Body and Enhancement Technology: An Introduction

In the 1970s US television series The Six Million Dollar Man, the lead character, Steve Austin, was rebuilt to be “better, stronger, and faster” with the help of the latest technology, after a near-fatal accident. With technological modifications, a man barely alive turned into a bionic man, a cyborg whose physical and cognitive capacities outperformed ordinary human beings. Can we call Steve a human, or a superhuman, or a transhuman? Although Steve’s story is just fiction, this special issue of EASTS intends to shine a spotlight on the issue his case raises: What happens when technology merges with the human body? One thing that was made clear in the TV show is that Steve’s technological interventions were done for therapeutic purposes, in the sense that lost bodily functions were replaced and restored. And yet at the same time those therapeutic interventions resulted in the enhancement of his capabilities.

This special issue brings together original scholarly articles whose research concerns the interrelationship of the body and technology. Human enhancement is about applying science and technology to expand our cognitive and physical capacities. Enhancement technologies point to interventions to improve human functions or characteristics beyond what is necessary to sustain health, blurring the boundaries between therapeutic and augmentative (Hogle 2005). Contributions to human enhancement come from developments in fields as diverse as surgery, sports medicine, stem cell research, gene therapy, pharmaceuticals, cybernetics, prosthetics, nanotechnology, and computer science and engineering. Enita A. Williams (2006) has pointed out that one major factor driving the development of enhancement technologies is the convergence of four research areas: nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, and cognitive science.

As this convergence technology advances, the intersection of human beings and the technological environment has grown increasingly diverse and complex. Advances in biotechnology and genetic technology have expanded the horizons of the human condition from birth to death; have presented new social, ethical, and regulatory challenges for humanity; and have begun to offer new hopes and expectations. These advanced technologies also pose ethical, legal, societal, and regulatory challenges that are situated in various cultural, historical, and political contexts. As to the unforeseen health risks and moral hazards of emergent biotechnologies, Phil Bereano once suggested that “we should read some more Greek tragedies. They show us that humans can’t always predict what the future is going to be, and that our arrogance and pride often lead to disasters” (quoted in BBC News 2000).

The capacity of the body can be enhanced with the aid of technologies, and how we define the “normal” human is contentious. The theme of enhancement challenges the boundaries of the normal and the natural. With the application of—and fusion with—technology, bodily functions can improve, be enhanced, or even outperform normal functions. The merging of technology with the body, in particular, blurs the distinctions between able-bodied, disabled, and enhanced. This is most prominent in prosthetics and bionic medicine, which challenge perceptions of what is normal, beautiful, and possible (Romney 2012). Aimee Mullins is an athlete, activist, and model who was born without fibulae and who had both legs amputated in infancy. Yet with the aid of advanced prosthetic engineering and design, Aimee has had over a dozen different prosthetic legs. For her, a prosthetic limb does not simply represent the need to replace or restore a loss; it stands as a symbol of her empowerment to create new identities by designing her own body (Mullins 2009). But it is not only that the boundary between normality and disability is being blurred; it is also that the distinction between disabled and enhanced is becoming fuzzy. And that is why the articles in this special issue of EASTS also explore topics associated with a wide range of emergent technologies. All the contributions, either directly or indirectly, take up this question so as to facilitate further discussion and research. A common theme running through these articles is the complication and problematization of the idea of enhancement in relation to aesthetics, genetics and musculature, cognitive enhancement, and social institutions. With their investigations into the intersections between body and technology, the contributors attempt to dissect the...