World Full of Cyborgs

Few centuries back, no one would predict how important and crucial role would technology play in human's life, whether it would be improved machines in factories or technological devices used on daily basis in people's lives. Now we all live in the world where every other person owns a cell phone, iPod or other great technological tools and they have become very much attached to them, no matter how much they try to deny it. But so far, no one necessarily have a need to change the situation. People are too comfortable to change the attitude. And why would they, everything is working out so far.

Andy Clark is a philosopher who's main interest is the philosophy of mind. He is an author of 'Natural Born Cyborgs', a book that was released in 2004, where he analyzes the influence of technology on people. He starts with a claim that people are 'natural born cyborgs'. During the last decades a lot of devices and machines have developed so well and become so adaptable that as humans, we became extremely attached to them, something that our predecessors might have never thought. Clark doesn't use the term 'cyborg' in a visual sense, as we obviously don't look like robots, but he uses it as the metaphor for people becoming these human-technology symbionts. When you look at people around you, most of them probably have earphones on, play games or send text messages on their phones or they read a book on Kindle.
Speaking of these devices, there are two kinds of technologies. One of them aren't often conventionally recognized as technological tools, Clark calls them 'transparent technologies'. They are transparent because they are the kind of tools that are practically invisible in use. We use them on daily basis and don't really think about the process or the way we are using them until someone makes us to do so. It could be a pen or the watches on our wrist. It's such a natural thing for us that we don't really consider for example how we hold that pen - we just take it and write things. These tools aren't functional by their own as well. In order to properly work, they need to be held rightly with your hand, and they also need a paper to write on. And on top of that, there's some neural mechanism inside you that enables you to do the whole process. It's a complex where all the parts are needed - none of these parts can give you this full service individually and neither when one of the parts are missing.
And then, there are opaque technologies, the kind of tools that we are very familiar with. These opaque devices are different in one fact, and that how surprising they can be. "It's the kind of technology that keeps tripping the user up, requires skills and capacities that do not come naturally to the biological organism, and thus remains the focus of attention even during a routine problem-solving activity," says Clark. Computer is something that we use daily and it is one of the things that people are so depended on. Here is an example of its opaqueness - when it out of the sudden restarts itself or even shuts down. Even though you are aware of its functions, the way it works, it is not in your power to prevent it from crashing. That's why in contrast to transparent tools, opaque technologies are unpredictable, therefore 'highly visible in use'. Although they kind of make people helpless, it is natural for humans to constantly try to get control over these devices.
Both opaque and transparent tools are incredibly advantageous for humans. They are an extra help for us that often can do some of the work for us when we are being too busy with other things. A cell phone is a great example of a tool that is opaque and transparent in different ways. It provides you the chance to call somebody, which is faster and easier for us than to, say, take a bus and come to their house - the time we would otherwise spend on searching for that person, we can now dedicate for other obligations. Cell phones nowadays besides having an alarm clock and calendar options also come with many useful applications, like a GPS map, which are all helpful and time saving as well. It is transparent because once we get used to its functions, we are not aware of these benefits and we take them for granted. People also save a lot of personal things and important information into their phones nowadays, which makes them very dependant on these devices. They practically become the part of their owners, which is risky as no machine can last forever and sooner or later they break down, and we can't exactly tell at what point. So one day, when you accidentally drop your phone on the pavement and it falls into pieces, you feel like part of you has broken down as well, and it was definitely unexpected.

[source]

It's quite hard to set the line between these two types of tools, in many cases they blend into one another. But comparing to the previous centuries, we have it much easier. The devices have become more adaptable and adjusted to humans. Due to the deficient development of the previous decades, which consisted of heavy-weight and eternally opaque machines that were a pickle even for skilled operators, using the trial-and-error approach wasn't very accessible. Being a cyborg is practically a social norm nowadays. I'm not sure whether it is good or not, what I do know is that human attachment on the advanced technology is only a beginning of something bigger that may come in the future - and I don't necessarily see it as a thing to be happy about.