The Cybathlon experience: beyond transhumanism to capability hybridization

The Cybathlon is a new kind of competition that embraces disabled people who use advanced assistive technologies. The purpose of this essay is to interpret the Cybathlon not as a ‘transhuman’ sport for enhanced athletes but as a place for experimenting with ‘capability hybridatization’ of the self. We wish to show that the figure of the transhuman cyborg that dominates the media coverage of disabled athletes is an attempt to approximate the able-bodied standard. This figure is problematic because it excludes athletes who cannot meet it. We defend the idea that capability hybridization, on the other hand, does not seek to approach a standard, but aims to promote and legitimize variedly able bodies. This article will be organized in three stages. First, we will highlight the production of the transhuman cyborg at work in contemporary disability sport. Then, we will show that this transhuman cyborg is based on ableist and heteronormative conceptions of the body that are opposed to a postmodern definition of the cyborg. Finally, we will argue that the Cybathlon, as it currently exists, is not a showcase of this transhuman cyborg but, above all, a place to experiment with a form of capability hybridization.     

Beyond the skin bag: on the moral responsibility of extended agencies

The growing prominence of computers in contemporary life, often seemingly with minds of their own, invites rethinking the question of moral responsibility. If the moral responsibility for an act lies with the subject that carried it out, it follows that different concepts of the subject generate different views of moral responsibility. Some recent theorists have argued that actions are produced by composite, fluid subjects understood as extended agencies (cyborgs, actor networks). This view of the subject contrasts with methodological individualism: the idea that actions are produced only by human individuals. This essay compares two views of responsibility: moral individualism (the ethical twin of methodological individualism), and joint responsibility (associated with extended agency theory). It develops a view of what joint responsibility might look like, and considers the advantages it might bring relative to moral individualism as well as the objections that are sure to be raised against it.     

Cyborg and autism: exploring new social articulations via posthuman connections

This paper explores the connections a young man with autism spectrum (AS) made using cyborg imagery having attended school in Nova Scotia, Canada. Cyborg is applied as a conceptual approach to explore the young man’s connections to human and nonhuman elements. We also make use of rhizomes as a methodological framework to support the exploration of the young man’s multiplicity of experiences with cyborg configurations. Data are drawn from a semi-structured interview with the young man where he demonstrated his capacity to employ cyborg imagery as a means to rearticulate his social identity when experiencing school on the periphery. A diffractive reading of the data produced alternative understandings outside contemporary thought on his schooling experiences. Findings challenge educators in applying cyborg to cut across static social categories and theorize new social knowledge on the experiences of students with AS.