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Cyborgs .. Identity in the 21st Century?

17:22 / 06.04.04

In search of Cyborgs

21:39 / 06.04.04

Cyborgs are a theoretical concept in the same way that the Priests are. Units of semi-physical complexity that help define and shape the way we view the world. I am cyborg in the sense that my nevous sense is extended and intermixed with yours via this jumble of wires and light on my lap. And via the electrons racing down wires and waves streaking through the air. Like most near future sci-fi, cyborgs are already here, just taking on a form that is less literal than the form we expected them to take.

Henningjohnathan

21:52 / 06.04.04

I'm working on the idea that cyborgs have existed since the early birth of mathematics. Basically, it started when I found out that a computer used to be the job title for people who would do basic equations as part of a larger mathematical enterprise (such as meteorology, codebreaking or creating an atom bomb). Then, of course, along came Turing and his Universal Engine (the brain is one).
I think that there is an inate intellectual impulse that leads us to extend our physical properties into technology and or mental properties are just another kind of physical activity.
To me, the cybernetic philosophy disconnects our "intellect" from our physical body and this has been going on since Plato at least. I also think that Vinge may be onto something when he talks about the machine minds that will replace mankind.
If someday we will be able to download our intellects into a computer, then it will also be possible to create much more powerful intellects as pure programs. At this point, the human race will be obsolete.

02:11 / 07.04.04

To me the concept of the cyborg is a representation of the human desire to advance one's physicality / musculature through mechanical or technological means. In that sense Arnold Schwarzenegger is literally a prime example of the human attempt at becoming that which is cyborg. (and not just within the context of his films). To me i am cyborg because i constantly strive to improve the physicality of my human body through near mechanical means, i.e. utilising a weight-machine to build muscle.

To me anyway, the process of building one's pyhsicality through mechanical means is the same as building mechanics and technology into the human body, its just another extension of the same idea.

yeah?

Henningjohnathan

13:58 / 07.04.04

Now that's a good point of view. If you look at the progress of physical fitness systems, they have promoted the concept of the body as a machine. Especially if you go to a Bally's or 24Hour Fitness.
Also, just using a computer or watching television we are conditioning ourselves to think like these machines.
I think Marshall Macluhan brought up the idea that the media we use to express our ideas also has a reverse backblow of training our mind to think in ways that can be expressed by these media.

21:18 / 07.04.04

I certainly agree with what your saying about the influence of the media in this situation of emergent cyborg mentality. But i also think that the development and evolution of exercise equipment has a huge influence on humans as cyborg, especially as it becomes more increasingly interactive.

Take running machines for example. The earlier models could really only be used on a variety of settings, all of which require the user to have a reasonable level of fitness to use. However, now these things come with built in detectors for heart rate and such, and adjust the level of the workout according to the level of fitness of the user.

Essentially you have machinery existing as an interactive extension of the human body, responding to its physical and biological actions.

But, on the other hand the user also reacts to the machinery being utilised (i'm drawing on personal experience here). When using fitness equipment one tends to find a rhythm which mimics the movement and efficiency of that particular piece of equipment. Once you get going on these things you try to maintain an almost mechanical pace dictated by the machine.

Its a symbiosis of sorts really. Man / Machine fusion and all that.

02:48 / 08.04.04

"boot-strapping". Humans think of ways of improving themselves by way of technology. This type of improvement is the hallmark of human kind. Since the first time we used a stone out in the wilderness of Africa till the latest installment of "The Matrix Movie". We have been using our mental prowess to help ourselves. As mentioned before there is a symbiosis between the insides and the outsides, between our inner selves and the outside world. Ideas come from inside and are translated to artifacts that complement/assist/excite the physical body which in turn complements/assists/excites our minds. I think that in the last decade this symbiosis is being pushed faster and faster. Cyborg will, in my opinion, become a term used when describing the most efficient use of our technology. An idealized cyborg would be a system where the border between the human and his technology will be intelligible, making it impossible to discern by an outside observer wether the human is using the technology or the technology is using the human. This kind of symbiosis already exists between our organs. They coexists as separate entities in some respects but in reality are one big symbiotic system. That same evolutionary force that created the human body is using the human mind and body to extend the human further with technological organs. And the moment we use our computers the way we use our hearts the cyborg would have taken another step in its evolution. This steps would of course have to be engineered by our minds thus "boot-strapping". We are basically pulling our selves from our boot straps.

sdv (non-human)

17:10 / 08.04.04

Here is a relevant website: file under cyber-facist

http://www.natasha.cc

sdv (non-human)

17:17 / 08.04.04

I've just scan read the emails: it is essential in my view that when thinking about the cyborg you avoid entering the extraordinarily dangerous "gernsberg contininuum" - Haraway and Gray both exist in that strange place where everything is white, the technology always works... and that peoples hair always ends up blonde (funny that). Gernsbackians always imagine that they will be ubermensch and that everyone else will be untermenschs...

Whilst the potential for cyber-fascism is high - the reality that should haunt them but doesn't is that the technology NEVER works, and they have never read Lyotard's The Inhuman...

18:36 / 08.04.04

I have not read Lyotard's 'The Inhuman' but im interested in this line of enquiry. Cyborgs and their technology tends to always be presented as a white idealwithin a caucasion context within the western world. Black or any other races or ethnic minorities never seem to be connected with the idea or imagery of the cyborg?
Are Cyborgs White and Western?
I would be interested in your thoughts or any information on this.

14:18 / 09.04.04

sdv - Have you read Haraway's original essay from the 80's??

Not to imply that just because somebody critiques the "received wisdom" of the white male technological structure, they can't slide into the Gernsback trap, but Haraway strikes me as being consciously anti-uber anything.

sdv (non-human)

17:12 / 13.04.04

Izabelle -

I agree that on a surface reading Haraway's work appears to be against the ubermensch. But that does not mean that the end result of the radical refusal and destructon of established categories such as 'women' and there replacement by american categories such as 'cyborg' (it is important to note that she writes the cyborg manifesto for an American audience, whereas we now live in deeply global days...) is not a conservative exclusion of 90% of humanity, let alone the non-humans we share this planet with...

20:10 / 28.04.04

Cyborgs are a theoretical concept in the same way that the Priests are. Units of semi-physical complexity that help define and shape the way we view the world.

I am quite interested in this concept but can anyone expand upon this ?