Kestrell

Kes: lots of interesting examples of neuroprosthetics in this article, and the journalist actually tries out one of the non-invasive devices; I'll also point out that the Dept. of Defense funds most of these projects, not jus the one mentioned in the article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/magazine/the-cyborg-in-us-all.html?_r=3&pagewanted=all

A friend pointed me to the ongoing conversation going on at Slate
"Debating Extreme Human Enhancement: Should We Use Nanotech, Genetics, Pharmaceuticals, and Augmentations To Go Above and Beyond Our Biology?"
http://www.slate.com/id/2303277/entry/2303278

I'm following it, but I'm finding it kind of...boring.

One reason is that very little in the conversation seems to have changed since I did piles of research for my thesis
http://www.blindbookworm.org/decloakingdisabilitycomplete.rtf
six years ago.

Probably the most interesting aspect to the conversation is that, similar to my thesis, science fiction media is being used --by a mainstream publication, no less-- to illustrate both sides of the argument.

Where the conversation totally fails for me is that it's both theoretical and talks about the tech as if it's in the future.

It's here and now, boys.

Anyone who adopts technologies to replace a missing or misfiring limb, sensory organ, or cognitive process,is perfectly aware of the pros and cons because we live with it every day.

We're not, as the "I don't want to be a cyborg" guy so pointedly refers to one of his fellow debaters, "an enthusiast." We're not passive adopters: we note the bugs and mod the designs constantly.

We're also not trying to enslave you into our cyborg revolution, thank you (and is it just me, or does anyone else find the title of that guy's book, _Liberal Eugenics_, to be something of an oxymoron? and he implies that the *cyborgs* are the ones like Daliks??)
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Alexx sent me this link
http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/spacesuit-interview-with-nicholas-de.html
to an interview with Nicholas de Monchaux, the author of _Spacesuit: Fashioning Apollo_, who manages to bring together ideas about cyborgs, fashion, and the built environment.

block quote start
de Monchaux: One of the things I find most fascinating about the idea of the spacesuit is that space is actually a very complex and subtle idea. On the
one hand, there is space as an environment outside of the earthly realm, which is inherently hostile to human occupation—and it was actually John Milton
who first coined the term space in that context.

On the other hand, you have the space of the architect—and the space of outer space is actually the opposite of the space of the architect, because it
is a space that humans cannot actually encounter without dying, and so must enter exclusively through a dependence on technological mediation.

Whether it’s the early French balloonists bringing capsules of breathable air with them or it’s the Mongolfier brothers trying to burn sheep dung to keep
their vital airs alive in the early days of ballooning, up to the present day, space is actually defined as an environment to which we cannot be suited—that
is to say, fit. Just like a business suit suits you to have a business meeting with a banker, a spacesuit suits you to enter this environment that is otherwise
inhospitable to human occupation.

From that—the idea of suiting—you also get to the idea of fashion. Of course, this notion of the suited astronaut is an iconic and heroic figure, but there
is actually some irony in that.

For instance, the word cyborg originated in the Apollo program, in a proposal by a psycho-pharmacologist and a cybernetic mathematician who conceived of
this notion that the body itself could be, in their words, reengineered for space. They regarded the prospect of taking an earthly atmosphere with you
into space, inside a capsule or a spacesuit, as very cumbersome and not befitting what they called the evolutionary progress of our triumphal entry into
the inhospitable realm of outer space. The idea of the cyborg, then, is the apotheosis of certain utopian and dystopian ideas about the body and its transformation
by technology, and it has its origins very much in the Apollo program.

But then the actual spacesuit—this 21-layered messy assemblage made by a bra company, using hand-stitched couture techniques—is kind of an anti-hero. It’s
much more embarrassing, of course—it’s made by people who make women’s underwear—but, then, it’s also much more urbane. It’s a complex, multilayered assemblage
that actually recapitulates the messy logic of our own bodies, rather than present us with the singular ideal of a cyborg or the hard, one-piece, military-industrial
suits against which the Playtex suit was always competing.
block quote end