Embodiment and everyday cyborgs INSCRIPTIONS Series editors Des Fitzgerald and Amy Hinterberger Editorial advisory board Vivette García Deister, National Autonomous University of Mexico John Gardner, Monash University, Australia Maja Horst, Technical University of Denmark Robert Kirk, Manchester, UK Stéphanie Loyd, Laval University, Canada Alice Mah, Warwick University, UK Deboleena Roy, Emory University, USA Hallam Stevens, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Niki Vermeulen, Edinburgh, UK Megan Warin, Adelaide University, Australia Malte Ziewitz, Cornell University, USA Since the very earliest studies of scientific communities, we have known that texts and worlds are bound together. One of the most important ways to stabilise, organise and grow a laboratory, a group of scholars, even an entire intellectual community, is to write things down. As for science, so for the social studies of science: Inscriptions is a space for writing, recording and inscribing the most exciting current work in sociological and anthropological – and any related – studies of science. The series foregrounds theoretically innovative and empirically rich interdisciplinary work that is emerging in the UK and internationally. It is self- consciously hospitable in terms of its approach to discipline (all areas of social sciences are considered), topic (we are interested in all scientific objects, including biomedical objects) and scale (books will include both fine- grained case studies and broad accounts of scientific cultures). For readers, the series signals a new generation of scholarship captured in monograph form – tracking and analysing how science moves through our societies, cultures and lives. Employing innovative methodologies for investigating changing worlds is home to compelling new accounts of how science, technology, biomedicine and the environment translate and transform our social lives. Previously published titles Trust in the system: Research ethics committees and the regulation of biomedical research Adam Hedgecoe Personalised cancer medicine: Future crafting in the genomic era Anne Kerr et al. Embodiment and everyday cyborgs Technologies that alter subjectivity Gill Haddow Manchester University Press Copyright © Gill Haddow 2021 The right of Gill Haddow to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. This electronic version has been made available under a Creative Commons (CC- BY- NC- ND) licence, thanks to the support of the Wellcome Trust, which permits non- commercial use, distribution and reproduction provided the author(s) and Manchester University Press are fully cited and no modifications or adaptations are made. Details of the licence can be viewed at https:// creativecommons.org/ licenses/ by- nc- nd/ 4.0 Published by Manchester University Press Altrincham Street, Manchester M1 7JA www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 1 5261 1418 1 hardback First published 2021 The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for any external or third- party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Typeset by Newgen Publishing UK For David, Paige and Robyn. Contents List of tables page viii Acknowledgements ix Introduction: Animal, mechanical and me: Technologies that alter subjectivity 1 1 Ambiguous embodiment and organ transplantation 24 2 Choosing between animal, mechanical and me? 54 3 Reclaiming the cyborg 82 4 Everyday cyborgs and the love- hate cybernetic relationship 115 Conclusion: Towards a future of techno- organic hybridity 155 References 170 Index 189 Tables 2.1 How would you most want the organ replaced? page 67 3.1 National ICD Registry (2006– 2009): demographics, ICD indication 100 3.2 Arrhythmia logbook report 110 4.1 Demographics of everyday cyborgs 120 Acknowledgements There is a huge number of people that I owe equally huge debts of thanks to – in fact way too many to mention but I am going to try. My apologies to anyone that I have overlooked (in the faint hope that there is no one I have overlooked). Back when I started writing I had two book buddies – Steve Kemp and Jane Calvert – whose input and thoughts were invaluable. Fast- forward and the most recent feedback was at the STIS Reading group where Morgan Currie, Miguel Garcia Sancho Sanchez, Michael Barany, Rob Smith, Rachel Simpson and Vassilis Galanos pushed me on to finish this book. I have been extremely fortunate to have the most amazing PhD students who all helped: Sara Bea, Fiona Coyle, Nathalie Dupin, Laura Donald, Leah Gilman, Vassilis Galanos, Anna Kuslits, Natalia Nïno, Janet Philp, Tirion Seymour, Anne Sorbie, Malissa Shaw, Rachel Simpson, Alison Wheatley and Laura Wigley and a final shout- out to José Goméz for reminding me about the Varela article! The wonderful world of Science, Technology and Innovation Studies is an important home to be in and accepting of individ- uals like me who do not necessarily wear STS clothing all the time. Without the unstinting and unwavering support of Cathy Lyall, a person I am lucky to have as a friend, I would not have had the self- belief to persevere with writing. She is ever practical and always kind and I owe her too much. A corridor conversation with Cate Heeney reminded me that Descartes is still a thing! Niki Vermeulen’s con- stant encouragement and generosity helped rehabilitate an interest in 3- D bioprinting and all things heart related. x Acknowledgements Margaret Acton and Géraldine Debard were fantastic – each offering different input (the former of cake and the latter vocals on ‘Electrifying Cyborg Heart’). It was Gé with whom I talked through how ‘everyday cyborg’ as a term might work. I am so grateful to Margaret for her proofreading skills, making this book a much easier experience for those reading it. The index in this book bene- fited from the magical skills of Moyra Forrest to whom I am eter- nally grateful. During the writing of this book I was diagnosed with an auto- immune condition which made writing even more difficult than I had anticipated it would be. Then, of course, there is the impact that COVID- 19 has had on everyone. Isabel Fletcher was a fan- tastic colleague and friend with a wicked sense of humour and was my fantastic wing commander when I was teaching. Without the support of my good friend and colleague, Fadhila Mazanderani, the journey would have been so much more difficult – I am truly fortunate to be able to work, study, argue, teach and sort out the plans for world domination with her. The research may never have seen the light of day until Tom Dark from Manchester University Press encouraged me to try and do this and then offered only patience and understanding when I missed several (all) deadlines. From the wider intellectual field beyond STIS I benefited from reading and conversing with the likes of Alex Faulkner and John Gardner, Nelly Oudshoorn and cyborg scholar Chris Hables Gray. I had read his Cyborg Handbook years before the idea for this book was ever brought into being; I never imagined that I would be invited to contribute a short story based on my research with the everyday cyborgs to the follow-up book called ‘Modified: Living as a Cyborg’ allowing me to experiment writing the fictional piece called ‘When I first saw Jesus, he was a Cyborg’. Muireann Quigley, through her enthusiastic support and belief in the con- cept of ‘everyday cyborgs’, helped me get to the final pages of this book and I am grateful to her that she is taking ‘everyday cyborgs’ onto a whole new register about the legal and ethical situations of cyborgisation. David Lawrence was a fun guy to be around and an intellectual ally. Klaus Hoëyer and his team in Copenhagen were incredibly generous, inviting me to explore with them mutual areas of interest and offering fantastic feedback which I benefited from enormously. I met Sam Taylor-Alexander, the first person to suggest xi Acknowledgements xi the term ‘everyday’, however Sam passed away during the writing of this book and the world is not the same place without him. My fellow cyborg studies scholar, the wonderful Nelly Oudshoorn, was encouraging and shared her work and research with me. Donna McCormack offered wonderful insights into an earlier version of Chapter 1 when I was struggling with the gendering of organs. I first started working with Shawn Harmon when we were both involved in the ESRC Innogen Centre in Edinburgh. Our partnership over the years since, whether it was art collaborations, writing journal articles or researching ‘smart’ technologies, was always stimulating and fun. This book wouldn’t be where it is without benefiting from our collaborations. Among others with whom I worked alongside in the Mason Institute at the University of Edinburgh, Graeme Laurie was an inspiration and I learned a huge amount of what it means to be an academic in terms of kindness, openness and generosity. His ability to be constructive, never destructive, and his willingness to consider the best of everyone was a constant source of inspiration and I owe him more than he realises. The same also applies to Professor Sarah Cunningham- Burley who allowed me to take some risks as her Research Fellow and continued to support me. Thank you to the help given by Tirion Seymour the research fellow on this project. If it hadn’t been for Neil Grubb, the project that this book was based upon, namely ‘Animal, Mechanical and Me: The Search for Replaceable Hearts’, would have missed one of the most critical aspects of actually doing the research as he enabled the contact with implantable cardiac defribillator (ICD) patients and their families.