The Pinocchio Syndrome and the Prosthetic Impulse in science fiction

Abstract

The desire to become human, henceforth referred to as the Pinocchio syndrome, is depicted frequently in literature, a desire expressed by Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio, a wooden toy boy who wished to become a human boy. This desire was also obliquely expressed by Nick Chopper, the Tin Woodman in L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, who was cursed by the Wicked Witch of the East, such that his axe became enchanted and hacked him to pieces. His limbs were replaced by tin prostheses, as was his heart, preventing him from loving his fiancée. Consequently, his wish for a heart, and hence emotions, indirectly expresses a yearning to reattain his humanity, a desire whose connotations will be amplified later in this paper. This trope is reiterated in Disney’s films of Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, The Princess and the Frog, and numerous other tales wherein the main character has his or her humanity cursed away; indeed, the last film cited above features the song “When I’m Human”.

On the other hand, the requirements for prostheses in order for one to continue functioning within society is as old as mythology, as evinced by Hephaestus, the son of Hera and Zeus, who was lame (possibly suffering from clubfoot, a form of talipes, a congenital malformation which causes internal rotation of the foot at the ankle joint), and who walked with the aid of a crutch, a primitive type of prosthesis. He also constructed golden maidens to help him in his labors in his forge, as well as Talos, a giant bronze proto-robot who guarded king Minos’s Crete by circling the island’s perimeter, throwing rocks with superhuman strength at threatening ships.

While prostheses may be essential for dealing with medical conditions, Smith and Morra have averred that “our modern western culture has a ‘prosthetic impulse’, an urge to augment the human body, which N. Katherine Hayles refers to as our “original prosthesis we all learn to manipulate, so that extending or replacing the body with other prostheses becomes a continuation of a process that began before we were born”.

One potential route or intermediate step for such transformation is through cyborg transformation, that is, cybernetic organisms, organic creatures that exploit technology in order to utilize mechanical parts that enhance their abilities. The term “cyborg” was popularized by Clynes and Kline.

The concept was further popularized by the publication of Donna Haraway’s “Manifesto for Cyborgs,” and ever since, the cyborg has evolved in diverse disciplines including literature, film, sociology, cybernetics, and medicine. The cyborg questions and assimilates the differences between the sentient and the nonsentient, the human and the nonhuman, and epitomizes the demolition of the frontiers between social, ethical, legal, and technological issues ranging from disability to genetic engineering to computer privacy, to “an erasure of individuality and mortality”.

Fredric Jameson notes that our potential transhuman transformation, one in which “some altogether unrecognizable ‘human nature’ would take the place of this one” has caused humanity significant concern, an apprehension reflected in science fiction. Smith and Morra have amplified this belief, stating that "to a perhaps worrying extent, “the prosthetic” has taken on a life of its own. Following closely on the heels of . . . Haraway’s . . . “Cyborg Manifesto” in the 1980’s, as well as by developments in the cultural studies of science and technology, science fiction cinema and literature, transplant technology, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, postmodern warfare, and so on—“the prosthetic” has similarly begun to assume an epic status that is out of proportion with its abilities to fulfill our ambitions for it."

This paper will show that while sf has depicted the extreme embracement of the “prosthetic impulse,” most notoriously in Star Trek’s “Borg,” this is used as a warning of the potential Faustian consequences of such tendencies. The franchise has also highlighted the converse, the Pinocchio syndrome, a reverse prosthetic impulse, most notably, in Commander Data. (The Pinocchio syndrome described in this essay is not to be confused with the disease envisioned by Davd Zeman, a fictional condition which causes paralysis and fusion of the extremities such that they resemble hooves.)

This naturally raises the question as to what it means to wish to become human. SF seems to focus on two aspects: the biological component, that is, the actual replacement of original body parts (limbs, organs, and senses) with human counterparts; and the mental and psychological component.

This paper will not dwell on the concept of epiphenomenalism, that is, the view that one’s actions are not caused by one’s thoughts and that we are simply passive spectators laboring under the illusion that we are in command of our behavior and destiny.

The mental and psychological aspects that define man include at least three components: the desire to acquire “qualia”; the expression of intentionality; and an application of an Abraham Maslow–type motivational pyramid, with a desire for self-actualization that embraces the desire to attain humanity. These three facets will be briefly described, and will then be demonstrated through Data in Star Trek.