Cybernetics

Personally cybernetics is basically the study of the interaction between us humans and machines. "The branch of science concerned with control systems in electronic and mechanical devices and the extent to which useful comparisons can be made between manmade and biological systems". (Dictionary.com, 2014). 

It has some close relation to the ideology of transhumanism as although transhumanism is human enhancement, this does not mean to say that goals cannot be carried out either way. Specifically according to Bostrom, Transhumanism " promotes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding and evaluating the opportunities for enhancing the human condition and the human organism opened up by the advancement of technology."(Bostrom, 2014). 

Automatic cybernetic systems are programmed to be able to control systems that they are assigned to, "It maps the pathways of information by which systems may either be regulated from outside, or themselves from within. The science has led to the development of things like computers, automatic navigation systems for spacecraft and so-called "smart" weapons". 

- Figure 1: Cybernetics                                                                                                                                            (Asc- cybernetics.org, 2014)

Examples of automatic cybernetic systems are various kinds of automatic control devices in engineering (for 

example, an automatic pilot or a controller that maintains a constant temperature in a room). These systems can also be made to learn and with such can be programmed to give feedback on the data collected thereby learning to refine the job it does.

Kevin Warwick, professor of cybernetics at the University of Reading. Warwick’s RFID implant was used primarily for interacting with his environment. He can turn on lights, open doors, adjust heat, and access computers with a wave of his hand. "These sorts of experiments with implantation technology earned him the superhero-esque nickname “Captain Cyborg”. Warwick has numerous detractors who say his work is simply an attempt to garner publicity, Warwick believes that research with RFID 
implants could lead to future medical 
                                                                                  - Figure 2: Kevin Warwick
developments that would aid those with damage to their nervous systems." (Rfidgazette.org, 2007).


McLuhan's theory of the extension of man best helps to understand Warwick's extension of himself involving the implantation of an RFID chip to control a robot arm as it exemplifies the fact McLuhan makes when he combines Marxist theories of industrial alienation with Freudian theories of subconscious extensions. According to Freud, “With every tool (man) is perfecting his own organs, whether motor or sensory, or is removing the limits to their functioning." which to me with Warwick's implantation alerts the need for or the practice for us to evolve. 

  Warwick talks about possible future of healthcare as you will see in the video below:

- Figure 3:  Implants & Technology -- The Future of Healthcare? Kevin Warwick at TEDxWarwick

These indications inevitably all lead to one thing for humans. Evolution.

The main theorist associated with the term Evolution would be Charles Darwin as he was the theorist that pioneered the term. My interpretation of his approach to transhumans and cybernetics in relation to robotics and our programming of them:"This approach enables robots to adapt to upgrades by evolving new control systems on the fly." (tech, 2009). This quote almost exactly explains the type of technology enhancement that we have gone through in order to get where we our whereby machines are able to evolve on the fly which directly goes back to how ACS's operate and how they relay feedback to better their systems.