"Cybernetic Ratrap"
Tedx 2022. Republicon.
Alright. I've five minutes to explain basic cybernetics and cybernetic ethics to you, the ordinary fan.
I hope you don't like rats. If you're in any way squeamish, nothing good is going to happen to this rat, so you should probably leave now if you don't think you can stand it.
Let start with what cybernetics is.
It's not this stuff here on my body. Or the ability to break engines in one punch. Or Major Kuanagi's sexy Leotard.
Cybernetics is the art of control, a self-piloting system. When an action, generates a response, which acts as feedback, to drive a correction. That's cybernetics. There's a lot more stuff in there, about how living animals respond to situations, life-mimicking technology and breaking engines in one punch, but right now, let's focus on the generally accepted pop-culture definition of cybernetics - technology integrated with biology, to achieve some benefit. That benefit could be anything we choose it to be. I know the purists are already screaming at me - and if you want an intelligent and well researched example of cybernetic theory and practice, A.C's panel is tomorrow.
Here, we're going to play with our cyborg rat instead.
Like I said, I amn't a surgeon, but this one I had made earlier by someone with nimble fingers. He's a fairly standard lab rat, with a standard interface kit on his back, with the filaments in his whiskers and nostrils. It's a fun project to try at home for your little madlings. Make your own cyber-rat. It doesn't bother him.
We've made him a better rat. And he looks a little weirded out, but not too disturbed. He's getting new signals into his brain and he's taking time to sort it out. And he's pottering around on our table doing the usual rat things.
The little computer on his back is detecting things in front of him, and sending feedback signals through the antenna to sort of trick him into acting. We've given it a few new senses from the micrcontroller on its back, beyond what a normal rat woudd have.
We have made him better.
Our little cyber rat can find food better than a normal roach, because it has a new chemical sensor.
It can navigate in the dark, better than a normal rat, because it has an ultrasonic sensor.
It can detect threats, better than a normal rat. No normal rat would smell the poison in this plate, but our cyborg rat can pick up the chemical trace and its systems give it a warning to avoid it. It goes and finds the food instead.
It’s internet connected, so it can even send signals to rats across the system through roachbook. A kind of labrat i.p. telepathy.
We can even steer the rat with a little remote control. Go left. Go right. Link up to my own systems and puppet it along with a thought.
It seems fun, doesn't it?
We can even trick its senses into believing things that aren’t really there with false inputs. Like that harmless ball of tinfoil is a danger. We can make him think good food is poison and steer him away from it by feeding him a fake smell of poison. We can even force it to do things it wouldn’t normally ever want to do.
See how he knows to avoid the trap? It's covered in cat scent and he knows that as danger. Nudge him towards it, and he instinctively tries to escape before it kills him.
Now watch what happens when we take control again. We can march him headlong into the trap. You can see his nose twitching in fear and he senses the danger, but we can keep marching him on. You can close your eyes if you don't want to see the next bit, but it's not going to go away. The trap snaps shut.
No more rat. Like I said. Nothing good would happen to this rat.
So. What’s the point of doing that? Why hurt an innocent rat?
Imagine you were that rat. And you smell the cat coming and you know the danger is there. But still, you can do nothing to stop yourself from marching headlong into the trap because that’s what every other sense you have is forcing you to do. Your body is not your own anymore. And your legs still carry you forward, even as you beg them to stop. Every fibre of your mind is screaming to stop, but you just can't help yourself. They wait you there, while the trap snaps shut on top of you.
And you die.
Anything I did to that rat, can be done to you. T?
And that right there is the promise, and the horror of cybernetics. In five minutes. With my apologies to Bruce Sterling.
There are no evil technologies, only evil applications. Modern cybernetics gives us the ability to expand the human domain into a vaster reality, one limited only by our own imaginations and technical capabilities.
But if you want to know why the fuck cybernetic ethics is a thing. Or why we have things such as informed consent, or minimum quality of life, or personal integrity laws and why you will be lucky to make it to prison if you break them....
Just remember remember the rat. And how the Boskone did exactly that to hundreds of people.
Thanks for coming."
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
Tedx 2022. Republicon.
Alright. I've five minutes to explain basic cybernetics and cybernetic ethics to you, the ordinary fan.
I hope you don't like rats. If you're in any way squeamish, nothing good is going to happen to this rat, so you should probably leave now if you don't think you can stand it.
Let start with what cybernetics is.
It's not this stuff here on my body. Or the ability to break engines in one punch. Or Major Kuanagi's sexy Leotard.
Cybernetics is the art of control, a self-piloting system. When an action, generates a response, which acts as feedback, to drive a correction. That's cybernetics. There's a lot more stuff in there, about how living animals respond to situations, life-mimicking technology and breaking engines in one punch, but right now, let's focus on the generally accepted pop-culture definition of cybernetics - technology integrated with biology, to achieve some benefit. That benefit could be anything we choose it to be. I know the purists are already screaming at me - and if you want an intelligent and well researched example of cybernetic theory and practice, A.C's panel is tomorrow.
Here, we're going to play with our cyborg rat instead.
Like I said, I amn't a surgeon, but this one I had made earlier by someone with nimble fingers. He's a fairly standard lab rat, with a standard interface kit on his back, with the filaments in his whiskers and nostrils. It's a fun project to try at home for your little madlings. Make your own cyber-rat. It doesn't bother him.
We've made him a better rat. And he looks a little weirded out, but not too disturbed. He's getting new signals into his brain and he's taking time to sort it out. And he's pottering around on our table doing the usual rat things.
The little computer on his back is detecting things in front of him, and sending feedback signals through the antenna to sort of trick him into acting. We've given it a few new senses from the micrcontroller on its back, beyond what a normal rat woudd have.
We have made him better.
Our little cyber rat can find food better than a normal roach, because it has a new chemical sensor.
It can navigate in the dark, better than a normal rat, because it has an ultrasonic sensor.
It can detect threats, better than a normal rat. No normal rat would smell the poison in this plate, but our cyborg rat can pick up the chemical trace and its systems give it a warning to avoid it. It goes and finds the food instead.
It’s internet connected, so it can even send signals to rats across the system through roachbook. A kind of labrat i.p. telepathy.
We can even steer the rat with a little remote control. Go left. Go right. Link up to my own systems and puppet it along with a thought.
It seems fun, doesn't it?
We can even trick its senses into believing things that aren’t really there with false inputs. Like that harmless ball of tinfoil is a danger. We can make him think good food is poison and steer him away from it by feeding him a fake smell of poison. We can even force it to do things it wouldn’t normally ever want to do.
See how he knows to avoid the trap? It's covered in cat scent and he knows that as danger. Nudge him towards it, and he instinctively tries to escape before it kills him.
Now watch what happens when we take control again. We can march him headlong into the trap. You can see his nose twitching in fear and he senses the danger, but we can keep marching him on. You can close your eyes if you don't want to see the next bit, but it's not going to go away. The trap snaps shut.
No more rat. Like I said. Nothing good would happen to this rat.
So. What’s the point of doing that? Why hurt an innocent rat?
Imagine you were that rat. And you smell the cat coming and you know the danger is there. But still, you can do nothing to stop yourself from marching headlong into the trap because that’s what every other sense you have is forcing you to do. Your body is not your own anymore. And your legs still carry you forward, even as you beg them to stop. Every fibre of your mind is screaming to stop, but you just can't help yourself. They wait you there, while the trap snaps shut on top of you.
And you die.
Anything I did to that rat, can be done to you. T?
And that right there is the promise, and the horror of cybernetics. In five minutes. With my apologies to Bruce Sterling.
There are no evil technologies, only evil applications. Modern cybernetics gives us the ability to expand the human domain into a vaster reality, one limited only by our own imaginations and technical capabilities.
But if you want to know why the fuck cybernetic ethics is a thing. Or why we have things such as informed consent, or minimum quality of life, or personal integrity laws and why you will be lucky to make it to prison if you break them....
Just remember remember the rat. And how the Boskone did exactly that to hundreds of people.
Thanks for coming."
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?