Personal Self-Improvement and Cyborg Technology: Therapy or Enhancement?
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Published
28-09-2020
Jesús Parra Sáez
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2301-2963
Abstract
From its beginnings, the equally known as “cybernetics” or “cyborg technology” has been used as a medical tool focused on the recovery of conventional human capabilities, such as hearing, seeing or walking. However, the development of biomedical technologies in the XXI century goes hand in hand with an interdisciplinary phenomenon whose objective goes beyond the use of these tools in a therapeutic sense, transhumanism. One of the main ambitions of this current of thought is to optimize the functioning of the human being above the merely natural levels. In this article, we will analyze the development of cyborg technology, and to what extent its use can go from therapy to enhancement in the coming years. To do this, we survey real cases in which cyborg technology has changed the lives of its subsidiaries, not only in a therapeutic sense but also in an optimizing one. Likewise, we examine the potential ethical, technical and legal issues derived from the non-therapeutic use of cybernetics. Finally, we conclude that scientific research in this kind of technology will be focused on enhancement and not therapy in the future, although this will require a reinterpretation of biomedical technologies.
How to Cite
Parra Sáez, J. (2020). Personal Self-Improvement and Cyborg Technology: Therapy or Enhancement?. Papeles De Identidad, 2020(2), papel 238. https://doi.org/10.1387/pceic.20879
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Keywords
transhumanism, cyborg technology, personal self-improvement, therapy, human enhancement
References
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Hofmann, B. (2017). Limits to human enhancement: nature, disease, therapy or betterment? BMC Medical Ethics, 18(56), 1-11.
Iribas, A. (2007). Color y experiencia. Lenguaje y arte. Arte, Individuo y Sociedad, 19, 179-206.
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Parra Sáez, J. (2019). Identidad y dignidad humanas versus mejora humana no-terapéutica. Contrastes. Revista Internacional de Filosofía, 24(2), 7-25.
Proust, J. (2011). Cognitive enhancement, human evolution and bioethics. Journal International de bioéthique, 23(3-4), 149-170.
Putrov, S., e Ivanova, G. (2018). Cyberculture: change and rehabilitation the body. Philosophy and Cosmology, 21, 116-122.
Rodríguez López, B. (2014). ¿Qué hay de positivo en la eugenesia positiva? Anuario de la Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 18, 141-170.
Roskies, A. (2015). Agency and intervention. Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 370(1677), 1-8.
Sandberg, A. (2013). Morphological freedom. Why we not just want it, but need it. En M. More y N. Vita-More (Eds.), The transhumanist reader: classical and contemporary essays on the sciencie, technology, and philosophy of the human future (pp. 56-64). Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
Savulescu, J., Foddy, B., y Clayton, M. (2004). Why we should allow performance enhancing drugs in sport. British Journal of Sport Medicine, 38(6), 666-670.
Sparrow, R. (2011). Liberalism and eugenics. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 89(3), 499-517.
Thayer, K. (2013). Beyond cyborg metapathography in Michael Chorost’s Rebuilt to world wide mind: introducing “morphos” as a rhetorical concept in cyborgography. Revista Teknokultura, 10(2), 415-449.
Torres, V., y Casas, M. (2019). Una aproximación bioética al término enhancement postulado por el transhumanismo. Metafísica y Persona, 11(21), 79-99.
Warwick, K. (2003). Cyborg morals, cyborg values, cyborg ethics. Ethics and Information Technology, 5, 131-137.
Warwick, K. (2014). The cyborg revolution. Nanoethics, 8(3), 263-273.
Wolbring, G. et al. (2015). Exploring discourse surrounding therapeutic enhancement of veterans and soldiers with injuries. Work, 50(1), 149-160.
Agar, N. (2014). Truly human enhancement. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Aguilar, T. (2016). Del híbrido griego al cyborg. Daimon. Revista Internacional de Filosofía, Suplemento 5, 177-186.
Annas, G., Andrews, L., e Isasi, R. (2002). Protecting the endangered human: toward an international treaty prohibiting cloning and inheritable alterations. American Journal of Law and Medicine, 28(2-3), 151-178.
Arnau Ripollés, M. (2017). Políticas eugenésicas y derechos reproductivos. Una mirada desde la bioética (feminista) de/desde la diversidad funcional. Filanderas. Revista Interdisciplinar de Estudios Feministas, 2, 29-51.
Barfield, W. (2019). The process of evolution, human enhancement technology, and cyborgs. Philosophies, 4(1), 1-14.
Benhamou, R. (1994). The artificial limb in preindustrial France. Technology and Culture, 35(4), 835-845.
Bostrom, N., y Sandberg, A. (2009). Cognitive enhancement: methods, ethics, regulatory challenges. Science and Engineering Ethics, 15(3), 311-341.
Callén, B., y Tirado, F. (2008). Sujeción y poder en el posthumanismo. Política y Sociedad, 45(3), 93-107.
Campos, O. et al. (2010). Bioethics and human enhancement: an interview with Julian Savulescu. Dilemata, 2(3), 15-25.
Chorost, M. (2005). Rebuilt: how becoming part computer made me more human. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Chorost, M. (2011). Worldwide mind: the coming integration of humanity, machines, and the internet. New York: Free Press.
Diéguez, A. (2017). Transhumanismo. La búsqueda tecnológica del mejoramiento humano. Barcelona: Herder.
Ferreira, M., Toboso, M., y Patricio, F. 2017). Metodología para el análisis de la accesibilidad tecnológica de las personas con discapacidad: Triangulación y elaboración de indicadores. Cuadernos de Gobierno y Administración Pública, 4(1), 59-87.
García Capilla, D. (2007). El nacimiento de la bioética. Madrid: Biblioteca Nueva.
Habermas, J. (2010). El futuro de la naturaleza humana. ¿Hacia una eugenesia liberal? Barcelona: Paidós.
Haraway, D. (1995). Ciencia, cyborgs y mujeres. La reinvención de la naturaleza. Madrid: Cátedra.
Harris, J. (2002). A response to Walter Glannon. Bioethics, 16(3), 284-291.
Hofmann, B. (2017). Limits to human enhancement: nature, disease, therapy or betterment? BMC Medical Ethics, 18(56), 1-11.
Iribas, A. (2007). Color y experiencia. Lenguaje y arte. Arte, Individuo y Sociedad, 19, 179-206.
Koval, S. (2011). Convergencias tecnológicas en la era de la integración hombre-máquina. Razón y palabra, 75, 1-17.
Kurzweil, R. (2012). La singularidad está cerca. Cuando los humanos transcendamos la biología. Berlín: Lola Books.
Lee, J. (2016). Cochlear implantation, enhancements, transhumanism and posthumanism: some human questions. Science and Engineering Ethics, 22(1), 67-92.
López Frías, F.J. (2014). Aclaraciones sobre la mejora humana. Daimon. Revista Internacional de Filosofía, 62, 7-23.
Martorell Campos, F. (2012). Al infierno los cuerpos: el transhumanismo y el giro postmoderno de la utopía. Thémata Revista de Filosofía, 46, 489-496.
Norton, K. (2007). A brief history of prosthetics. InMotion, 17(7), 11-13.
Ochsner, B., Spöhrer, M., y Stock, R. (2015). Human, non-human, and beyond: cochlear implants in socio-technological environments. NanoEthics, 9(3), 237-250.
Olarte, C., Pelegrín, J., y Reinares, E. (2015). Implantes para aumentar las capacidades innatas: integrados vs. apocalípticos. ¿Existe un nuevo mercado? Universia Bussines Review, 48, 86-117.
Parfit, D. (2004). Razones y personas. Madrid: Machado Libros.
Parra Sáez, J. (2019). Identidad y dignidad humanas versus mejora humana no-terapéutica. Contrastes. Revista Internacional de Filosofía, 24(2), 7-25.
Proust, J. (2011). Cognitive enhancement, human evolution and bioethics. Journal International de bioéthique, 23(3-4), 149-170.
Putrov, S., e Ivanova, G. (2018). Cyberculture: change and rehabilitation the body. Philosophy and Cosmology, 21, 116-122.
Rodríguez López, B. (2014). ¿Qué hay de positivo en la eugenesia positiva? Anuario de la Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 18, 141-170.
Roskies, A. (2015). Agency and intervention. Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 370(1677), 1-8.
Sandberg, A. (2013). Morphological freedom. Why we not just want it, but need it. En M. More y N. Vita-More (Eds.), The transhumanist reader: classical and contemporary essays on the sciencie, technology, and philosophy of the human future (pp. 56-64). Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
Savulescu, J., Foddy, B., y Clayton, M. (2004). Why we should allow performance enhancing drugs in sport. British Journal of Sport Medicine, 38(6), 666-670.
Sparrow, R. (2011). Liberalism and eugenics. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 89(3), 499-517.
Thayer, K. (2013). Beyond cyborg metapathography in Michael Chorost’s Rebuilt to world wide mind: introducing “morphos” as a rhetorical concept in cyborgography. Revista Teknokultura, 10(2), 415-449.
Torres, V., y Casas, M. (2019). Una aproximación bioética al término enhancement postulado por el transhumanismo. Metafísica y Persona, 11(21), 79-99.
Warwick, K. (2003). Cyborg morals, cyborg values, cyborg ethics. Ethics and Information Technology, 5, 131-137.
Warwick, K. (2014). The cyborg revolution. Nanoethics, 8(3), 263-273.
Wolbring, G. et al. (2015). Exploring discourse surrounding therapeutic enhancement of veterans and soldiers with injuries. Work, 50(1), 149-160.
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