Scribd
Upload
27 views2 pages

Handout Cyborg FINAL

Cyborg Final exam

Uploaded by

Ike Nakayama
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
27 views2 pages

Handout Cyborg FINAL

Cyborg Final exam

Uploaded by

Ike Nakayama
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

Body centric antennas (BCAs) give the opportunity to help a lot of conditions that cause health problems in people.

BCAs can be used in pacemakers, or to monitor blood pressure or blood sugar, and to warn people about changes in
their condition. So these devices are potentially a considerable benefit.
There are possibilities that BCAs could be used to reduce physical disability. An antenna could send a signal from a
muscle or the brain and transmit it to a prosthetic limb, giving the person with a disability control over their movements.
This could even allow wheelchair-bound people to move about freely in an exoskeleton to support their bodies.
This means that the person with a disability would become a mixture of a human body and a machine when they were
moving around. The human would control the machine directly and gain abilities they did not have naturally. Fans of
science fiction would recognise this human/machine mix as a cyborg. Cyborg is a science fiction name for a being that
is part-organic and part-mechanical or technological.
There are numerous examples of the cyborg in science fiction films and literature.
 Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars films episodes 5 and 6 has a prosthetic hand that he controls.
 Geordi LaForge in Star Trek is blind, but a prosthetic device gives him better-than-perfect sight.
Medical technology is not far from actually achieving these sorts of devices. There are experiments with implants in the
brain or muscle to pick up signals and control a prosthetic. This would be a great benefit.
How far should people go with enhancing their bodies with technology? Luke and Geordi are ‘goodies’ who use their
cyborg part to the benefit of people. But that is not always so in science fiction.
The Cybermen in Dr Who stories were humans who had been ‘enhanced’ by putting their brain into a mechanical body.
There may be people with severe disabilities who would wish for a cyborg body.
Can we, and should we, be making health technology developments where a brain equipped with BCAs could control a
mechanical body?

Explore engineering careers at


www.tomorrowsengineers.org.uk
Ethical discussion tasks
Look at the questions below from different ethical standpoints. For example:
Utilitarian: the decision is based on what benefits most people, even if people’s rights are compromised.
Rights-based: no outcome that infringes the rights of any individual is acceptable.
Moral duty: there may be some people who will be adversely affected, but we have a moral duty to
society to minimise the effects.
Selfish: don’t care what happens, as long as I’m not adversely affected

1. Which of these body parts would it be ethical to control using a BCA implanted in a person with a
disability? Arm, leg, heart, ear (hearing implant).

2. What if the BCA controlled device was not for a person with a disability but to enable ‘super powers’ in
a person?
 Making an extra strong arm to lift heavy boxes.
 Making exoskeleton legs that could run very fast.
 Making a heart pump faster to gain athletic advantage.
 Having ‘super hearing’ to eavesdrop on what people were saying.

a) Would it be ethical if these technologically-advanced bodies were being used to enable


people
to work longer and harder, rather than for health reasons?
b) Would it be ethical if these prosthetic devices and technology were being used for
military purposes?
c) What if people other than the person with the prosthetic technology could control the
BCA input into these devices?

Explore engineering careers at


www.tomorrowsengineers.org.uk

You might also like