Kevin Rändi
Abstract
Implantable computing technologies are the blueprint for the ongoing process of cyborgization. Already with the present devices, design decisions and computational issues blend together with a living organism, so that our health, for example, depends on well-adjusted information security, which requires constant work and decisions by many actors of different expertise. This means that implantable technologies form important sociotechnical systems. I will explore cyborg vulnerabilities found in sociotechnical systems, but take seriously the proposed development model of open-source technologies, promising existing and future cyborgs more autonomy and freedom. However, I want to take this vision further. Given the number of technologies that matter in the context of cyborgs, it becomes necessary to look at a wider application of open source, needing more experts and quicker data exchange. While offering a technological solution to make the data exchange possible, granting the users freedoms and autonomy, I also find it important to address how the debates around open source move from software to a large-scale social consideration, should the solution be implemented.