Open access
TECHNO-ORGANIC HYBRID AS A MAN OF THE FUTURE? FROM THE IDEA OF TRANSHUMANISM TO CYBORG ANTHROPOLOGY
Ewa M. WALEWSKA1
Anthropology – Psychology – Human Hybridization
Publication language: Polish
Journal article
Transformations No. 1-4 (72-75) 2012, Publication date: 25 October 2012
Abstract Innate biological features of our species have given us the possibility to produce a variety of tools which allow us to introduce numerous modifications within the human body and to expand artificially our mental and physical abilities. In order to do this, we use high-tech devices, such as prostheses, implants and different gadgets. Contemporary humans attach many devices to their own bodies every day, transforming themselves into a techno-organic hybrids. By radically changing their lives and bodies, humans are becoming masters of their own evolution. It is being pushed towards an idea of a post-human being, more and more often resembling a cyborg. The aim of the following article is to present the ideological basics of contemporary human transformation into a cyborg. It also focuses on the human body modifications and hi-tech devices which enhance our mental and physical abilities. This article also discusses a new section of anthropology – cyborg anthropology – and the great value of gadgets they seem to have nowadays.
Instytut Nauk o Kulturze, Wydział Filologiczny Uniwersytetu Śląskiego w Katowicach
E-mail: ewa_walewska@o2.pl