Natural-Born Cyborg Ch.5 & 6

The first project in chapter 5 was named "Stelarc's Third Hand."  It's significance to our world is the "cyborg" becoming more and more popular. The hand itself seems robust and large, protruding out from Stelarc's right arm. Although it seemed large and heavy, the third hand is fluently integrated to the system; the human body. The interface was that of the human body "exploring complex space of possible relations between body, machine, self, and agency." "Stelarc is probably the most thoughtful, careful, and farsighted practitioner of cyber performance art alive today.

These ideas become more useful and adherent when the idea of prosthetic additions to the human body. To surprise, Stelarc’s third hand was function able by attaching electrodes to muscle sites and learning which specific thoughts and actions to create movement in the prosthetic. The sites for Stelarc’s arm were the abdomen and lower thigh, rather odd it may seem for an “arm” to receive movement.

Mind Control was a large part of the idea that prosthetics can be incorporated in many handicapped peoples to relieve them of specific duties and tasks that they previously could not perform. Deeper into the same thought, the military and research centers are trying to develop the “cognitive cockpit”, an airplane cockpit in which several reception centers are connected to sensory devices that keep track of the pilots heart rate among many other statistics and informational aspects. The ideas here are very important as to provide autopilot for a pilot that might loose consciousness or any other physical disorder.

Camera sensors are being used and researched upon for blind people.  Special glasses are connected to a fanny-pack computer that sends special messages to receivers to determine speed or depth of an environment.  These receivers are attached to the brain by somewhat complicated process of implanting the wires into the brain and connecting all of the components.

Chapter 6 was mainly about the collaboration of the Internet and “collaborative filtering” also known as filtering. By searching and buying products online via Amazon for example, the database records your habitual buying habits and recognizes certain and specific brands as well as other products that are much alike and similar to the product being purchased. As this record happens, other products are suggested to the client, which relates to others that have bought some of the similar products you have purchased.

With all of the prosthetics these days coming into the medical field, many of these cybernetic devices are being researched on for precision working ability and knowledge of the relatedness our brain has with our bodies. The book supposes that soon our human beings with depend on self-knowledge houses keeping track of your everyday life and lifestyles. Medications and food would have inventories and orders would be placed upon consumption through computer counting systems and there would be limited need for shopping for groceries if your refrigerator did if for you.