What are the relative epistemic merits of building prosthetic models versus building nonprosthetic models and simulations? I argue that prosthetic models provide a sufficient test of affordance validity, that is, of whether the target system affords mechanisms that can be commandeered by a prosthesis. In other respects, prosthetic models are epistemically on par with nonprosthetic models. I focus on prosthetics in neuroscience, but the results are general. The goal of understanding how brain mechanisms work under ecologically and (...) physiologically relevant conditions is narrow compared to the search for maker's knowledge about how the brain can be made to work for us. (shrink)

What makes something a part of my body, for moral purposes? Is the body defined naturalistically: by biological relations, or psychological relations, or some combination of the two? This paper approaches this question by considering a borderline case: the status of prostheses. I argue that extant accounts of the body fail to capture prostheses as genuine body parts. Nor, however, do they provide plausible grounds for excluding prostheses, without excluding some paradigm organic parts in the process. I conclude by suggesting (...) that embodiment is moralized all the way down: to be a body part is to be the sort of thing that ought to be protected, in a certain way, by social practices. (shrink)

In this article I discuss the prosthetic phenomenon during the First World War and Weimar Germany. As opposed to contemporary trends, with their inflationary use of the ‘prosthesis’, sometimes even hypothesizing ‘prostheticization’ as a paradigm, I seek to return the debate about the prosthesis to its historical concreteness. I describe the phenomenology of the prosthesis in three senses: first, in the statistical sense, in the form of a dramatic growth in the number of prostheses; second, in the visual sense, (...) in the form of a dramatic growth in the visibility of the prosthesis. Basing myself on the Heideggerian perception of the ‘phenomenon’, I seek to reveal an additional, third, aspect of the phenomenology of the prosthesis. It is my contention, against the background of the major catastrophe of the First World War and the frequent crises that afflicted Weimar Germany, but also in the light of additional contexts — technological, economic, cultural — that the prosthesis was increasingly perceived as a phenomenon, i.e. as something which appeared in a wide range of ways — as prosthesis, as tool (hammer, writing instrument), as an organic limb (hand, leg), and even as a paradigm (man as ‘prosthetic God’, man as ‘Dasein’). (shrink)

Neural prosthetics are systems or devices connected to the brain that can restore damaged or lost sensory, motor, and cognitive functions. This book explores the neuroscientific and philosophical implications of neural prosthetics.

I agree with Vaesen that it is a mistake to discard tool use as a hallmark of human cognition. I contend, nonetheless, that tools are not simply external markers of a distinctive human mental architecture. Rather, they actively and meaningfully participate in the process by which hominin brains and bodies make up their sapient minds.

Although there have been many efforts in the last decade to reconcile the humanities and the information sciences, they have not radically changed the research standards prevailing in most humanistic departments. Against all appearances, the abrupt opening to quantitative methods in the digital humanities still has the character of a minority avant-garde movement. The article looks at the scientometric tradition, largely forgotten by the humanities, which may prove to be another interface bringing the two academic cultures back together. An account (...) of scientometric networks highlights the advantages and disadvantages of this orientation. The broader implications regarding the use of visual networks in the humanities are framed by the category of prostheticity, which aims to encapsulate their ambivalent status as both substitutes and cognitive enhancers. (shrink)

This article critically examines the ways in which the trope of prosthesis has been used in recent theory to understand human-technology relationships. Analyzing the trope from a number of angles, including disability, factory labor practices, mass production, and marketing, the author scrutinizes ways in which technologies are simultaneously wounding and enabling in ways for which the prosthesis trope cannot account.

Computer-facilitated self-service technologies have become ubiquitous in today’s consumer-focused world. Yet, few human–computer interactions elicit such dramatically polarizing emotional reactions from users as those involving SSTs. ATMs, pay-at-the-pump gas stations, and self-scanning retail registers tend to produce both passionate supporters and critics. While negative comments often center on unpleasant personal user experiences, the actual “abuse” related to such systems is really much deeper and more complex. SSTs carry with them a number of potentially insidious consequences, including the exploitation of consumers (...) as uncompensated temporary workers; the sacrifice of our inherent humanity to delegate both skills and cognition to electronic helpers; and the enabling of a new type of posthuman consumer identity, where each transaction is completed by a cyborg entity constructed of the human on one side and the electronic mechanism on the other. As a result, we may ultimately lose the boundary between the human and the machine. (shrink)

Computer-facilitated self-service technologies have become ubiquitous in today’s consumer-focused world. Yet, few human–computer interactions elicit such dramatically polarizing emotional reactions from users as those involving SSTs. ATMs, pay-at-the-pump gas stations, and self-scanning retail registers tend to produce both passionate supporters and critics. While negative comments often center on unpleasant personal user experiences, the actual “abuse” related to such systems is really much deeper and more complex. SSTs carry with them a number of potentially insidious consequences, including the exploitation of consumers (...) as uncompensated temporary workers; the sacrifice of our inherent humanity to delegate both skills and cognition to electronic helpers; and the enabling of a new type of posthuman consumer identity, where each transaction is completed by a cyborg entity constructed of the human on one side and the electronic mechanism on the other. As a result, we may ultimately lose the boundary between the human and the machine. (shrink)

Computer-facilitated self-service technologies have become ubiquitous in today’s consumer-focused world. Yet, few human–computer interactions elicit such dramatically polarizing emotional reactions from users as those involving SSTs. ATMs, pay-at-the-pump gas stations, and self-scanning retail registers tend to produce both passionate supporters and critics. While negative comments often center on unpleasant personal user experiences, the actual “abuse” related to such systems is really much deeper and more complex. SSTs carry with them a number of potentially insidious consequences, including the exploitation of consumers (...) as uncompensated temporary workers; the sacrifice of our inherent humanity to delegate both skills and cognition to electronic helpers; and the enabling of a new type of posthuman consumer identity, where each transaction is completed by a cyborg entity constructed of the human on one side and the electronic mechanism on the other. As a result, we may ultimately lose the boundary between the human and the machine. (shrink)

Many philosophers have argued that prosthetic limbs are the subjects of some of the same rights as traditional body parts. This is a strong argument in favour of respecting the rights of users of prosthetics. I argue that all of the reasons to consider paradigm prosthetics the subjects of body-like rights apply to the relationship between some emotional support animals and their handlers. ESAs are integrated into the functioning of their handlers in ways that parallel the ways that paradigm (...) prosthetics are integrated into the functioning of their users. ESAs are also phenomenologically integrated into their handler’s lives in ways that parallel the phenomenological integration that prosthetic users experience. These parallels provide a strong reason to take the rights of ESA handlers much more seriously than we do now. I will highlight that the current treatment of ESA handlers presumes that they have no rights to ESAs at all. Even if ESAs are the subject of very minimal body-like rights, ESA handlers are having their rights violated. There are of course disanalogies between ESAs and paradigm prosthetics. Most notably, ESAs are alive and separate from their handlers. However, none of these disanalogies are relevant to the question of body-like rights. The differences between ESAs and paradigm prosthetics are in terms of what treatment is owed to them, not in terms of what rights their handlers and users should have. ESAs are not prosthetics, but they deserve some of the rights prosthetics do. (shrink)

The success of the London 2012 Paralympic Games not only revealed new public possibilities for the disabled, but also thrust the debates on the relationship between elite Paralympians and advanced prosthetic technology into the spotlight. One of the Paralympic stars, Oscar Pistorius, in particular became celebrated as ‘the Paralympian cyborg’. Also prominent has been Aimee Mullins, a former Paralympian, who became a globally successful fashion model by seeking to establish a new bodily aesthetic utilizing non-organic body parts. This article (...) examines how the modern discourse of prostheses has shifted from the made-up and camouflaged body to the empowered and exhibited body to create a new cultural sensitivity in terms of body image – prosthetic aesthetics. Prosthetic aesthetics oscillates between two polarized sensitivities: attractiveness/‘coolness’, which derive from the image of a perfect human-machine synthetic body, and from abjection/the uncanny, which is evoked by the actual materiality of the lived body incorporating a lifeless human-made body part. (shrink)

There are two concepts of sovereignty in Derrida’s work: the classical form that posits itself as absolute mastery, whether by means of surveillance, technology, or “truth”; and the more paradoxical, subversive form inspired by Nietzsche and Bataille that simultaneously inhabits and exceeds the control mechanisms imposed upon it. One of the questions that I will pursue throughout this essay is whether such a distinction is valid. As there is something immeasurable apropos of Derrida’s second concept, I will contend that any (...) distinction between it and the first concept is not only “undecidable” but ultimately impossible to make. (shrink)

There are two concepts of sovereignty in Derrida’s work: the classical form that posits itself as absolute mastery, whether by means of surveillance, technology, or “truth”; and the more paradoxical, subversive form inspired by Nietzsche and Bataille that simultaneously inhabits and exceeds the control mechanisms imposed upon it. One of the questions that I will pursue throughout this essay is whether such a distinction is valid. As there is something immeasurable apropos of Derrida’s second concept, I will contend that any (...) distinction between it and the first concept is not only “undecidable” but ultimately impossible to make. (shrink)

This article takes a clinical perspective on the phenomenon of addiction in order to open up wider questions of the posthuman. The author identifies two distinct drives, prosthesis and addiction itself. It is pointed out that both drives share a common distance from the mediation of language and address directly, without the support of fantasy, the real of the body. However, the two drives are distinct in that the prosthetic drive lends itself to social control whereas the addictive drive (...) constitutes a pathological limit to socialization. The final section of the article characterizes the various clinical responses to addiction as simultaneously political responses to the rise of the prosthetic drives in the context of late capitalism. (shrink)

Se realizó un estudio descriptivo para evaluar la influencia de la rehabilitación protésica en la calidad de vida de los pacientes desdentados totales tratados en las clínicas estomatológicas docentes "Ismael Clark Mascaró" y "La Vigía" en Camagüey, desde septiembre del 2009 a septiembre del 2013. El universo estuvo comprendido por 254 pacientes desdentados totales rehabilitados y una muestra de 43, a través de un muestreo probabilístico aleatorio. Se obtuvo un predominio del grupo de 50-69 años y el sexo femenino. Al (...) determinar los problemas mecánicos se apreció que los flancos sobreextendidos, seguido de las inserciones frénicas sin liberar y la presencia de puntos prematuros de contacto, fueron las principales dificultades encontradas en los pacientes portadores de prótesis totales. La rehabilitación influyó en la calidad de vida de estos pacientes. It was carried out a descriptive study with the objective to evaluate the influence of prosthetic rehabilitation in total toothless patients life quality treated in the teaching stomatological clinics ¨Ismael Clark Mascaró" and "La Vigía" in Camagüey, from September 2009 to September 2013, with a universe of study composed by 254 total toothless patients who were rehabilitated. The sample was of 43, through a random probabilistic sampling. There was a predominance of the female group aged from 50-69 years old, followed by the female group aged 70. While determining the mechanical problems it was appreciated that the flanks overextended, followed of phrenic insertions without being sustained and the presence of premature points of contact, and were the main difficulties found in the patient's carrier of total prostheses. Prosthetic rehabilitation influenced in the patients´ quality life. (shrink)

Introducción: la existencia de pacientes con prótesis totales que presentan problemas para desarrollar sus funciones puede tener diferentes causas, entre ellas el incumplimiento de las indicaciones médicas, y factores capaces de repercutir de forma directa sobre los pacientes, que pueden modificar su calidad de vida en relación con la rehabilitación protésica. Objetivo: Evaluar la influencia del incumplimiento de las indicaciones post rehabilitación protésica en la calidad de vida de los pacientes desdentados totales tratados en las Clínicas Estomatológicas Provincial Docente Ismael (...) Clark Mascaró y La Vigía durante el período de septiembre del 2009 a septiembre del 2013. Material y método: Se realizó un estudio descriptivo en un universo de 254 pacientes desdentados totales rehabilitados. A través de un muestreo probabilístico aleatorio se obtuvo una muestra de 43 pacientes. Resultados: El nivel de incumplimiento bajo se presentó principalmente en el grupo de 50-69 años, con un 50 % y el alto en el grupo de 70 años y más. Los elementos no cumplidos por los pacientes resultaron ser: método incorrecto de sostener las prótesis para realizar su higiene (46,5 %), uso permanente de las prótesis (30,2 %) e incorrecta frecuencia del cepillado de las prótesis (25,6 %). Conclusiones: Los mayores niveles de incumplimiento de las indicaciones de uso, cuidado e higiene de las prótesis totales se presentaron en el grupo de 70 años y más. La calidad de vida de los pacientes con rehabilitación protésica total está influenciada por el nivel de incumplimiento de las indicaciones de uso, cuidado e higiene de las prótesis. Introduction: the existence of patients with total dental prosthesis who present problems to develop their functions may have different causes, among them the unfulfillment of the medical instructions, as well as factors capable of influencing directly on the patients, that can modify their life quality with regards to the prostatic rehabilitation. Objective: to evaluate the influence of the unfulfillment of the prosthetic post-rehabilitation in the life quality of totally umpteenth patients treated at the Teaching Provincial Estomatological Clinics Ismael Clark Mascaró and La Vigía since September 2009 to September 2013. Material and method: it was carried out a descriptive study in a universe of 254 unteeth patients totaly rehabilitated. By means of probabilistic aleatory sampling it was obtained a sample of 43 patients. Results: the lowest level of unfulfillment was in patients between 50 and 69 years old, with a 50 % and the highest one was in patients older than 70 years old. The unfulfilled elements by these patients were : incorrect method of taking out the prothesis for hygiene (46,5 %), permanent use of the dental prothesis (30,2 %) and incorrect frequency for brushing the dental prothesis (25,6 %). Conclusions: the highest levels of unfulfillment of the medical instructions for using, taking care and hygiene of the dental prosthesis were presented in patients older than 70 years old. The life quality of patients with total prosthesic rehabilitation is influenced by the level of unfulfillment of the medical instructions for its use, taking care and hygiene of the prosthesis. (shrink)

Since the development of the first neural prosthesis, that is, the cochlear implant in 1957, neural prosthetics have been one of the highly promising, yet most challenging areas of medicine, while having become a clinically accepted form of invasiveness into the human body. Neural prosthetic devices, of which at least one part is inserted into the body, interact directly with the nervous system to restore or replace lost or damaged sensory, motor, or cognitive functions. This field is not homogenous (...) and encompasses a variety of technologies, which are in various stages of development. Some devices are well established in clinical practice and have become routine, such as cochlear implants. By comparison, other technologies are in experimental phases and still need to be further developed to achieve the desired results. (shrink)

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence systems has generated a means whereby assistive bionic prosthetics can become both more effective and practical for the patients who rely upon the use of such machines in their daily lives. However, de lege lata remains relatively unspoken as to the legal status of patients whose devices contain self-learning CIS that can interface directly with the peripheral nervous system. As a means to reconcile for this lack of legal foresight, this article approaches the topic (...) of CIS-nervous system interaction and the impacts it may have on the legal definition of “persons” under the law. While other literature of this nature centres upon notions of transhumanism or self-enhancement, the approach herein approached is designed to focus solely upon the legal nature of independent CIS actions when operating alongside human subjects. To this end, it is hoped that further discussion on the topic can be garnered outside of transhumanist discourse to expedite legal consideration for how these emerging relationships ought to be received by law-generating bodies internationally. (shrink)

This abstract presents a novel brain-computer interface (BCI) framework to control a prosthetic leg, for the rehabilitation of patients suffering from locomotive disorders, using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). fNIRS signals corresponding to walking intention and rest are used to initiate and stop the gait cycle and a nonlinear proportional derivative computed torque controller (PD-CTC) with gravity compensation is used to control torques of hip and knee joints for minimization of position error. The brain signals of walking intention and rest (...) tasks are acquired from primary motor cortex in the left hemisphere for nine subjects. After acquiring brain signals, in order to remove motion artifacts and physiological noises, the performance of six different filters i.e. Kalman, Wiener, Gaussian, hemodynamic response filter (hrf), Band-pass and finite impulse response, is evaluated. Afterwards, six different features are extracted from oxygenated hemoglobin signals and their different combinations were used for classification. The classification performance of five different classifiers i.e. artificial neural network, quadratic discriminant analysis, linear discriminant analysis (LDA), Naïve Bayes and support vector machine (SVM) is used. The classification accuracies obtained from SVM using hrf filter are significantly higher (p < 0.005) than the other combinations of classifier and filters. These accuracies are 77.5%, 72.5%, 68.3%, 74.2%, 73.3%, 80.8%, 65%, 76.7%, and 86.7% for all nine subjects. The control commands generated using classifier initiate and stop the gait cycle of the prosthetic leg whose knee and hip torques are controlled using PD-CTC to minimize position error. The proposed scheme can be effectively used for neurofeedback training and rehabilitation of lower limb amputation of paralyzed patients. (shrink)

In this article I examine the significance of the syringe in relation to everyday drug-taking practices, especially in regard to the constitution of gender identity and heterosexuality. Such an exploration of the syringe will be conducted via a review of empirical literature on drug-injecting practices. This investigation of the syringe is informed by contemporary social and cultural theory on objects. By considering the performativity of the syringe and the syringe-in-use I argue that the object of the syringe is key for (...) understanding risk and identity formation. Moreover, I also suggest while current analyses of IV drug use point to the dangerous practice of sharing as concerning individual behavior and social relations, such understandings overlook the significance of the syringe as constitutive of the self, sociality and power. (shrink)

Advances in prosthetic design should benefit people with limb difference. But empirical evidence demonstrates a lack of uptake of prosthetics among those with limb difference, including of advanced designs. Non-use is often framed as a problem of prosthetic design or a user’s response to prosthetics. Few studies investigate user experience and preferences, and those that do tend to address satisfaction or dissatisfaction with functional aspects of particular designs. This results in limited data to improve designs and, we argue, (...) this is pragmatically and ethically problematic. This paper presents results of a survey we conducted in 2017 with people with upper limb difference in Australia. The survey sought to further knowledge about preferences surrounding prosthetics and understanding of how preferences relate to user experience, perspective, and context. Survey responses demonstrated variety in the uptake, use and type of prosthetic—and that use of, preferences about, and impacts of prosthetics rely not just on design factors but on various contextual factors bearing on identity and social understandings of disability and prosthetic use. From these results, we argue that non-use of prosthetics could be usefully reframed as an issue of understanding how prosthetics can best support users’ autonomy. This supports the claim that there is a need to incorporate user engagement into design processes for prosthetic limbs, though further work is needed on methods for doing so. (shrink)

The invention of computer simulations used for practicing surgical maneuvers in a video game-like format has an ancestry in the artificial limbs of history and is reflected, grotesquely, in Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, “The Man That Was Used Up” (1850). The nineteenth century worked to ensure that the incomplete body did indeed retain a sense of self by creating prostheses to mimic corporeal wholeness. Our present-day technology seems intent on doing precisely the opposite, deliberately fragmenting the body and challenging (...) our understanding of the body and the prosthetic. (shrink)

It is within the context of a person’s lifestory, we argue, that the idea of wearing aprosthesis assumes place and meaning. Todevelop this argument, a brightly colored hookprosthesis for children is taken as a startingpoint for reflection. The prosthesis can beseen as fitting this person perfectly, when thebodily difference is understood as positivelyadding to this person’s identity. The choicefor the prosthesis is normative in a moralsense, in that it is grounded in a person’sfundamental convictions with respect to hisbeing and living. (...) This understanding of ‘howto live’ can best be grasped – as is suggested– in contrastive terms of ‘sameness’ and‘otherness’. Striving for conformity andsimilarity would do no justice to theexperiences and ideals of unique persons, andwould come at great cost. Moreover, society isnot benefited by persons who merely conform,who copy and imitate others, but by those whowillfully live up to their own unique standards. (shrink)

Do AI programs just make it quicker and easier for humans to do what they can do already, or can the range of do-able things be extended? This paper suggests that cognitively-oriented technology can make it possible for humans to construct and carry out mental operations, which were previously impossible. Probable constraints upon possible human mental operations are identified and the impact of cognitive technology upon them is evaluated. It is argued that information technology functions as a cognitive prosthetic (...) enhancing human intelligence and planning capabilities. Boundaries and constraints which Kant, Whorf, and many post-modernist theorists have seen as intrinsic to human cognition now cease to apply. (shrink)

In this book the main emphasis is twofold: on autonomous machine intelligence, and on mind uploading. This chapter shows that, while science fiction (SF) has depicted the extreme embrace of the “prosthetic impulse,” most notoriously in Star Trek's“Borg,” this is used as a warning of the potential Faustian consequences of such tendencies. The Star Trek franchise has also highlighted the converse, the Pinocchio syndrome, a reverse prosthetic impulse, most notably in the android Commander Data. Data is a sentient (...) android and a full member of the Enterprise starship crew in Star Trek: The Next Generation. The inverse of the Pinocchio syndrome, the prosthetic impulse, is arguably exemplified by Star Trek's Borg, who constitute a relentless inhuman tide that threatens to overwhelm every species violently, assimilating all individual beings into the Borg collective, stifling their lan vital and incorporating them as part of a hive mind, with an inexorable “insect mentality”. (shrink)

Sara Kolmes has argued that the human ‘handlers’ of emotional support animals should have the sorts of body-like rights to those animals that people with prosthetics have to their prosthetics. In support of this conclusion, she argues that ESAs both function and feel like prosthetics, and that the disanalogies between ESAs and prosthetics are irrelevant to whether humans can have body-like rights to their ESAs. In response, we argue that Ms Kolmes has failed to show that ESAs are body-like in (...) the ways that paradigmatic prostheses are and that, even if they were, these similarities would be outweighed by a crucial dissimilarity that she underestimates. (shrink)

In this paper, I consider the implications of representations of women with prosthetics in popular culture, specifically Heather Mills and Sarah Reinertsen. Using analyses from feminist and disability studies, I explore prosthetized bodies as docile bodies “fixed” to aesthetic and functional near-perfection. I then employ narratives emphasizing the complex corporeal experience of prosthetics to destabilize this seeming docility. I argue that “docile” readings are problematic and insufficient, building from faulty grounds of distinctions between “natural” and “technological,” and “therapy” and “enhancement.” (...) Finally, I posit a more complex, phenomenological epistemology from which to consider prosthetized bodies and to reground prosthetic interpretations. (shrink)

This commentary addresses an additional feature of biorobotic modeling: usefulness in prosthetic design. By implementing structurally and behaviorally accurate models as prosthetics, biologically accurate restoration can be approximated. This has potential to reestablish important peripheral elements of the sensorimotor control system, including limb biomechanics, proprioception, and vision. Examples given include musculoskeletal prosthetics and retinal implants.

This paper uses Maurice Blanchot’s image of the corpse as a trope by which to offer a unique quasi-material reading of the German Idealist notion of speculative suicide. And its method of interpretative retrieval, like these idealists, works to think the relevance of idealism today by affirming the spirit against the letter. The paradox of suicide—that we aspire to be witness to our own death—presents itself as a double, as interpreted in works of Fichte and Schelling. This double, the very (...) core of speculative aspiration, is essentially a temporal other whose prosthetic character suggests that the speculative power of spirit is simultaneously technological, and that the limit-condition of suicide be found not in an ethereal speculative unity but rather in the intractable materiality of our own corporeal remains. (shrink)

This paper uses Maurice Blanchot’s image of the corpse as a trope by which to offer a unique quasi-material reading of the German Idealist notion of speculative suicide. And its method of interpretative retrieval, like these idealists, works to think the relevance of idealism today by affirming the spirit against the letter. The paradox of suicide—that we aspire to be witness to our own death—presents itself as a double, as interpreted in works of Fichte and Schelling. This double, the very (...) core of speculative aspiration, is essentially a temporal other whose prosthetic character suggests that the speculative power of spirit is simultaneously technological, and that the limit-condition of suicide be found not in an ethereal speculative unity but rather in the intractable materiality of our own corporeal remains. (shrink)