The potential for techno-transcendence--论文代写范文精选

考虑今天的常见技术，细胞技术、电视、微波炉、冰箱和电脑。所有这些被视为有用的技术。都是通过信息技术授权。德雷斯指出,语言也越来越反映出社会的共生。下面的paper代写范文进行讲述。

Through the rapidly advancing technologies of Information Technology, society is now being faced with the very real possibility of the human cyborg. A cyborg is defined as a human being that is partly or entirely machine and thus dependent on a machine for existence. However, if this definition is used it can be said that the reality of the cyborg is already upon us. There are many people walking around with pacemakers installed, hearing aids, prosthetic limbs, never mind the individuals whose very life is maintained only because of machines, e.g. quadriplegics and patients on life-support machines. In the paradigm of cyborgs, the post-humanistic principle of techno-transcendence can be identified, the transcending of the limitations of the current human form through technology. 

Through the advances in biotechnology powered by Information Technology the true realization of the cyborg can be achieved. However, the creation of cyborgs has profound ethical and moral questions attached to it. Not taking into account the extremely pertinent arguments of dehumanizing mankind to unthinking machines, the introduction of cybernetics to the human form could have profound repercussions on identity and religion. According to Phahlamohlaka & Kroeze (2005: 416), ‘[t]his would have a serious effect on people’s self-identity as the “image of God”. Could technical improvement replace the dogma of sanctification? 

Could immortality via personality preservation replace resurrection?’ If one extends the paradigm of the cyborg out of its literal meaning and extend it to a more metaphorical context, one would be presented with a world full of cyborgs. Due to the saturation of technologies in society, individuals have become entirely dependant on machines to fulfill their existence. Consider the commonplace technologies of today: cellular technologies, televisions, microwaves, fridges and computers. All of these are seen as integral technologies that society cannot do without. All of them are empowered through Information Technologies of different complexities. Drees (2002: 602) states that language is also increasingly reflecting society’s growing symbiosis with technology. For example, people are often heard to say that they are ‘under stress’, need to‘let off steam’ or need to ‘shut down’. 

All of these expressions come from the realm of machinery and Information Technology. This causes Drees (2002: 602) to say that humanity may consider itself made in God’s image but increasingly refers to itself as being made in the image of machines. Society’s increased usage of the Internet has also opened up a range of possibilities for the implementation of the paradigm of the cyborg. If one considers an average user of the Internet, the user can be abstracted and considered an I/O device for this network of networks. All that the user provides are inputs that provoke some sort of processing, and following this, receive and internalize the delivered outputs. According to Dery (1996: 234), this type of situation is increasingly becoming a reality as more and more people plug into the Internet and spend increasing amounts of time on-line: ‘growing numbers spend their days in static observation mode, scrolling through screenfuls of data. 

Bit by digital bit, we are becoming alienated from our increasingly irrelevant bodies’. Images from the movie ‘The Matrix’ inevitably spring to mind when confronted with this imagery. However extreme the analogy used to illustrate the paradigms of the human cyborg, it is the authors’ opinion that it is a potential reality that is looming larger and larger. The potential uses of Information Technology are restricted only by the human imagination. The human imagination is potentially infinite, thus it must be concluded that the usages of Information Technology are potentially infinite. Information Technology therefore has the ability to permeate every aspect of our existence. We will become the metaphorical human cyborg, and through this complete saturation, the literal human cyborg becomes inevitable.

Information Technology not only poses ethical problems itself but also, as has been shown, has a major impact on the life-worlds upon which the evaluation of these ethical questions is based. Ayers (1999) states that this problem is compounded by the fact that ‘technology is advancing at a rate well beyond our human capacity to cope with the moral and ethical dilemmas associated with it’. As a result of the freedoms that are engendered by Information Technology, society has grayed the areas of what can be considered to be ethical behaviour and what cannot. These concerns regarding ethics are being illustrated poignantly by the abuse of freedoms that is occurring on the Internet. 

These activities are blatantly pushing the boundaries of moral and ethical behaviour and are threatening the protection and dignity of human life. Issues such as the following have arisen: What information and content can be considered unethical? Is it even possible for information to be ethical? Is it not less ethical to restrict freedoms in view of the abusive content on the Internet? What are the responsibilities of organizations and countries in relation to the Internet? Is control necessary and how much control should be used? Where does accountability lie? However, Lyon (1988: 149) states that technological thought often tends to skate over the debate of ethics due to the emphasis on logic and technological advancement. Information Technology has a major impact on the shaping of the individual’s life-world. 

Because the life-world of individuals is changed, their perceptions of what is right and what is wrong and thus their perception of truth is changed. This is compounded by the fact Information Technology also brings to the user a mass of additional information and potentially contradictory views. This further casts into doubt upon the veracity of previous claims to morals and ethics. As has been illustrated in the previous sections, Information Technology disrupts the traditional forms of culture and community as ways of being. 

To a large extent moral and ethical claims are based upon these social structures. If these social structures have been altered, or a new form of society has emerged, it stands to reason that the moral and ethical codes of a society should undergo the same transformation. Stahl (2002) states that most current thought regarding ethics is based on the assumption of ‘a sense of community based on reciprocal moral obligations that are largely secured through situated, embodied practices and institutions that are often overlapping and mutually inclusive’. Stahl (2002) argues that if these practices and institutions become virtualized, then a major reconsideration of the fundamental human categories needs to take place. In order for ethical and moral values to remain useful, they need to be redefined to take into consideration the information superhighways of the Internet, the potentially infiniteapplications and capabilities of Information Technology, and the new contexts of virtual existence.(paper代写)

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