Page - 12 - in Cyborg Mind - What Brain–Computer and Mind–Cyberspace Interfaces Mean for Cyberneuroethics

12 • Cyborg Mind raising questions about what human nature, identity and dignity actually mean. On this account, the cyborg expresses both the unease resulting from the perceived negative consequences of technology, and the sense of bewil- derment and wonder before the extent and dominance of human technologi- cal achievement. 8 One example of some of these anxieties may be considered when cyborgs are portrayed as being controlled by their technology to the detriment of their humanity and dignity. They are then presented as a kind of solitary monster, bringing disorder between the clear existing boundaries of what is human and what is machine. In fact, the Latin root of the word ‘monster’ is made up of monstrare (to show) or monere (to warn or give advice). As the American theologian Brian Edgar explains: ‘Cyborgs  – human-machines  – are thus seen, perhaps more intuitively than anything, as both dehumanising and a threat to the order of the world. The idea produces existential feelings of insecurity and disorder as though the structure and fabric of society was under threat.’9 As such, cyborgs may play a similar role to the human-nonhuman mytho- logical monsters of antiquity, such as the Chimera and the Minotaur, which were also considered as bringing disorder between the human and nonhuman boundaries. Because of this, these monsters were even considered dangerous and malign, necessitating destruction.10 But this kind of thinking did not stop in ancient history, since even during the Enlightenment, a number of scholars believed that the concept of mon- strosity served as a moral boundary-marker. As the British social scientist and theologian Elaine Graham indicates: ‘Monsters stand at the entrance of the unknown, acting as gatekeepers to the acceptable . . . the horror of mon- sters may be sufficient to deter their audience from encroaching upon their repellent territory.’11 More generally, she argues that monsters serve a special function, which is neither totally beyond the bounds of the human nor con- forming completely to the norms of humanity. In this way, they characterise but also subvert the boundary limits of humanity. She notes: Their otherness to the norm of the human, the natural and the moral, is as that which must be repressed in order to secure the boundaries of the same. Yet at the same time, by showing forth the fault-line of binary opposition  – between human/non-human, natural/unnatural, virtue/vice  – monsters bear the trace of difference that destabilizes the distinction.12 The American science and technology scholar Donna Haraway wrote an essay entitled A Cyborg Manifesto in 1983. This was prepared to encourage women to move the boundaries that appeared to be limiting their autonomy and as a response to the American politics of the day that explored and criticised traditional ideas about feminism. In this respect, Haraway explains This open access edition has been made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license thanks to the support of Knowledge Unlatched. Not for resale.