Cyborg Ethics

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

This course will look at several issues in philosophy, medical ethics, and disability studies by considering the figure of the cyborg or cybernetic organism. Topics will be introduced by reference to film and television. We’ll ask, for instance: Can a person become a piece of software, as the show Upload would have us imagine? Would that be a good thing? Do the replicants in Blade Runner have morally important interests, or only appear to? Is Luke Skywalker’s cybernetic arm any more a part of his body than his lightsaber? What about a real-life prosthesis, a pacemaker, or even a wheelchair? Should we treat these as part of the body too? Does technology only extend the body in unusual cases, like these, or are all of us, with our laptops and smartwatches and smartphones, ‘everyday cyborgs’? Is this technological extension good, on balance, or should we see it through a Black Mirror? In addition to these questions and topics, the course will be, significantly, student-directed, with several sources and questions selected by the class as a whole.