Cyberpunk Fears - Today or Tomorrow?

Journal Entry No. 1

Cyberpunk literature and movies often deal with a future of dangerous possibilities. Is it ethical to create a robot that looks and acts just like a human? Would we be able to tell the difference? Either fortunately or unfortunately, the possibility of cyborgs walking next to us is switching from science fiction to reality very quickly.

A cyborg is the closest a robot can ever get to becoming a human. The difference between a cyborg and a regular robot is that a cyborg is both mechanical parts and organic parts. If you look at this from the mirrored side, the difference between a human and a cyborg is that the cyborg's “physiological functioning is aided by or dependent upon a mechanical or electronic device” (Source: Dictionary.com, http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cyborg).

Both of these kinds of cyborgs exist today. They are not everywhere yet, and are far from perfection, or perhaps even completion. Researchers at the University of Genova are using brain tissue from a sea lamprey (an animal similar to an eel) to control basic machine parts. The idea is to start with a simple brain (that of a sea lamprey), understand how the neurons can interact with robotic parts, and then move on to more complex brains (Source: aboutAI.net, http://www.aboutai.net/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabindex=1&tabid=2&article=aa061300a.htm). On the mirrored side of the cyborg's fast developing reality is the mechanical heart. Seven years ago, the world's first patient received a completely internal mechanical heart. Doctors and researchers and continuing the implement mechanical hearts only in the sickest of people (people who cannot even walk because of their weak hearts), because death is still a scary possibility (Source: BBC News, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1420737.stm). One problem they are facing is how the body rejects anything placed inside it: even donated organs get rejected, and the patient needs to take medication to actually decrease the strength of the immune system for as long as the patient lives. Even so, researchers are working together to create better mechanical hearts and better medication, so that one day, people really can depend on a mechanical device to help them survive. Even though some people might “depend” on their computers for everyday survival, I think the manufactured is the closest we have come to creating cyborgs out of humans.

It's exciting that people can one day rely on mechanical organs instead of donated ones – there is huge waiting list for patients who need any organ, and actually getting a working organ from a donor of the same blood type is very difficult, so being able to receive a manufactured one would be more than ideal. I think actual robots that can walk next to us would be for the best as well. Robots could do the tasks that humans do not want to do, and those humans can spend their time doing something more complicated or useful. Using organic parts (brains, in particular) to improve the mechanical functioning of robots is exciting. Even so, I fear the day that robots or cyborgs look or act too much like humans. Especially as outlined in Philip K. Dick's novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, it is a frightening aspect to not be able to tell the difference between a real human and a manufactured one. I really dislike the idea of another me, manufactured, walking around town.

Despite the dangers depicted in Dick's novel, I think it somewhat optimistic. If you were to ask yourself, “what is the difference between a manufactured cyborg and a human?” You might think you'd know right away. You would be somewhat correct. It is difficult to pinpoint what exactly would be the key difference (Philip K. Dick says it is empathy) between manufactured people and real people, but Dick also argues that humans will just know. Humanity is something that cannot be (at least perfectly) replicated. Humans have a soul. In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the characters are able to sense that something is different, off, about the androids. There is something that androids can never quite do: be human.