Ethics and Future Implications of Cyborgs

Abstract

With the rapid acceleration of technological development in society, humans are now able to perform tasks that were once deemed impossible; for example, being able to easily find and communicate with new people over the internet was made possible within just the last forty years. If society continues to progress at this rate, extreme changes will soon overtake humanity. For instance, the existence of cyborgs is becoming more plausible as time progresses; in fact, scientists have already developed the first human cyborg, Neil Harbisson, as well as cockroach cyborgs. Given historical occurrences, humanity has always had a tendency to act violently when two different groups first learned of the existence of the other.  The best way to prevent this problem concerning cyborgs is to anticipate the problems that arise with the birth of cyborgs and regulate them early on. However, the issue with developing laws for cyborgs as a general group is that cyborgs are too diverse, and certain laws may not be applicable or safe for every cyborg. In order to understand which populations of humans and non-humans specific laws should be applied to, there should first be a formal definition of the term “cyborg”. Then, the fact that there will be different classifications of cyborgs in the future must be recognized in order to establish cyborg classes. This way, equitable and just laws can be developed.