Sapient Circuits And Digitalized Flesh

This book develops new insights into the evolving nature of organizations by applying the methodologies of posthumanist thought to the fields of organizational theory and management. An emerging 'organizational posthumanism' is described that makes sense of the ways in which forces of technological posthumanization are reshaping the members, personnel structures, information systems, processes, physical and virtual spaces, and external environments available for use by organizations. Conceptual frameworks and analytic tools are formulated that diagnose the convergence in the capacities of human and artificial actors generated by new technologies relating to human augmentation, synthetic agency, and digital-physical ecosystems. As the first systematic study of these topics, this text will interest scholars and students of organizational management and management practitioners who grapple on a daily basis with the forces of technologization that are increasingly powerful drivers of organizational change.

Key organizational decisions made by sapient AIs. The pressure to undergo neuroprosthetic augmentation in order to compete with genetically enhanced coworkers. A corporate headquarters that exists only in cyberspace as a persistent virtual world. A project team whose members interact socially as online avatars without knowing or caring whether fellow team members are human beings or robots.Futurists' visions of the dawning age of 'posthumanized' organizations range from the disquieting to the exhilarating. Which of these visions are compatible with our best current understanding of the capacities and the limits of human intelligence, physiology, and sociality? And what can posthumanist thought reveal about the forces of technologization that are transforming how we collaborate with one another - and with ever more sophisticated artificial agents and systems - to achieve shared goals?This book develops new insights into the evolving nature of intelligent agency and collaboration by applying the post-anthropocentric and post-dualistic methodologies of posthumanism to the fields of organizational theory and management. Building on a comprehensive typology of posthumanism, an emerging 'organizational posthumanism' is described which makes sense of the dynamics of technological posthumanization that are reshaping the members, personnel structures, information systems, processes, physical and virtual spaces, and external environments available to organizations. Conceptual frameworks and analytical tools are formulated for use in diagnosing and guiding the ongoing convergence in the capacities of human and artificial actors that is being spurred by novel technologies relating to human augmentation, synthetic agency, and digital-physical ecosystems. As the first systematic investigation of these topics, this text will be of interest to scholars and students of posthumanism and management and to management practitioners who must grapple on a daily basis with the forces of technologization that are increasingly powerful drivers of organizational change.

This book discovers what it will take to reindustrialize the previous industrial powerhouses in order to offset the advantages of cheap labor suppliers dominating the industrial sector by exploring the current situation of the production, processing, and manufacturing industries. The Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), and Cloud Computing, Cyber Security, Cobotics, Automation, AI, 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing, SDN, Blockchain technologies are outlined in this unique and comprehensive book, which has true potential for professionals, researchers, policymakers, and book users. New Horizons for Industry 4.0 in Modern Business encompass trends in business and technology globally that may completely alter how manufacturing and production are conducted. What you will discover: Learn about the Industrial Internet of Things and the Industrial Internet. Learn about the technologies that must develop to support Industry 4.0 and what is being done right now to make that happen. In this book, the topic of Industry 4.0 is covered in detail, and it even moves on to concepts of Digital Twins to boost output and create Industrial Internet of Things. With the development of new digital industrial technology, or "Industry 4.0," it is now feasible to collect and analyze data from many machines, resulting in processes that are quicker, more adaptable, and more efficient, producing things of higher quality while spending less money. The manufacturing revolution will boost productivity, alter economics, promote industrial development, and alter workforce demographics, ultimately altering the competitiveness of businesses and areas. Although advanced digital technology is being employed in manufacturing, Industry 4.0 will completely change how things are done. Greater production efficiencies will result, and conventional connections between suppliers, manufacturers, and consumers—as well as between people and machines—will shift. Industry 4.0 is changing the business process. This disruptive technology is radically changing the way businesses/manufacturing is conducted. It will give machines that little bit of intuition with the help of robotics, 3D printing, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and virtual reality—that will help them do mindless and repetitive jobs without human intervention, allowing humans to focus more on their core competencies.

This volume serves a resource for the design and analysis of neuroprosthetic supersystems, which can be defined as organizations – either small or large, simple or complex – whose human members have been neuroprosthetically augmented. While numerous other texts focus on the biomedical engineering of neuroprostheses as technological devices or on the biocybernetic engineering of the host-device system comprising a neuroprosthesis and its human host, this volume presents a unique investigation of the intentional creation of higher-order supersystems that allow multiple neuroprosthetically augmented human beings to interact with one another and with external information systems in order to accomplish some shared task. In essence, this can be understood as the work of designing and managing neuroprosthetically enhanced organizations. Individual chapters present an ontology of the neuroprosthesis as a computing device; a biocybernetic ontology of the host-device system; an ontology of the neuroprosthesis as an instrument of ‘cyborgization’; motivating and inhibiting factors for the organizational deployment of posthumanizing neuroprostheses by military organizations and other early adopters; an introduction to enterprise architecture in the context of technological posthumanization; an exploration of the implications of neuroprosthetic augmentation for enterprise architecture; and considerations for the development of effective network topologies for neuroprosthetically augmented organizations. The conceptual frameworks formulated within this book offer a wide range of tools that can be of use to policymakers, ethicists, neuroprosthetic device manufacturers, organizational decision-makers, and others who must analyze or manage the complex legal, ethical, and managerial implications that result from the use of emerging neuroprosthetic technologies within an organizational context.

You don’t know how far you can trust what you see or feel or remember, because it could all just be a byproduct of your neural implant or illusions fabricated by a neurohacker. Self-evolving computer viruses and stray nanorobotic swarms have taken up residence in the components of your robotic prosthetic arm. Battles over access to neurocybernetic enhancement, life-extension biotech, and immersive VR paradises are fragmenting humanity into new strata of haves and have-nots. You can never tell whether the full-body cyborgs that you see in the street belong to military units, megacorps, or bands of hackers-for-hire… or maybe all three at once. Such near-future cyberdystopias provide the perfect setting for a hard-SF roleplaying game campaign. But how much reality lies beneath their surface? Could a human mind really learn how to operate a full cyborg body that has wheels or wings or dozens of robotic tentacles, or would it be too ‘alien’? If relatively small changes in brain temperature can cause behavioral impacts (or even brain damage), is it advisable to implant a heat-spewing miniaturized supercomputer in someone’s cranium? A neural jack that lets you instantly download new skills sounds great, but could such a thing actually work? And which of your cognitive functions could a hacker take control of by compromising such a device? If you’ve ever thought about any of these questions when designing or running an adventure, then Mnemoclave’s Posthuman Cyberware Sourcebook series is meant for you. It’s designed especially for GMs who want to give their campaigns a grittier edge and loads of surprises that’ll keep their players on their toes – and for serious gamers who want to map out the potential and limitations of their characters’ cyberware from a new perspective. This first volume in the series offers an introduction to the use of neuroprostheses for sensory, cognitive, and motor enhancement and explores distinctions between posthuman and transhuman cyberware. It’s not simply a tale of artificial eyes with telescopic night vision or combat-grade cyberlimbs but also a blueprint for the development of neuroprosthetically enhanced imagination, emotions, and conscience and the creation of human-synthetic hive minds. The volume considers neuroprosthetic devices’ human hosts in their three roles as sapient minds, embodied organisms, and social and economic actors to explain how cyberware can be employed either as tools for personal empowerment and liberation or mechanisms of enslavement and zombification. The book serves as a resource for designing campaigns or one-off adventures set in worlds with a cyberpunk, postcyberpunk, or biopunk milieu in which posthumanizing cyberware exists and societies are tilting toward the dystopian. The text includes dozens of special inserts with plot hooks, character traits, equipment descriptions, and ideas regarding setting and atmosphere that help you incorporate the material directly into your game, regardless of which rule system you’re running.

What are the best practices for leading a workforce in which human employees have merged cognitively and physically with electronic information systems and work alongside social robots, artificial life-forms, and self-aware networks that are ‘colleagues’ rather than simply ‘tools’? How does one manage organizational structures and activities that span actual and virtual worlds? How are the forces of technological posthumanization transforming the theory and practice of management? This volume explores the reality that an organization’s workers, managers, customers, and other stakeholders increasingly comprise a complex network of human agents, artificial agents, and hybrid human-synthetic entities. The first part of the book develops the theoretical foundations of an emerging ‘organizational posthumanism’ and presents frameworks for understanding and managing the evolving workplace relationship between human and synthetic beings. Other chapters investigate topics such as the likelihood that social robots might utilize charismatic authority to lead human workers; potential roles of AIs as managers of cross-cultural virtual teams; the ethics and legality of entrusting organizational decision-making to spatially diffuse robots that have no discernible physical form; quantitative approaches to comparing managerial capabilities of human and artificial agents; the creation of artificial life-forms that function as autonomous enterprises competing against human businesses; neural implants as gateways that allow human users to participate in new forms of organizational life; and the implications of advanced neuroprosthetics for information security and business model design. As the first comprehensive application of posthumanist methodologies to management, this volume will interest management scholars and management practitioners who must understand and guide the forces of technologization that are rapidly reshaping organizations’ form, dynamics, and societal roles.

How does one ensure information security for a computer that is entangled with the structures and processes of a human brain – and for the human mind that is interconnected with such a device? The need to provide information security for neuroprosthetic devices grows more pressing as increasing numbers of people utilize therapeutic technologies such as cochlear implants, retinal prostheses, robotic prosthetic limbs, and deep brain stimulation devices. Moreover, emerging neuroprosthetic technologies for human enhancement are expected to increasingly transform their human users’ sensory, motor, and cognitive capacities in ways that generate new ‘posthumanized’ sociotechnological realities. In this context, it is essential not only to ensure the information security of such neuroprostheses themselves but – more importantly – to ensure the psychological and physical health, autonomy, and personal identity of the human beings whose cognitive processes are inextricably linked with such devices. InfoSec practitioners must not only guard against threats to the confidentiality and integrity of data stored within a neuroprosthetic device’s internal memory; they must also guard against threats to the confidentiality and integrity of thoughts, memories, and desires existing within the mind the of the device’s human host. This second edition of The Handbook of Information Security for Advanced Neuroprosthetics updates the previous edition’s comprehensive investigation of these issues from both theoretical and practical perspectives. It provides an introduction to the current state of neuroprosthetics and expected future trends in the field, along with an introduction to fundamental principles of information security and an analysis of how they must be re-envisioned to address the unique challenges posed by advanced neuroprosthetics. A two-dimensional cognitional security framework is presented whose security goals are designed to protect a device’s human host in his or her roles as a sapient metavolitional agent, embodied embedded organism, and social and economic actor. Practical consideration is given to information security responsibilities and roles within an organizational context and to the application of preventive, detective, and corrective or compensating security controls to neuroprosthetic devices, their host-device systems, and the larger supersystems in which they operate. Finally, it is shown that while implantable neuroprostheses create new kinds of security vulnerabilities and risks, they may also serve to enhance the information security of some types of human hosts (such as those experiencing certain neurological conditions).

Whether it’s adding a night-vision cybereye or acquiring a full cyborg body, the process of cyborgization reshapes the way in which an individual relates to the physical environment around her. But how does it transform her ability to dive – or to be pulled – into virtual worlds? Cyborgization and Virtual Worlds: Portals to Altered Reality is a resource for designing campaigns grounded in near-future hard-SF settings in which synthetic bodies and VR cyberware offer characters entirely new ways of perceiving, interpreting, and manipulating the analog and digital worlds… It’s easy to know when you enter a virtual environment if the tools you’re using are a VR headset and haptic feedback gloves. If the virtual experience is too much for you, you can always just rip off the headset: the digital illusions instantly vanish, and you know that you’re back in the ‘real’ world. But what if the VR gear that you’re employing consists of cranial neural implants that directly stimulate your brain to create artificial sensory experiences? Or what if you’re wielding dual-purpose artificial eyes and roboprosthetic limbs that can either supply you with authentic sense data from the external environment or switch into iso mode, cut off all sensations from the real world, and pipe fabricated sense data into your brain? What signs could you look for to help you determine whether you’re in the real world or just a convincing virtual facsimile? This second volume in Mnemoclave’s Posthuman Cyberware Sourcebook series explores the two ways in which neuroprosthetic technologies immerse a cyborg in her environment and allow her to sense and manipulate the world: through embodiment and embedding. The process of cyborgization not only grants its human subject an augmented body with enhanced, reduced, or simply different capacities; it also embeds him in a particular part of the real physical world and provides the means by which he senses and manipulates that environment. And it may be the instrument through which he dives into virtual worlds, as well. Among the topics explored are: The paths of cyborgization • Different approaches to cyborgization, including the creation of full-body, partial, extended, sessile, and ‘hollow’ cyborgs • Differing types of neurocognitive interfaces that can exist between a piece of cyberware and its human host • The extent to which cyberware can be concealed from visual or remote electronic detection • The operational lifespan of cyberware and its potential health impacts on users Obstacles to characters’ acquisition of cyberware, including cost, legality, and required maintenance and customization • Problems like neurocoupling resection syndrome (NRS) that affect full-body cyborgs and other augmented individuals Cyberware and virtual worlds • Distinctions between virtual, augmented, and refracted reality • The mechanics by which cyborg characters can recognize and adjust to transitions between the real and virtual worlds • The use of digital avatars as cyberdoubles or cybermorphs within virtual worlds • Plot impacts of cyborg characters’ maximal, partial, temporary, or long-term immersion in VR environments The book is written especially for GMs who are designing adventures or campaigns set in near-future worlds with a cyberpunk, postcyberpunk, or biopunk atmosphere in which posthumanizing cyberware exists and societies are tilting ever further toward the dystopian. The text draws extensively on the best contemporary research regarding neurocybernetics and the bioengineering, economic, sociopolitical, and cultural aspects of human enhancement, to aid GMs who are looking to give their campaigns a hard sci-fi edge. The volume includes dozens of special textboxes with plot hooks, character traits, equipment descriptions, and ideas for successfully GM-ing the ontological puzzles and narrative twists that cyborgization and virtual reality make possible – to help you incorporate the material directly into your game, regardless of which rule system you’re using.