetics funding.). The company is owned by Dean Kamen[12], an American engineer and inventor who is probably best known for developing The Segway[13] and The iBot Mobile Powered Wheelchair[14] (which at time of writing is unfortunately too expensive for almost all the people who really need it.). He's also a good example of the cultural mainstreaming that robotic cybernetics is undergoing. Kamen's products are futuristic without being strange and designed for socially responsible projects without appearing to be sanctimonious or pursuing a straightforwardly corporate marketing agenda.
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