Heavenly Bodies: Why It Matters That Cyborgs Have Always Been About Disability, Mental Health, and Marginalization

Abstract

This paper explores some history and theories about cyborgs — humans with biotechnological interventions which allow them to regulate their own internal bodily process — and how those compare to the realities of how we treat and consider currently-living people who are physically enmeshed with technology. I’ll explore several ways in which the above-listed considerations have been alternately overlooked and taken up by various theorists, and some of the many different strategies and formulations for integrating these theories into what will likely become everyday concerns in the future. In fact, by exploring responses from disabilities studies scholars and artists who have interrogated and problematized the popular vision of cyborgs, the future, and life in space, I will demonstrate that our clearest path toward the future of living with biotechnologies is a reengagement with the everyday lives of disabled and other marginalized persons, today.

Keywords: Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Technology, Cyborg Theory, Disability Studies, Astrobiology, Phenomenology, Cyborg Feminism, Gender and Race, Intersectionality, Cyborg Anthropology, Cyborgs, Bodymind