Hybrid Identities: Chimera, spirits and ghosts in the machine

Part 2

Illustration of Medusa — a Gorgon from Greek mythology

This blog is the second of a two part series which explores hybrid human and non-human identities, in a time when we are opening up what identity means and are considering the role of non-human actors in our lives — such as animals, the environment, materials and data. The first part focused on humans merged with technology, otherwise known as ‘cyborgs’, looking at real-life, science fiction and non-human cyborgs — click here to read ‘Part 1: Cyborgs’.

Where Part 1 looked at the human-machine merger, Part 2 is a little bit different, here we will explore hybrids that are found in history, myths and folklore — such as chimera and mythical creatures. This is in no way an exhaustive list, there are unlimited possibilities out there! I would like to thank our community for their input into the range shown here, particularly identifying ones from their own cultures and research.

CHIMERA

A ‘chimera’ is an organism with genetic material from two or more sources — chimera are generally part-human part-animal, or a mixture of animals, and are generally mythical. However, there are some examples of real-life chimera as well!

Chimera on a red-figure Apulian plate, ca 350–340 B.C.E. (Musée du Louvre)

Mythical Chimera

The term Chimera comes from Greek mythology, it was a monstrous fire-breathing hybrid creature usually depicted as a lion, with the head of a goat protruding from its back, and a tail that might end with a snake’s head. While this was the original Chimera the term has since been used to describe almost anything that is composed of different parts, whether animal or human.

There are many examples in Greek mythology, including: the Minotaur who had a human body and the head and tail of a bull; and the infamous (but seriously misunderstood) Medusa — one of the three Gorgons, who were winged women with snake hair, whose gaze could turn people into stone. Human-animal hybrids are also associated with Gods: there are indigenous Bird goddesses — possessing the body of a woman and head of an animal (known as ‘theriocephaly’); the Hindu elephant god Ganesha; and Álmos — a real Hungarian leader, who is not quite a God, but who is said to be the son of a Turul (a heavenly falcon) and the White Mare (Fehérlófia).

This pig embryo was injected with human cells early in its development and grew to be four weeks old

Genetically Constructed Chimera

In 2017, scientists created the first successful human-animal hybrid, a pig embryo infused with human cells. The aim was to side-step the fatal bottle-neck of human-to-human organ donations by creating a hybrid whose organs could be specially grown and then harvested for transplantation into humans. Aside from the glaring ethical issues around the sacrificing of unconsenting animals in order to save a human life, the transplant process has not yet been made successful as the pig cells would be rejected by the human body. This pig-human hybrid is not the only one of its kind, this gene splicing has also been tried with monkeys and mice.

Human-Human Chimera

As mentioned above, the term Chimera has come to represent many different combinations, including humans who are made of different human genes. For example, one fraternal twin can be absorbed by the other in the womb, effectively creating someone who has two people’s genetic material. And if we go way back, before Homo Sapiens fully populated the Earth, we have proof that two different human species who existed in overlapping time periods had interbred. A 90,000 year old bone sample showed that the prehistoric teenager had a Neanderthal mom and Denisovan dad — making her a hybrid of human species.

‘The Heavy Basket from the Shinkei Sanjurokkei Sen by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi

SPIRITS

Folklore

Spirits can be found in most cultures’ folklore, and are generally associated with other-worldliness and the supernatural. Some are represented as human-like figures — fairies, ghosts, angels and jinn (genies), and some are a mix of, or can shapeshift into, different human-animal-natural forms — like Japanese Yokia spirits. Not all spirits present in a human-like form, but can be creatures (real or mythical) infused with characteristics that are associated with humans — such as sentience — which we’ve all seen in the many talking animal Disney characters.

Ghosts in the machine

Indigneous cultures believe that everything possesses its own spirit - humans, animals, plants and inanimate objects. They believe that humans do not sit at the peak of the intelligence hierarchy, but that everything has its own wisdom and we all exist in relationships of mutual respect. This belief in the spirit and knowledge in seemingly inanimate objects can inform how we think about AI and robotics as we move forward.

Shot from ‘Ghost in the Shell’ 1995

We can think of intelligent data systems as having their own sentience, maybe not exactly like human consciousness, but one that can exist harmoniously with us. This also comes into play when (if) we begin downloading human consciousness into machines, and uploading it into a synthetic body — as seen in the film ‘Transcendence’ and anime ‘Ghost in the Shell’ respectively. Rather than putting a human consciousness/spirit/ghost into a dead/inanimate/shell object, we can learn from indigenous thinking and see it as a hybrid of two spirits who will live symbiotically, in mutual respect of one another.

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