Cyborg Anthropologist talks about the new generation of Homo Sapiens.
We’ve made it to the year 2011 and it’s fair to think “so, where are the cyborgs?”. If you think closer and try connecting the dots of human evolution with the greatest inventions of all time, it won’t be hard to realize that over the years we’ve made a huge leap from what we were thousands of years ago to what we have become now. This has been possible because of the existence of technology since the primitive times.
The traditional definition of a Cyborg is “an organism to which exogen.us components have been added for the purpose of adapting to new environments”. Our consistent reliance on external brains a.k.a the machines have helped us communicate, remember and lead second lives successfully. So by definition, we are all Cyborgs.
Amber Case, a Cyborg Anthropologist talked about us being Cyborgs and now being a new species of Homo Sapiens:
So let’s look at the concept of traditional anthropology. Somebody goes to another country, says, “How fascinating these people are, how interesting their tools are, how curi.us their culture is.” And then they write a paper, and maybe a few other anthropologists read it, and we think it’s very exotic. Well, what’s happening is that we’ve suddenly found a new species. I, as a cyborg anthropologist, have suddenly said, “Oh, wow. Now suddenly we’re a new form of homo sapiens. And look at these fascinating cultures. And look at these curi.us rituals that everybody’s doing around this technology. They’re clicking on things and staring at screens.”
We are constantly evolving with technologies like bionic lenses, communication devices, development of superior weapons and what not. It’s exciting and scary while thinking for how long will the advancement of technology continue to feed us with convenience or maybe someday, feed on us.
