International Encyclopedia of Communication Online

Extract

The term “cyborg” was coined in 1960 by Manfred Clynes and Nathan Kline as a portmanteau of Norbert Wiener's (1965) “cybernetics” with “organism.” A cybernetic organism (cyborg) is a biological creature – generally a human being – whose functioning has been enhanced through integration of mechanical, electrical, computational, or otherwise artificial components. Many concepts now associated with the cyborg pre-date the term's usage: antecedent or similar terms include robot, android, replicant, bionic human; stories of human–machine hybrids date back to myths such as Daedalus' artificial wings. Presentations of human–machine hybrids have frequently acted as tropes in social arguments and literary imaginations that attempt to conceive the proper roles, and deeper meaning, of humans themselves, of machines, of the moral worth of each, and of the interactions among them. Following the popularization of the term “cyborg,” especially in science fiction of the 1960s and 1970s, a number of further neologisms with the cyber-prefix developed that chiefly refer back to cyborgs, rather than directly to →  cybernetics. These include cyberpunk (fiction), →  cyberfeminism (theory), cyberspace (electronic networks), and cybersex (shared fantasy). Indeed, ad hoc usage of the prefix is common in journalism and popular writing. Organic capabilities enhanced in cyborgs vary in kind as well as ... log in or subscribe to read full text