{"id":845,"date":"2009-03-18T07:42:44","date_gmt":"2009-03-17T23:42:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nick.onetwenty.org\/?p=845"},"modified":"2009-03-18T07:46:37","modified_gmt":"2009-03-17T23:46:37","slug":"cybernetic-superorganisms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nick.onetwenty.org\/index.php\/2009\/03\/18\/cybernetic-superorganisms\/","title":{"rendered":"Cybernetic superorganisms"},"content":{"rendered":"

I woke up this morning to the thought that we’re already cyborgs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At a biological level, we’re all superorganisms<\/a> mostly comprising bacteria<\/a> due to the human body’s dependance on human flora<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I think it’s fairly easy to draw parallels to cybernetics at a higher practical level. There is a lot of technology<\/a> that is very much a part of who we are, and that makes us cyborgs: organisms that have enhanced abilities due to technology<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I don’t want to bother talking about obvious enhancement technology (eg. the bionic ear, hearing aids, glasses) because I think that there is a fair case for all people to be considered cyborgs based on more basic universal technology: clothing and language.<\/p>\n

Clothing is fairly universal and serves a number of purposes such as improving: our temperature control, our durability, and our personal appearance. It’s also obviously man-made (technology) due to it’s physicality.<\/p>\n

Language is less obvious; I’m not sure that most people would consider it “technology” at first. However, it is a construct that has been developed extensively over the course of human history.<\/p>\n

Complex communication and collaboration aren’t possible without language, so it greatly enhances our social abilities. Perhaps more importantly, it greatly enhances our memory (particularly when combined with music and writing).<\/p>\n

Fundamentally, language facilitates complex thought: What language do you think in?<\/em> We need language and it’s as much a part of who we are as our human flora and human body.<\/p>\n

We’re cybernetic superorganisms (and that sounds pretty cool to me!).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I woke up this morning to the thought that we’re already cyborgs. At a biological level, we’re all superorganisms mostly comprising bacteria due to the human body’s dependance on human flora. I think it’s fairly easy to draw parallels to cybernetics at a higher practical level. There is a lot of technology that is very … Continue reading “Cybernetic superorganisms”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paLsRH-dD","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nick.onetwenty.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nick.onetwenty.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nick.onetwenty.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nick.onetwenty.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nick.onetwenty.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=845"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/nick.onetwenty.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":856,"href":"https:\/\/nick.onetwenty.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845\/revisions\/856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nick.onetwenty.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nick.onetwenty.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nick.onetwenty.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}