The concept proposed by Ihde (2004) refers to the unpredictable uses of technology different from the originally intended ones. This is one of the difficulties to foresee technological consequences, and it undermines the long-term extrapolation of concrete case studies.
Published in Chapter:
Effects of Human-Machine Integration on the Construction of Identity
Francesc Ballesté (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain) and Carme Torras (Institut de Robòtica i Informàtica Industrial, CSIC-UPC, Spain)
Copyright: © 2013
|Pages: 18
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-2211-1.ch030
Abstract
Recent developments in social robotics, intelligent prosthetics, brain-computer interfaces, and implants pose new questions as to the effects of technology on identity, society, and the future of humankind. The authors’ standpoint is that such effects cannot be studied separately from their social/cultural context, and thus, this chapter begins by reviewing the existing approaches to the social construction of reality, placing special emphasis on language and its limitations to describe the future. Then, it focuses on the body as the place where the human-machine integration occurs, and describes four levels at which the notion of cyborg has been analyzed in anthropological studies: symbolic, physical, as a permeable layer between nature and culture, and as an intermediate step towards a higher-order existence. The chapter ends up with a word of caution in relation to technological determinism stemming from STS (Science and Technology Studies), as well as the need to establish Relevant Social Groups (RSG) with well-founded criteria that join scientific and sociological academics under a multidisciplinary approach.