CROSSING THE BORDER OF HUMANITY: CYBORGS IN ETHICS, LAW, AND ART

Online Conference: Crossing the Border of Humanity: Cyborgs in Ethics, Law, and Art

December 14–15, 2021

Medical University of Łódź, Poland & University of Warwick, Coventry, UK

The idea of being a cyborg is as alluring as it is be repulsive (at least to some). Literary and pop-cultural visions of becoming a cyborg and becoming a nation of cyborgs have seductively taken hold of our imagination, resulting in a prevalent, yet simplistic, image of a one-laser-eyed being with a robotic limb. This unanimous picture ostensibly evident what a cyborg is and what (s)he/it is not. We are, after all, by no means something like a Borg!

While the commonly adopted definition of a cyborg as a hybrid of the mechanical and the biological seems to leave no doubt about what a cyborg really is, it appears to be sparking controversies, rather than solving them today. In our world, where cyborgs walk among us, the maze of cyborg-issues is becoming ever more tangled and expands beyond the definitional dilemmas to reveal a burgeoning panoply of problems: the restorative/elective facet of cyborganization, an enhancing/curing aspect of becoming a cyborg, the legal status of cyborgs, and hesitations over whether one’s ‘cyborg’ status needs to be visible or can be invisible.

Our conference will challenge some of the notions we have developed about cyborgs, which are often underpinned by simplistic and simplifying dichotomies of various nature: philosophical, legal, and artistic. It will be an opportunity to articulate problems we have to face as humans, recurrent yet still though-provoking questions, and insights that help us build a platform for the cross-pollination of ideas.