Monday, September 08, 2014

Robopocalypse Meets the Courts: Cyborgs and the Law

And now for something completely different: Cyborgs. No, this is not a joke. For years, certain technology enthusiasts have floated variations on the question or whether we are becoming cyborgs—or already are cyborgs. In our newly released paper, titled “Our Cyborg Future: Law and Policy Implications,” we take a different, more legal angle.

The law remains embryonic on virtually all points of interest to the adolescent cyborg: everything from your right to access your own data, to your right to restrict access to your data, to your ability to secure something more than property restitution when an airline destroys your custom mobility assistance device and leaves you bedridden for a year. That’s right: whether you rely on a pacemaker to stay alive or on a cellphone to stay connected, when we say “adolescent cyborg,” we are talking about you.

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