The human as techno-cerebrally operating form – this study shows the adaptation of human and machine in neuroscience and describes the acting of a cyborg.
The neuroscientific studies I analyzed, were concerned with the restoration of cerebral processes by neurofeedback (via Brain-Machine Interface), with which stroke patients had to regulate their brainwaves and thereby to control an orthotic device opening and closing their paralyzed hand. I showed that human-machine adaptation in this context can be divided into three phases of the socio-bio-technical synchronization process. A detailed description on the micro level of the interaction between the organic and inorganic as an ensemble was conceptualized as “techno-cerebral subject”, a bio-technical form of the cyborg. Constituting the human and machine symbiosis as techno-cerebral subject this does not entail an irreversible amalgamation between the organic and inorganic into an entirely new being. On the contrary, it is my understanding that if something or someone can be understood as a cyborg, his or her control and regulation must be achieved in a programmable circular process in which the organic and inorganic parts interact. If actions are based on the circularity of the biological and the technical aspect, then one can also speak of an “acting cyborg”.