Natural-Born Cyborgs: Minds, Technologies, and the Future of Human Intelligence Book

Over the past year I found it quite challenging to peel off time to read. It's been exciting to get back to my one book a month pace (even though I missed it this go-round) with Andy Clark's Natural Born Cyborg.  

Natural-Born Cyborgs takes me back to prior reading such as "Collaborative Media" and my personal favorite Paul Dourish's "Where the Action Is". Clark's core thesis is that we - human's - are already Natural-Born Cyborgs and have been since the invention of written language.

To get there Clark resets expectations about what is a "Cyborg". First coined by Manfred Clynes, the term Cyborg was primarily focused on self-regulating systems such as pace makers to suit the future where human's explore new environments. Clark extends that to suggest that the core value of Cyborg technologies is not the degree to which they are embedded in our physical selves (thought experiment: does Google Glass make us any less cyborgs than if the technology were implanted directly in our eyes?); but instead the focus is on the degree of complexity and the transformative nature possible through the human-machine interface.

Next Clark focuses on where the human-machine interfaces are being stretched and bridged such as a man who has found a way to control a third-hand. Such research highlights the neural plasticity of our species - and finally explored this further by investigating the concept of telepresence and along with it the difference between chronos (actual time) and kairos (the perception of time). Similar ideas exist in the difference between physical place and the perception of place -- or our proprioception.

This journey begins to highlights to the modern day reader that the cell-phone has enabled us to realize the most advanced cybernetic capabilities of prior eras: real time access to information, a sense of information connectedness ' breaking news alerts on our phone, the sensation of being multiple places at once and our ability to remote control ' buzzing someone into our apartment from work.

All of this highlights and shifts the view of what it means to be Cyborg and most interestingly highlights a now that we're here ' what next?

As a technologist this eyeopening view provides a new lense to critique the role that technology could and should play in our lives. It's already changed my views about the value of wearables ' hint not the screen or Dick Tracy scenarios: \@MikalFM/apple-wa...

The book also helps me understand and form a richer point of view about the role of devices in my life as a human being. Ultimately this helps me understand how my needs, might differ from a person with disabilities or further a person who is homeless. For example for all the power a cell phone has in extending my human capability of having readily accessible information it fails in the richness of data input ' so while I started this post on my phone, I quickly felt stifled as if my thinking was blocked by technology that was present-at-hand as opposed to the feeling of ready-to-hand when seeking new information. This highlights, for me the importance of larger devices to students and professionals where thinking is involved. Not primarily for it's larger screen but instead for it's richer input.

I recommend this book for technology and philosophy enthusiasts and ultimately believe it's a trans-formative work that can change perspective about the role of technology in our lives. Similar to the way Creation (Steve Grand) inspired Jeff Bezos to rethink the role of services at Amazon:

> Bezos directed groups of engineers in brainstorming possible primitives. Storage, bandwidth, messaging, payments, and processing all made the list. In an informal way' as if the company didn't quite know the insight around primitives was an extraordinary one' Amazon then started building teams to develop the services described on that list.

> Stone, Brad (2013-10-15). The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon (p. 213). Little, Brown and Company. Kindle Edition.