Cyborgs, where to draw the line?

Of course for me the Terminator, a ruthless calculating killing machine, is what first comes to mind when someone mentions the term “cyborg.” For the older crowd this word might call up images of The Six Million Dollar Man; but whoever or whatever you first think of when you imagine a cyborg, hardly anyone would think of the cyborgs that already walk among us – those with insulin pumps to manage their diabetes, those with pacemakers to control their arrhythmias, or those with a prosthetic limb that replaces a lost natural one. Simply put a cyborg is any human that lives and functions through a symbiosis of biological and mechanical systems. The point is the concept of a cyborg is no longer a concept of science fiction, but rather a term that may soon be widely applicable in biotechnology and modern medicine – a concept that raises questions about how dependent should we allow ourselves to become on technology? Where should we draw the line? Do we only allow mechanical implants for therapeutic reasons or for non therapeutic enhancements as well?

The divergence between our science fiction concept of cyborgs and the real life cyborgs is diminishing. Blogs and forums across the net are beginning to discuss this close drawing arrival of real life more complex and mechanized cyborgs. One such blogger, Chris Harris, on the IEET website (Institute for Ethics and Emerging technologies) is particularly excited about the potential for “re-engineering our motivations with brain implants.” Harris is animated about how a company named Medtronic is conducting clinical trials to test the effectiveness of using “deep brain stimulation” (DBS) delivered through an implant to treat depression in 200 patients. This implant stimulates the “ventral striatum (part of the human reward circuit).” The implant named “Reclaim” is already FDA approved for the treatment of OCD in 4,000 patients. The DBS Reclaim produces also works for patients with OCD because the ventral striatum is additionally associated with the neural loops that regulate mood and anxiety.

Now at this point in the blog nothing of real interest has been established since although this DBS does offer a new way for people to artificially influence their moods, that precedent was set long ago through the use of mood altering Psychopharmacology (drugs). Where the real innovation arises from is the fact that simultaneously animal trials are being conducted, which use the same DBS that Reclaim generates, interacting with the “reward circuit,” in order to produce “rewarding brain stimulation” (RBS). Reclaim could be refitted to produce this same RBS in humans. This RBS could be harnessed “as an operant reinforcer (a pleasurable reward) to motivate difficult behaviors in people lacking self-discipline.” From here Harris excitedly proposes how this technique could be used to increase the drive to exercise, learn, study, and accomplish other tedious but beneficial tasks.

Harris briefly mentions that there are ethical issues that need to be “articulated and discussed,” well why don’t I start it off. Would such an implant that motivates and encourages specific actions and habits diminish autonomy? Isn’t there great potential for subversive use if a Reclaim was implanted against someone’s will – a veritable long term means of mind control? What type of precedent does that set for us, in that we’re starting to allow machines to start directly thinking for us? One of the main issues that are discussed in science fiction that is embodied in cyborg characters is the loss of free will through an overdependence on technology. This new technology seems to be sending us right down that path…

Anyway speaking personally, besides the fact that the Reclaim technology to create RBS is far from perfect, I don’t see myself or anyone else going through the severe trauma of brain surgery and receiving an implant to get a little more motivation in the gym and the classroom; so for the time being I don’t plan on seeing any terminators walking down the street for quite a while.

Website cited:
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/harris20090323/