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| The Cyborg (Fe)Man/ual |
| Purpose Perhaps the most conversation-generating topic of all was that of "purpose." Ivy noted, some time into our conversation, that we should have started here. Gaia was very keen on it having a particular purpose -- to make the world a better place by giving it an actual purpose (such as being dedicated to recycling and reducing waste). We asked a lot of questions about this: First, should it have a purpose or should it choose its own? What does it mean to give the cyborg a purpose? How does this intersect with our questions about autonomy etc. above? Is it worth dedicating resources to creating a cyborg that didn't have a purpose that we gave it? Moreover, what if it doesn't end up doing what we want it to do? Or what if there is a byproduct that we did not expect? Megan said that it's important to look at its purpose as something that points out or takes into account the flaws in our society but doesn't necessarily fix them. Ivy responded: "I think it should have ends." Megan, in turn, said; but that raises the question why do you have a child? do you raise it to be your peon? If we are all already cyborgs, what does this say about our "purpose?" Someone else said: Its purpose may simply be to love. Overall, we are asking our cyborg makers to think about purpose and not assume that purpose is simply occupation. Also if we are going to endow it with a sense of self or personhood, that has to necessarily complicate purpose. Purpose cannot be totalizing. Second, we asked: will it be produced as a product in a capitalist system? This was Gwen's major concern. If so, what are the implications for the cyborg's autonomy because of the concerns of profitability? I.e. will its creators have control over the "purpose" of a sentient being? Is this slavery? Someone asked: if the cyborg is created on the open-source model, is open to all people, and it is sentient, how creepy is that? Another option would be to give the cyborg ownership of itself. People came up with examples from Star Trek: The Next Generation, Bicentennial Man, The Truman Show, and Bladerunner, all of which problematized the relationship between humans and their sentient creations. We also thought about the connections between this question and cloning, the debates over who owns human embryos, about stem cell research, and the ability to patent various genetic information. And someone noted that this has resonances with the history of slavery in the US. In short, We want to ask the future cyborg makers to note that ownership of a sentient being is not an uncomplicated situation. This led to a series of pessimistic comments: Megan said: I seriously doubt that the people who have the financial means to create the cyborg will be the type of people who would ask these questions, and noted that people who made the atom bomb didn't give it a terrific amount of thought (though someone noted that Einstein was opposed to the bomb). Gaia noted that people do have babies every day and they don't think about these questions. And someone pointed out in response: That's why we're making the (Fe)Man/ual. There was so much more to talk about. Some of the questions we had, but didn't have the time to take on included: We asked, whether it has or doesn't have a "purpose," what will its abilities be? Will it be more or less able than humans? if so, in what domains? (Can it cure AIDS, fly, read minds?) If it desires, what is the relationship of its desire to its purpose? Can it change or challenge its purpose if it gets one/has one? If it is owned, can it challenge that? Does it stay owned or will it be liberated? Whether or not it has a purpose, what does success look like? What are the criteria for "success?" What constraints does it have on its abilities to fulfill its purpose, especially if those fulfillments are contradictory to the desires, goals it evolves itself? What are the ethics of creating an autonomous, "purposeless" being if they require resources that could be committed elsewhere (e.g. to ending human huger, poverty etc.)? In the end we decided: Whoever takes on this cyborg has a lot on their hands... |
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