Franken-You - a Better Life Through Cyborg Technology

Odette Gonzalez

Professor Meera Venkatraman

Course MKT 435

Date April 18, 2017

“Franken-You: A Better Life Through Cyborg Technology”

The article focuses on demonstrating how society’s increasing dependency on technology is making individuals cyborgs. At the very beginning of the article, the authors propose that all individuals are cyborgs because they are continuously connected to technological device, e.g. smartphones, and because an anthropologist by the name of Amber Case affirms this to be true. Throughout the article, the discussion touches on a number of different concepts, including bionics, cybernetics, and wearable technologies. In each section, the authors include case studies of different individuals, e.g. mention is made to Jesse Sullivan, who lost both his arms in 2001 but got prosthetics that he was able to control through the rerouting of nerves in his chest. In the end, the article proposes that looking towards the future, researchers and innovators in the field of cybernetics will be confronted by major ethical dilemmas. However, they conclude by saying that as more information about cybernetics and its potential for enhancing (and even normalizing) people’s lives, the field is bound to become more mainstream.

From the perspective of business organizations and marketers, this is an interesting article because it points to a market niche that has been thus far untapped. There is still a lot of ignorance and a lot of fear when talking about cybernetics and especially around the idea of individuals becoming or being cyborgs. More importantly, this is an article that should open the eyes of marketers and businessmen to the possibility of new products and services that tap into that growing dependence that contemporary society has on technology, not just for mobility and communication, but also for the most basic of everyday activities. The only real challenge to be seriously heeded and analyzed has to do with the ethics surrounding cybernetics and cyborgs. Marketing strategy must succeed in highlighting the advantages of cybernetics while at the same time dispelling popular misconceptions.