Examining the Representation of a Cyborg in the Justice League

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Throughout my first two posts in this series, I have been able to highlight the ranging degree of successes in which two films within the Marvel Cinematic Universe were able to accurately present a cyborg, when comparing them to real world technology. An advancement in cybernetic technology has shown that Bucky Barnes’ robotic arm, in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, has the real possibility of one day being a possibility, while it seems that Tony Stark’s arc reactor, in the Iron Man series, may one day be possible, just not in the way which was represented on screen.

This 3rd post will differ in various ways, with the most significant difference being that the technology being presented in the Justice League, for the character ‘Cyborg’, is simply incredibly more futuristic then the two previous.

For this post, I will be leaving the MCU, and will focus on the character Cyborg, real name, Victor Stone, who briefly made an appearance in ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)’, and prominently featured in the 2017 film, ‘Justice League’. Besides being a character that is ethnically diverse, Cyborg differs from the previous two characters I focused on due to him being far more obviously seen as a mix of man and machine. When you bring up the idea of a cyborg in a science fiction film, Victor Stone, is what many may actually picture.

In the film, it is shown that Victor Stone is a former star athlete at Gotham City University who gets in accident that leaves his life in serious danger. Missing several limbs, and an eye, his father, a scientist at S.T.A.R labs, uses him as a guinea pig to rebuild his body with cybernetics, giving him not just his limbs and his eyes back but full-on superpowers and a computer with which his mind can interface directly. There is no absolutely denying that the character Cyborg, is a cyborg (even if the name doesn’t give it away). He is a clear example of being a man mixed with machine, “a cybernetic organism, a hybrid of machine and orgasm (Haraway, 1991)”.

Ray Fisher, the man who plays Cyborg, revealed that his characters powers, due to the technology used to create Cyborg, are ever-evolving. They include, “the ability to interface with anything technological, flight, super-strength, hologram projection and a sophisticated weapon’s system (Schwerdtfeger, 2017)”. The question that remains, is just how accurate is this representation of a cyborg, when comparing it to the real world?

Cybernetic technology has advanced incredibly, there is no questioning that. One of my previous posts highlighted how mind controlled robotic cybernetic limbs have allowed those who need it, being able to utilise a complete and full range of motion. That is just one of many examples showcasing how technology is being used to advance cybernetic research.

That said, even with all the advancements that have occurred over the last number of years, all of the incredible breakthroughs, the way in which technology is presented, through the creation, and later the powers used by Cyborg in the Justice League film, one would believe that it does not exist. That this representation of a cyborg as a whole, when questioning the accuracy, in this current age, is simply too advanced. While, for the most part, that thought would be correct, as Cyborg is presented as an incredibly advanced mix of man and machine, there may in fact be aspects of Cyborg that are quite possible. While the concept of an eye being replaced by cybernetics is very plausible, there are 2 others that while many may believe are completely inaccurate, are in fact a real possibility, even if at this current point, this technology in the real world does not allow someone to be defined as a cyborg.

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Due to being a cybernetic organism, Cyborg has the ability known as technopathy, which allows him to ‘hear’ and control technology that are either connected to the Internet or communicating on an enclosed line. This essentially allows Cyborg to not only manipulate technology from afar, but also ‘hear’ communications and choose to scramble or change the messages. It’s a power that sets Cyborg apart, and this concept of controlling technology through a mental or physical interface has long been debated, and as such, it should come as no surprise that there have been works to make it a real possibility.

While at this point, it would not come close to the way in which Cyborg is shown to manipulate technology, there is no doubting that what is being represented on screen may in fact be a possibility, due to the fact that in 2014, in collaboration with Shimadzu Corporation, Sekisui House, Keio Private Academy, and the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR), Japan has developed a new type of brain-machine interface that allows users to manipulate everyday appliances using only their brains. This technology is essentially connecting the brain to technology, with “cooperation between a computer and the brain extends throughout environment sensing, motivation deliberation, and motor planning (Wu et al., 2016)”. While granted, it’s not the instant technopathy that we all know, the concept we see in movies, especially with Cyborg, as the calibration setup requires devices and appliances to be connected to a network, instead of seemingly being incredibly simple in the film, “the user can for instance, turn air-conditioners on or off, or change channels on their TV by simply thinking about it (Crisostomo, 2014)”.

This technology was taken one step further in 2017, when an article was released detailing how “John Donoghue and colleagues were working with Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems, Inc. working on a brain-machine interface that they hope will eventually allow paralysed individuals to walk again (Peterson, 2005)”, with Donoghue’s device, the BrainGate Neural Interface System, connecting directly to the part of the brain responsible for controlling the motion of one’s own limbs (Peterson, 2005)”. That said, so far these advances are limited to controlled settings, but there is no denying that this technology may be the simplest version of what Cyborg is shown to be able to do, through his cybernetic abilities.

While Cyborg’s ability to communicate and control technology sets him apart from the other heroes in the Justice League film, it’s his physical appearance that provides him with a tremendous amount of strength, due to his cybernetic physiology, as well as the fact that his body seems to be in a constant state of modification. While there has been no real life examples of someone having more than half of their body replaced with cybernetic materials (not that I could find anyway), there is a comparison to the real world, showing that while the representation may not be completely accurate, there are examples of mixing a man with machine, to provide far greater strength. This would be through the use of powered exoskeletons, or, cybernetic armour.

It’s been reported that today, powered exoskeleton suits are becoming a reality, with perhaps several hundred commercial and experimental exosuits now operate globally. These suits would come close to achieving the basic level of powers that Cyborg has throughout the film, seeing as Cyborg’s armored cybernetic body grants him considerable superhuman strength. These wearable machines are designed to augment the user’s strength and (at least theoretically) agility using either electronic or pneumatic actuators. However, unlike Cyborg’s new cybernetic limbs and body parts, which were created to replace his lose of function after his accident, these exoskeleton suits would “only augment existing abilities (Tarantola, 2013)”.

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The character, Cyborg, in the Justice League film, is an example of a cyborg that, due to the incredible advanced technology he is shown to have been created from, can not be said to have had an accurate representation. There are too many components to his character that are simply not possible in today’s world, or at least, in the near future. That, however, is not to say that there isn’t a basis of truth to what is being presented. As mentioned, both his technopath ability, and cybernetic body parts, which provide him with extra strength, are a real possibility today, just not in the way in which the movie imagined them. The question for this entire series of blogs was determining the accuracy of the representation of a cyborg in a science fiction film, and the character Cyborg is the most challenging of the 3. The ideas and concepts behind this mix of man and machine is plausible, but the final package, the character as a whole, just seemingly isn’t in the near future.

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References

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Ashley, S. (2017). Robotic Exoskeletons are Changing Lives in Surprising Ways. [online] NBC News. Available at: https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/innovation/robotic-exoskeletons-are-changing-lives-surprising-ways-n722676 [Accessed 22 May 2018].

BrainGate. (n.d.). About Braingate. [online] Available at: https://www.braingate.org/about-braingate/ [Accessed 22 May 2018].

Crisostomo, C. (2014). NTT Gets Closer to Technopathy With New Brain-Machine Interface – VR World. [online] VR World. Available at: http://vrworld.com/2014/12/11/ntt-gets-closer-technopathy-new-brain-machine-interface/ [Accessed 22 May 2018].

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Haraway, D.J. (1991), “The cyborg manifesto: science, technology, and socialist-feminism in the late twentieth century”, Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature, Routledge, New York, NY, pp. 149-181.

Peterson, G. (2005). Imaging God: Cyborgs, Brain-Machine Interfaces, and a More Human Future. Dialog: A Journal of Theology, 44(4), pp.337-346.

Schwerdtfeger, C. (2017). The Powers Cyborg Will Have In Justice League. [online] CINEMABLEND. Available at: https://www.cinemablend.com/news/1715889/the-powers-cyborg-will-have-in-justice-league [Accessed 22 May 2018].

Seitz, D. (2017). Who Is Cyborg, The Robotic Hero Of ’Justice League’?. [online] UPROXX. Available at: https://uproxx.com/hitfix/cyborg-justice-league-who-is/ [Accessed 22 May 2018].

Tarantola, A. (2013). How Close Are We To Elysium-Style Exosuits?. [online] Gizmodo Australia. Available at: https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2013/08/how-close-are-we-to-elysium-style-exosuits/ [Accessed 22 May 2018].

Wise, J. (2017). Brain-Computer Interfaces Are Already Here. [online] Bloomberg.com. Available at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-09-07/brain-computer-interfaces-are-already-here [Accessed 22 May 2018].

Wu, Z., Zhou, Y., Shi, Z., Zhang, C., Li, G., Zheng, X., Zheng, N. and Pan, G. (2016). Cyborg Intelligence: Recent Progress and Future Directions. IEEE Intelligent Systems, 31(6), pp.44-50.