Cyborgs: Biological Machines and Mechanical Lifeforms
A cyborg is a human with large proportions of their body, especially vital ones, replaced by or integrated with mechanical parts controlled by their nervous system alongside their organic parts. It is the union of machine and organism that makes it a cyborg rather than an individual with prosthetic parts — mechanical parts that operate independently of the body’s will often do not count. In terms of control and functionality, the cybernetic parts should perform similarly to their organic counterparts. This blurring of boundaries is explored in-depth by Haraway in her Cyborg Manifesto, where she discusses how the concept of cyborgs breaks down the romanticism and mystery of “living” bodies to just another system of chemical and physical processes without necessarily being lesser for it.
To me, the concern of a cyborg is to straddle two worlds and thrive in both. They exemplify the unity of the two without either side being less prominent for the fusion. They are machines, and they are human. In the worlds they live in, they must strive to prove every day that these things are not mutually exclusive, to hold onto their humanity while striving for greater things by means of technological advancement and vice versa. It feels analogous to the ways countless real-life humans grapple with their identities, especially mixed-race individuals and those who fall outside of the gender binary. As a mixed-race artist and scientist from the 3rd poorest state in the US at a prestigious technological university whose gender presentation varies day to day, I feel a connection to the way that cyborgs exist in two worlds and how they often struggle to gain full understanding and acceptance of all aspects of one’s identity.
To return to the idea of blurred boundaries between organic and mechanical systems, R.U.R. also explores this phenomenon through its “biological” robots. For one, the robots are humanoid-looking biological systems, and yet they’re very much machines (at least in the beginning). They are compared to the more traditional idea of inorganic machines often, and are even created in factories. Their living bodies, normally endowed with mysticism and spirituality by humans, are machinery. This rings familiar to Haraway’s exploration of cyborgs, whose organic parts are mechanical systems, and their inorganic parts extensions of a living body. Haraway’s cyborgs and R.U.R.’s robots both explore the blurry union of clumsily, naturally grown human and optimized, deliberately designed machine.