Honestly, I am very worry about I cannot get clear understanding of this unit in the first lessons. I have not clear idea of cybrogs even though I have some blogs. For me, blogging as a tool to express my feeling and communicate with other because of some times I don’t know how to express my feeling with others in reality. Therefore, blogging is one of the ways to express my feeling and became my hobbies.
Although weblog exercise and theories seems quiet academic. For me, the weblog provide a good platform for me to communicate with my classmates and have more interactive with them. Also, the presentation outlines is helpful for me because our classmates provide some good summaries of those week’s readings and I read it easily. Besides that, Wesley also highlights some key points for us in the tutorial. I think it is useful for us to get more clearly of readings.
After studying this course, I get a clear idea of cybrog. As a matter of fact, I am a cybrog. We are cybogs. Cybrog are everywhere in our daily life since technology complete our life. It totally shifts my impressions of cybrog which was like robot with human appearance before I study this course. And I learnt many new concepts which I never heard before, such as posthumand. Also, I like N. Katherine’s point in the How We Became Posthuman “the important intervention comes not when you try to determine which is the man, the woman, or the machine. Rather, the important intervention comes much earlier, when the test puts you into a cybernetic circuit that splices your will, desire, and perception into a distributed cognitive system in which represented bodies are joined with enacted bodies through mutating and flexible machine interfaces.”
Lastly, the 60% research essay is a bit too heavy for whole assessment and it make me worry and full of pressure. Also, critical annotated webliography is not easy to do too.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Kelvin's reflection
Nowadays, we have to rely on a lot of modern technologies. When television was invented in the mid 20th century, people sought it as the major source for entertainment. In the late 20th Century, the invention of computers changed our daily lives as computers are having a lot of different functions. The most significant function for computers in modern days is that computers become the major communication medium with the others. We are embodied to it. We can ask ourselves a question, is it possible for you to live without a computer? I would probably say: NO. Therefore, we are becoming cyborgs as we are merging into our computers.
First of all, I would say this course did help me to understand our concerns and problems in our modern technologies and it did meet the aim of the course. However, the percentage of the marks for different assignments should be balanced.
Secondly, the blogging exercise seems that it could not enhance communication and discussion between different tutorial classes. I hope that the blog can be combined together to stimulate discussions.
First of all, I would say this course did help me to understand our concerns and problems in our modern technologies and it did meet the aim of the course. However, the percentage of the marks for different assignments should be balanced.
Secondly, the blogging exercise seems that it could not enhance communication and discussion between different tutorial classes. I hope that the blog can be combined together to stimulate discussions.
reflective post
“Self. Net”, gave me the first impression that it seems to be quite difficult and hardly to be understood. But after having lectures and tutorials, it helps us to understand more about the negative and positive impact on technology which we may be neglected.
Writing weblogs become more popular today. It can be easily found and supported by different providers like blogspot that we used now, facebook, xanga, wordpress etc. I think it is very convenient for us to know others responses, how they feel and what information bought from an event. Also, it functioned as dairy and we often can get some updates from others. In this course, weblog become a tool for us to exchange knowledge and information. When we browsed some scholars or journalists blogs, it have given a platform and allowed different perspectives to criticize on one single event which can achieved greater varieties in discussion.
I believe that most people in 21st century are cyborg and myself included. It's quite hard for me to exclude technology in my life because it invaded our lives in different ways. Undoubtedly, we benefited from technology like it is easier to get communicated with others through internet or mobile phones. However, humans have a great dependency on it. Technology and humanity is still a controversial issue for people to debate. I think that there are still a room which needed to work hard in keeping the harmony between technology and humanity.
reflective post
After taking this course, I think it brings some new ideas, which challenges a boundary between human and robot that I have never thought before. With the development of technology, we use more and more technical products: we use an ipod to listen to music; we use some mobile phone to communicate with others. All those technical products become important elements in people living; we may say that people are no longer passive to consume them as the past. However, it is some kind of invading of human. At this moment, I would not think that I am a cyborg although I wear contact lens almost every day. However, I notice that human may not simply viewed as human in the modern days, we have to think about my roles in some extent that we may become a cyborg, for example, install some artificial parts in our body.
Moreover, I think that using weblog is a fresh practice in taking the course. Besides three hours lesson every week, it provides another platform for us to discuss some ideas, which we may not cover in lessons. Throughout a discussion, it helps us to learn more and understand the ideas more clear. It also gives us time to prepare for a discussion. It is easy for us to view and review others posts and comment whenever we want as well.
Lastly, I think that although some ideas covered in this course are quite difficult for me to understand, it provides some general ideas about cyborg, human and post-human, which we have to notice in the modern days. I think those daily examples happening around us, which mention in tutorials, are useful for me to understand some theories, because some theories are hard to get if we just read those articles.
Moreover, I think that using weblog is a fresh practice in taking the course. Besides three hours lesson every week, it provides another platform for us to discuss some ideas, which we may not cover in lessons. Throughout a discussion, it helps us to learn more and understand the ideas more clear. It also gives us time to prepare for a discussion. It is easy for us to view and review others posts and comment whenever we want as well.
Lastly, I think that although some ideas covered in this course are quite difficult for me to understand, it provides some general ideas about cyborg, human and post-human, which we have to notice in the modern days. I think those daily examples happening around us, which mention in tutorials, are useful for me to understand some theories, because some theories are hard to get if we just read those articles.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Reflective Post
This kind of assessment is quite refreshing. Using such form to do the assignment is like what I usually do in daily life with friends. I mostly interact with friends through facebook and MSN. When I do it in the same way in this weblog, I found that weblog discussion could be so serious like what we did here. However, my practice here is not as freely as what I am doing in facebook. It is because I would consider who audience to notice my post are and it is like a censorship in which lecture had the ultimate power among this virtual community. No doubt, it is a valuable experience of using weblog for giving more ideas, interactions and discussions with classmates. Besides, I could read more classmates’ works and be comment by others through this CMC technology. It helps me to learn a lot from them and have a better understanding of the course. Indeed, I need to be a cyborg as I have to use the technology to complete my assessments on weblog. Because of this, I can’t deny that I am not a cyborg; at least I should wear glasses to attend the classes. I think this weblog unit is the most interesting part in this course as it can help me to understand what means cyborg practically.
Reflective Post
I think the term that I always hear in the course is “cyborg”. Initially, I am very surprised to hear that we are “cyborg”. At least I wouldn’t expect glasses can turn us into “cyborg”. But then, I believed that I am a cyborg as my life becomes inseparable from the technologies. For example, I use my mobile phone to store up others’ phone number. And, once my computer is broken down, all my data and photos cannot be restored, I feel extremely moody as if I have lost part of my important memories. Technologies surround my life and influence my sentiment, and honestly, I cannot live without them.
As to the weblog, although I am used to post some dairies on my blog, this is fresh for me to submit my assignment in this form. Posting the Webliography on the blog and leaving comments to others are useful for exchanging opinions on the topic, helping us to have greater understanding about it. The outline of presentation also gives us a clearer concept of what others are going to say, which makes me easier to follow the presentation.
Finally, I think this course can help us to go deep into the relationship between human being and technology and the concept of “self” in this digital age in theoretical perspectives. But it is hard for me to understand all of them since I don’t have such fundamental knowledge or concept about this topic as well as the difficulty of absorbing those difficult theories.
As to the weblog, although I am used to post some dairies on my blog, this is fresh for me to submit my assignment in this form. Posting the Webliography on the blog and leaving comments to others are useful for exchanging opinions on the topic, helping us to have greater understanding about it. The outline of presentation also gives us a clearer concept of what others are going to say, which makes me easier to follow the presentation.
Finally, I think this course can help us to go deep into the relationship between human being and technology and the concept of “self” in this digital age in theoretical perspectives. But it is hard for me to understand all of them since I don’t have such fundamental knowledge or concept about this topic as well as the difficulty of absorbing those difficult theories.
Reflective Post
The weblogs function as a platform that allow me learn more about this course. The presentations of other classmates help me to know more about the readings. It is better than study the readings by myself. Besides, the weblogs facilitate practical experience of the concepts we learnt from the lessons.
To sum up, this course enables me critically evaluate the way identity is articulated via CMC. Also, it helps me develop critical skills of more generic utility relating to understand and evaluating identity, knowledge, texts and media in both offline and online contexts.
For me, the impressive concept I learnt from this course is cyborg. Doubtlessly, I am a cyborg. Although there are different definitions of cyborg, it is a word that was consisted of cybernetic and organism. I believe cyborg referred to a human being with bodily functions aided or controlled by technological devices, such as an oxygen tank, artificial heart valve or insulin pump. Over the years, the term has acquired a more general meaning, describing the dependence of human beings on technology. In this sense, cyborg can be used to characterize anyone who relies on a computer to complete their daily work. hence, with the aids of glasses, medicine, etc, I become a cyborg.
To sum up, this course enables me critically evaluate the way identity is articulated via CMC. Also, it helps me develop critical skills of more generic utility relating to understand and evaluating identity, knowledge, texts and media in both offline and online contexts.
For me, the impressive concept I learnt from this course is cyborg. Doubtlessly, I am a cyborg. Although there are different definitions of cyborg, it is a word that was consisted of cybernetic and organism. I believe cyborg referred to a human being with bodily functions aided or controlled by technological devices, such as an oxygen tank, artificial heart valve or insulin pump. Over the years, the term has acquired a more general meaning, describing the dependence of human beings on technology. In this sense, cyborg can be used to characterize anyone who relies on a computer to complete their daily work. hence, with the aids of glasses, medicine, etc, I become a cyborg.
Reflective post
I think weblog is an effective platform for learning purposes. First of all, the introduction of classmates provides a good chance for me to know more about them. Second, the outline and summary posted by my classmates before each tutorial class is useful for us to get the general idea of required readings. It is easy for us to catch the main idea of readings. As we have only 1 hour for tutorial class, so weblog is a good place for us to further discuss our opinions anywhere, anytime. Third, the Critical Annotated Webliography, I think it is good for us to read other classmates’ work and leave comment to them. For me, I can improve my work from reading comments which posted by my classmates. So, using weblog is a beneficial way for learning purposes.
It is interesting to learn the concept of cyborg from this unit. At the beginning, I felt confused about the concept of cyborg, because I thought cyborgs are robots, but not human. However, during the lectures, I found that people wearing glasses or contact lens, having plastic surgery can be regarded as cyborgs. In my opinion, I think those cloning human; people putting technical material into their body part are cyborgs. For me, in a world where I can’t live without technologies, I believe I am a cyborg.
Overall, I like this course, as it introduced many new concepts for me. Wesley always mentioned, traditionally, women are not expected to relating with technology or science. But today, the world is changing, many women like playing computer games and buying high-tech products.
In fact, I really appreciate that Wesley is always well prepared for the classes and provided some local examples to illustrate concepts, because some ideas from readings are abstract and hardly to understand.
It is interesting to learn the concept of cyborg from this unit. At the beginning, I felt confused about the concept of cyborg, because I thought cyborgs are robots, but not human. However, during the lectures, I found that people wearing glasses or contact lens, having plastic surgery can be regarded as cyborgs. In my opinion, I think those cloning human; people putting technical material into their body part are cyborgs. For me, in a world where I can’t live without technologies, I believe I am a cyborg.
Overall, I like this course, as it introduced many new concepts for me. Wesley always mentioned, traditionally, women are not expected to relating with technology or science. But today, the world is changing, many women like playing computer games and buying high-tech products.
In fact, I really appreciate that Wesley is always well prepared for the classes and provided some local examples to illustrate concepts, because some ideas from readings are abstract and hardly to understand.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Reflective Post
To be honest, I think this course is a bit difficult for me, as Wesley has introduced many new theories and ideas. Though some of the concepts are somehow not easy to understand, I think it is pretty interesting and worth learning. I especially enjoy the lessons about cyborgs, I have never studied and considered this “stuff” so seriously, those scholars’ ideas and examples towards cyborgs were quite new to me. Before attending this course, I thought cyborgs were robots with human appearance. During the lectures, I was told that a person with glasses or often with her computer can also be regarded as cyborgs, but I still insist my old idea at this moment, which cyborgs should something like robots with human appearance (maybe I have watched too much terminators^^), I don’t really think (or can’t accept) I am a cyborg.
Besides, I think the weblogs are quite convenient and useful, I can read others webliography just sitting in front of my computer. Moreover, the readings of this unit are rather puzzling, thus, it is nice that I can have a look of the readings outlines written by my classmates, this helps me to understand the readings more easily. Overall, I think this course is “new” and worth attending (truly from my heart).
Reflective Post
- The use of weblogs for learning purposes
Self.Net: Identity in the Digital Age is a very unique unit within these 2 years studying in UWA. It is because we have to work in the weblog time to time within the semester.
To have effective learning, interactive learning must be included as one of the elements. I think the use of weblogs for learning purposes can achieve it. I think the required assessments in this course are complementary well with each other.
It is especially to the case that student is required to post the outline or summary of his or her presentation before the tutorial class. It benefits others students a lot. First, it gives a way to the audience to understand the presentation content beforehand. So that when they sit in the tutorial class, they can be more focusing on the presentation and absorb the information. Moreover, since students are supposed to finish reading the proposed reading in that week before the tutorial class, more questions can be raised and discussed within the tutorial class. From the discussion, we learnt a lot as well. I think the weblog facilitate well among the assessments and can help us to have a better learning process.
As for the Critical Annotated Webliography, I think it is good for us to leave comment to the others. From the posted comment in my own post, I could be able to know the way how I could do this assessment in a better way. And by reading through other posts in this task, I could figured that there is a different way for others to interpret the same topics which the same as I did. Then, I could be learn in this way as well.
In my point of view, using weblog for the learning purpose does give us a lot of effective learning opportunity besides the assigned assessment. - Me? A cyborg? NO!
The first time I come across and learn the concept of cyborg is from this unit. However, after the whole unit I do not believe myself although I use many digital device everyday. For example, when I walk alone, I’d have my ear plug of my ipod on. I’d feel I am not alone once I get online at midnight. Yet, I still think that I am a so called human being instead of a cyborg. It is because I believe that I can live without these digital devices in my life. The reason why they are around me is just because we are now in a digital or technological world. It is because the consumption pattern we have and the way the world promotes the technologies. For instance, I know some friends like reading through the electronic books that SONY promote instead of the traditional one. But these are just the environments or say a trends made by many aspects within the world. Therefore, it’s something external from our body and it doesn’t count as part of us.
If you say that will I treat myself as a cyborg if I got an electronic heart implanted to continue myself. I’d say no as well, it is because I still got my soul, my own thought. I think that I am a human being and will never become a cyborg. It would happen only if I were caught by the alien and being transformed to be something else and I am not who I am. Then, that person would be treated as a cyborg. - Most liked and disliked
I like the knowledge that I got from this course the most. Take the chapter of the digital gender as an example, it inspired me to think more of the woman is being represented in the digital world in the perspective of a feminist. I think women can be much liberated by the means of the digital world. From the virtual community, they can really overthrow the idea of patriarchy system in the social community. In the coming future, maybe, it can be brought from the virtual to the social community. I am interested to have further study in this aspect.
The thing that I dislike the most of this subject is the proportion or distribution of the assessment within this subject. It might be said that only an essay which owns 60% of the whole course is quite normal and it’s the same when we have the thesis writing in the master degree. However, if the proportion of the essay must really be set as 60% from the overall course, then the workloads of other pieces of assessments should be reduced. It just makes our effort to disperse on various mini-tasks and they still carry certain amount of score. If we are supposed to focus on the essay in this unit, then there can still be some mini-task such as weblogs to do as an assessments but not too much and too odds and sods.
Lastly, I’d like to thank and appreciate to our lecture Wesley who gives us the detailed knowledge of this unit. His efforts and heart in teaching us can be seen especially during the tutorial classes. For instance, he prepared himself well and even underlined and written some notes on the readings for telling us the ideas and some difficult points from the readings during the tutorial class. His examples given to us for illustrating some of the theories are quite inspired and interesting as well. Thanks a lot!
Reflection of Stella :]
This is probably the last blog entry I have for this course. So, here comes to my self-reflection upon the course in this semester.
I guess I do believe I am a cyborg to a certain extent because I feel the majority of my life revolves around technology, whether it is at home, at work or even in university. Computers are an integral part of my life, and my home personal computer holds many memories for me in the form of photos as well as written texts. So I guess it is an extension of the memory in my brain. I would undoubtedly be devastated to lose the information on the computer but probably to a lesser extent than if I found out I had something like alzheimers. I guess what it comes down to though is that I can essentially function without technology, but it does play a huge role in my lifestyle.
As for the weblog, I think it is quite a useful and interesting tool for learning. It is really easy and convenient for me to post my blogs and comments onto it as we all can access it whenever or wherever we are. And I find this learning experience useful as I can value the opinions of others and help me understand more about the course materials, as well as the theories that we discussed during lectures and tutorials.
However, I do think the course has the initial heavy theoretical issues that we begun with. It scared me off a bit as the theory are really difficult and it took me time to understand and digest all of them. But as we continued I found the issues and concepts did actually relate to my own everyday life, which made it much easier to identify with them.
I guess I do believe I am a cyborg to a certain extent because I feel the majority of my life revolves around technology, whether it is at home, at work or even in university. Computers are an integral part of my life, and my home personal computer holds many memories for me in the form of photos as well as written texts. So I guess it is an extension of the memory in my brain. I would undoubtedly be devastated to lose the information on the computer but probably to a lesser extent than if I found out I had something like alzheimers. I guess what it comes down to though is that I can essentially function without technology, but it does play a huge role in my lifestyle.
As for the weblog, I think it is quite a useful and interesting tool for learning. It is really easy and convenient for me to post my blogs and comments onto it as we all can access it whenever or wherever we are. And I find this learning experience useful as I can value the opinions of others and help me understand more about the course materials, as well as the theories that we discussed during lectures and tutorials.
However, I do think the course has the initial heavy theoretical issues that we begun with. It scared me off a bit as the theory are really difficult and it took me time to understand and digest all of them. But as we continued I found the issues and concepts did actually relate to my own everyday life, which made it much easier to identify with them.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
presentation outline~Interactive Audiences?
Henry Jenkins, "Interactive Audiences?"
Dan Harries (ed.), The New Media Book, London: BFI Publishing, 2002, pp.157-170
Dan Harries (ed.), The New Media Book, London: BFI Publishing, 2002, pp.157-170
The new participatory culture in three trends:
~consumers can appropriate and recirculate media content
~do-it-yourself (DIY) media production
~economic trends encourage consumers to be more active
the new knowledge communities
~voluntary, temporary and shift from one community to another
the history of science-fiction fandom
~form some informal network
~circulating letters and convention
~many science-fiction writers emerge
Share knowledge~ information known by all members of a community
Collective intelligence~ knowledge available to all members of a commodity
computer brings some change to fandom
-express and receive instant response
-translate some Japanese programs for American
some conflicts among different people
e.g. between male and female fans, between different generations of fans.
knowledge cultures change the ways that commodity culture operates
building brand loyaltyà broaden consumers participation
-culture jammers want to opt out of media consumption
-fans see unrealized potential in popular culture ,want to broaden audience participation
Jenifa's reflective post
Finally, this is my last post in this unit.
Overall I think this unit is quite interesting yet a bit difficult that it had introduced some new concepts and theories regarding identity in this digital era. For instance, this was the first time that I have ever heard of the term “cyborg” – seems like a very techno-term but never thought of we might already been a cyborg ! While the term “cyborg” is viewed differently according to different people, for me, I think to little extent I could consider myself as a cyborg as I’m quite over-dependent on new technologies, (and as I’m shortsighted that I have to wear glasses or contact lenses everyday). I like the topic of “Resistance is Fertile” the most because it had introduced some new ideas that (luckily!) we are not merely passive recipients of new technologies, but we also have the power to resist the new technologies or commodification of cultural objects.
I think using Weblogs is appropriate and very suitable for this unit. It did helped us to learn apart from essay writing or presentation - especially when we have to post our presentation outline on Weblogs so that our classmates can comment on it and we can even have a discussion about the topics there. It provides a platform for us to have a more in-depth discussion rather than just hearing other’s presentation without commenting.
Some minor things that I think could be improved is that some topics are really a bit difficult and theorized, and there are topics that are already covered in some other units (like gender in playing games, online community), the weight of the final essay is a bit too heavy as well.
Overall I think this unit is quite interesting yet a bit difficult that it had introduced some new concepts and theories regarding identity in this digital era. For instance, this was the first time that I have ever heard of the term “cyborg” – seems like a very techno-term but never thought of we might already been a cyborg ! While the term “cyborg” is viewed differently according to different people, for me, I think to little extent I could consider myself as a cyborg as I’m quite over-dependent on new technologies, (and as I’m shortsighted that I have to wear glasses or contact lenses everyday). I like the topic of “Resistance is Fertile” the most because it had introduced some new ideas that (luckily!) we are not merely passive recipients of new technologies, but we also have the power to resist the new technologies or commodification of cultural objects.
I think using Weblogs is appropriate and very suitable for this unit. It did helped us to learn apart from essay writing or presentation - especially when we have to post our presentation outline on Weblogs so that our classmates can comment on it and we can even have a discussion about the topics there. It provides a platform for us to have a more in-depth discussion rather than just hearing other’s presentation without commenting.
Some minor things that I think could be improved is that some topics are really a bit difficult and theorized, and there are topics that are already covered in some other units (like gender in playing games, online community), the weight of the final essay is a bit too heavy as well.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Week 13 Presentation Outline -Smart Mobs
Howard Rheingold, ‘Smart Mobs: the power of the mobile many’ Network Logic. Eds. Helen McCarthy, Paul Miller and Paul Skidmore. London: Demos, 2004, pp. 191-202.
According to Howard Rheingold:
-Smart mobs consist of people who are able to act in concert even if they don’t know each other.
-‘Killer apps’ of tomorrow’s mobile infocom industry will be social practices.
1. Netwar
-The case of ‘People power’ in 2001
-The Battle of Seattle: the first ‘netwar’, use of wireless communications + mobile social networks , demonstrators had different interests but were united.
-The term “netwars,” by John Arquilla and David Ronfeldt
-Smart mobs: violent or non-violent netwar -> only a few of the many possible varieties of smart mob.
-Netwars -> share a similar technical infrastructure with other smart mobs
-New form of social organization, the network
-Networks constitute the newest major social organizational form, after tribes, hierarchies and markets.
2. Peer- to peer Journalism
- Potential for violence, malign purposes of smart mob technologies and techniques, non-violent smart-mobbing in the future, a few experiments of mobile communications are provided
- WearComp researcher, innovator and evangelist, Steve Mann launched ‘ENGwear’
3. Swarm intelligence
-PARC researchers have studied the dynamics of social systems -> a diversity of cooperation thresholds among the individuals -> tip a crowd into a sudden epidemic of cooperation
- Steven Johnson’s 2001 book Emergence ->
1) Kevin Kelly extrapolated from biological to technological networks,
2) apply to cities and Amazon.com’s recommendation system
3) In the case of the cities, the emergent intelligence resembles the ant mind, but humans posses extraordinary onboard intelligence or at least the capacity for it.
- Connections between the behavior of smart mobs and the behavior of swarm systems must be tentative.
Conclusion:
- raises three questions
- Smart mobs are not ‘thing’ -> could not be described with words, but Internet can do that, Internet -> what happened when a lot of computers started communicating
- Smart mobs -> unpredictable but at least partially describable emergent property
- more new media to invent
According to Howard Rheingold:
-Smart mobs consist of people who are able to act in concert even if they don’t know each other.
-‘Killer apps’ of tomorrow’s mobile infocom industry will be social practices.
1. Netwar
-The case of ‘People power’ in 2001
-The Battle of Seattle: the first ‘netwar’, use of wireless communications + mobile social networks , demonstrators had different interests but were united.
-The term “netwars,” by John Arquilla and David Ronfeldt
-Smart mobs: violent or non-violent netwar -> only a few of the many possible varieties of smart mob.
-Netwars -> share a similar technical infrastructure with other smart mobs
-New form of social organization, the network
-Networks constitute the newest major social organizational form, after tribes, hierarchies and markets.
2. Peer- to peer Journalism
- Potential for violence, malign purposes of smart mob technologies and techniques, non-violent smart-mobbing in the future, a few experiments of mobile communications are provided
- WearComp researcher, innovator and evangelist, Steve Mann launched ‘ENGwear’
3. Swarm intelligence
-PARC researchers have studied the dynamics of social systems -> a diversity of cooperation thresholds among the individuals -> tip a crowd into a sudden epidemic of cooperation
- Steven Johnson’s 2001 book Emergence ->
1) Kevin Kelly extrapolated from biological to technological networks,
2) apply to cities and Amazon.com’s recommendation system
3) In the case of the cities, the emergent intelligence resembles the ant mind, but humans posses extraordinary onboard intelligence or at least the capacity for it.
- Connections between the behavior of smart mobs and the behavior of swarm systems must be tentative.
Conclusion:
- raises three questions
- Smart mobs are not ‘thing’ -> could not be described with words, but Internet can do that, Internet -> what happened when a lot of computers started communicating
- Smart mobs -> unpredictable but at least partially describable emergent property
- more new media to invent
Jacqueline's reflective post
To be honest, it was really surprising to learn that one would be considered cyborg by having any single connection with technology. If this is really the case, we are all cyborg as we are now living in the digital age! In this sense, I can become a cyborg by just using computer/mobile phone, listening to ipod, wearing contact lens...etc. However, personally, I do not agree with such interpretation of cyborg. To me, cyborg should be like those as commonly shown in many sci-fi movies (part 'human' and part machine: they are actually completely robot, just that they are 'given' human-like appearance)
We are now living in the digital age, we rely heavily on technology and it is nearly impossible for us to be completely separated from technology. This is true, but I do not agree with the point that by simply having connection with technology, one would be considered cyborg. I think cyborg should not be defined in such a broad term. So I do not consider my self cyborg.
For the blogging exercises, it provides students with a good way to share ideas. I like the interactive nature of the blogging exercises. We can comment on other classmates' posts and share our thoughts on the subject matter regardless of time and space. We do not need to be face-to-face, by simply clicking the 'comment' button, we can share our thoughts together through the blog. We can have a more in-depth discussion on the subject matter and this enables us to have a better understanding of what we have learnt in class. Of course this would be even more effective if we are encouraged to blog more.
We are now living in the digital age, we rely heavily on technology and it is nearly impossible for us to be completely separated from technology. This is true, but I do not agree with the point that by simply having connection with technology, one would be considered cyborg. I think cyborg should not be defined in such a broad term. So I do not consider my self cyborg.
For the blogging exercises, it provides students with a good way to share ideas. I like the interactive nature of the blogging exercises. We can comment on other classmates' posts and share our thoughts on the subject matter regardless of time and space. We do not need to be face-to-face, by simply clicking the 'comment' button, we can share our thoughts together through the blog. We can have a more in-depth discussion on the subject matter and this enables us to have a better understanding of what we have learnt in class. Of course this would be even more effective if we are encouraged to blog more.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
The presentation outline-- Playing Games
The presentation outline-- Playing Games
'As We Become Machines: corporealized pleasures in video games' by Martti Lahti
-->The video games link players to entertainment technology in what is a ‘new cyborgian relationship’ which attempts to erase the boundary between the virtual and the real.
William Gibson: “sees the players as already being subsumed by the computer, already as a cyborg’.
Argument: The video games as a unique ‘paradigmatic site for producing, imaging and testing different kinds of relations between the body and technology in contemporary culture.’
--> far from being ‘meatless’
Two contentions:
1.) The aspiration of gaming technology is to ‘erase the boundary separating the player from the game world’
- the sense of physical immersion created by advances
- the use of techniques
--> fuses the players perspective with that of the games character, and creates the impression of a ‘limitless space opening behind the screen.’
2.) The games encourage a merger of perspectives and subjectivities with the onscreen world
- the video games simultaneously invite players to take pleasure in the visual representation of avatars onscreen.
- the pleasure from:
--> to control and construct the body we desire
--> to 'try on' different bodies
--> to 'trespass or toy with racial and sexual boundaries'
Conclusion: complex relations between the player and the machine's cybernetic system with which it relates through gameplay > the players are subsumed as a cyborg.
'As We Become Machines: corporealized pleasures in video games' by Martti Lahti
-->The video games link players to entertainment technology in what is a ‘new cyborgian relationship’ which attempts to erase the boundary between the virtual and the real.
William Gibson: “sees the players as already being subsumed by the computer, already as a cyborg’.
Argument: The video games as a unique ‘paradigmatic site for producing, imaging and testing different kinds of relations between the body and technology in contemporary culture.’
--> far from being ‘meatless’
Two contentions:
1.) The aspiration of gaming technology is to ‘erase the boundary separating the player from the game world’
- the sense of physical immersion created by advances
- the use of techniques
--> fuses the players perspective with that of the games character, and creates the impression of a ‘limitless space opening behind the screen.’
2.) The games encourage a merger of perspectives and subjectivities with the onscreen world
- the video games simultaneously invite players to take pleasure in the visual representation of avatars onscreen.
- the pleasure from:
--> to control and construct the body we desire
--> to 'try on' different bodies
--> to 'trespass or toy with racial and sexual boundaries'
Conclusion: complex relations between the player and the machine's cybernetic system with which it relates through gameplay > the players are subsumed as a cyborg.
The presentation outline-- Playing Games
Hot Dates and Fairy-Tale Romances----Mia Consalvo
Focus how the theories could apply in the case studies and how the norms of heterosexuality is in some way being challenged, but in fact reinforced in gameplay
1) Final Fantasy 9
idealizes the heterosexual romance
added many traditional norms in it to see the gender
Theory of erotic triangle
player-character relationship that emphasizes the nonsexual interest and affection between men, with female character to cover them as fears of being seen as gay
--> clashing of sexualized roles
The concept of Play---Johann Huizinga
“The disguised or masked individual ‘plays’ another part, another being. He is another being”
“a stepping out of ‘real’ life into a temporary sphere of activity with a disposition all of its own”
--> Players are masked to play various roles and being that roles in video game out of reality
2) The Sims
Structured polysemy game
Sexualities built on the activities but not identities
--> Limit radical potentials of sexualities (denied gay married status)
Theory of gay window advertising
Ambiguously to appeal both straight and gay players
Both of the games failed to challenge the heterosexuality because of the agency limited:
FF9:
The masked character does not stray far from the assumed identity of the game player (heterosexual male)
The Sims:
Forbidden of marriage between same-sex couples
Focus how the theories could apply in the case studies and how the norms of heterosexuality is in some way being challenged, but in fact reinforced in gameplay
1) Final Fantasy 9
idealizes the heterosexual romance
added many traditional norms in it to see the gender
Theory of erotic triangle
player-character relationship that emphasizes the nonsexual interest and affection between men, with female character to cover them as fears of being seen as gay
--> clashing of sexualized roles
The concept of Play---Johann Huizinga
“The disguised or masked individual ‘plays’ another part, another being. He is another being”
“a stepping out of ‘real’ life into a temporary sphere of activity with a disposition all of its own”
--> Players are masked to play various roles and being that roles in video game out of reality
2) The Sims
Structured polysemy game
Sexualities built on the activities but not identities
--> Limit radical potentials of sexualities (denied gay married status)
Theory of gay window advertising
Ambiguously to appeal both straight and gay players
Both of the games failed to challenge the heterosexuality because of the agency limited:
FF9:
The masked character does not stray far from the assumed identity of the game player (heterosexual male)
The Sims:
Forbidden of marriage between same-sex couples
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Presentation Outline: Online communities
"A Rape in Cyberspace" by Julian Dibbell
This reading is mainly about the Bungle Affair happened in an online space known as LambdaMOO and how the online community(LambdaMOO), including the victims of the affair, handled the case. The writer uses the Bungle Affair to bring out issues regarding online communities.
Here is the outline of my presentation:
1) Brief information on the Bungle Affair: a cyberrape performed by a player called Mr. Bungle
2) The Bungle case highlights issues regarding virtual community:
->the boundaries between real-life and virtual reality (virtual offense = real crime?)
->the regulation of online spaces
The reading leads us to think about issues of regulation within virtual worlds and also the boundary between real-life and virtual reality (e.g. what was the real-life legal status of virtual offense?)
Monday, April 13, 2009
Outline of this week presentation (Edith)
I am going to present “The Virtual Community” by Howard Rheingold on this Thursday, here is my presentation outline:
1) The online community which the author participated in, was called WELL (Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link), he found that…
-- “I was audience, performer and scriptwriter”
-- “I was participating in the self-design of a new kind of culture”
-- “begin to mix up with them (virtual community) in real life”
2) Our own thoughts towards Internet should be presented, as it might be used and shaped by the commercial and political parties in the future.
3) The writer considered that everything about the Internet grow extremely fast, even this article was written in 1993.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Week 10 Presentation – Resistance is Fertile
Article: Pranking Rhetoric: "Culture Jamming" as Media Activism by Christine Hardold.
Exploring the practice of "culture jamming" as a strategy of rhetorical protest.
The theory of "culture jamming"
An interruption / sabotage /hoax etc
The monolithic power structures governing the cultural life
“to introduce noise to signal”
the kind of “glutting” of the systems
Approaches raised by the author:
Joey oey Skaggs
- Opened a false dog brothel for dogs, and posted advertisements up. Skaggs quickly earning ABC News interviews and eventually even criminal charges.
®™ark
- Switched voice-chips within Barbie toys and G.I. Joe action figures and then returned them to stores
the Biotic Baking Brigade
- Plays with the image of power, and the media's obsession with images and scandal.
the American Legacy Foundation's INFKT Truth Campaign
- to urge the readers to “Spread the knowledge. Infect truth.”
Conclusion
Exploring the practice of "culture jamming" as a strategy of rhetorical protest.
The theory of "culture jamming"
An interruption / sabotage /hoax etc
The monolithic power structures governing the cultural life
“to introduce noise to signal”
the kind of “glutting” of the systems
Approaches raised by the author:
Joey oey Skaggs
- Opened a false dog brothel for dogs, and posted advertisements up. Skaggs quickly earning ABC News interviews and eventually even criminal charges.
®™ark
- Switched voice-chips within Barbie toys and G.I. Joe action figures and then returned them to stores
the Biotic Baking Brigade
- Plays with the image of power, and the media's obsession with images and scandal.
the American Legacy Foundation's INFKT Truth Campaign
- to urge the readers to “Spread the knowledge. Infect truth.”
Conclusion
Week 10 Presentation – Resistance is Fertile
Article : Consumption and digital commodities in the everyday (Mark Poster)
“Media are as old as culture, influencing, constraining, enhancing and generally making possible from the beginnings of human society the practice of culture”
“The modern city is becoming a labyrinth of images” (Michel de Certeau)
- a threat to agency, as a deterministic system that eviscerated the freedom of the individual and group.
Postmodern and modern consumption:
[postmodern consumption]: while the consumer renders products part of her/himself, becoming part of the experience of being with products (expresses one’s identity)
[modern consumption]: consumer objects represented social status
Thus identity becomes more mobile and fractured, subject to alternations in what and how one feels at the moment.
Globalization:
- hybridity of consumption patterns
e.g. exhibition of African art that depicted black African hairstyles as imitations of afro-american styles
The role of digital media play in the emergence of post-modern consumer culture:
Digital media radically transform both the cultural object and the subject position of the consumer.
[ Digitized cultural objects ] e.g. consumers become producers through the action of reproduction and distribution
Resistances of consumers toward culture industry:
[music and film]
Analogue record-->CD--> mp3 files -->digitally encoded movies
[TV commercials]
TV commercials – rests on the idea of delivering audiences to advertisers
, meaning tv programming is first and foremost a vehicle to attract audiences for the ‘real’ messages transmitted by tv
remote controls --> digital tv recorders
To conclude:
New technologies offer consumers the power to bypass or resist the commodification of cultural objects through ads
Shift of identities -->Consumers are also producers, distributors, reproducers of the commodity.
“Media are as old as culture, influencing, constraining, enhancing and generally making possible from the beginnings of human society the practice of culture”
“The modern city is becoming a labyrinth of images” (Michel de Certeau)
- a threat to agency, as a deterministic system that eviscerated the freedom of the individual and group.
Postmodern and modern consumption:
[postmodern consumption]: while the consumer renders products part of her/himself, becoming part of the experience of being with products (expresses one’s identity)
[modern consumption]: consumer objects represented social status
Thus identity becomes more mobile and fractured, subject to alternations in what and how one feels at the moment.
Globalization:
- hybridity of consumption patterns
e.g. exhibition of African art that depicted black African hairstyles as imitations of afro-american styles
The role of digital media play in the emergence of post-modern consumer culture:
Digital media radically transform both the cultural object and the subject position of the consumer.
[ Digitized cultural objects ] e.g. consumers become producers through the action of reproduction and distribution
Resistances of consumers toward culture industry:
[music and film]
Analogue record-->CD--> mp3 files -->digitally encoded movies
[TV commercials]
TV commercials – rests on the idea of delivering audiences to advertisers
, meaning tv programming is first and foremost a vehicle to attract audiences for the ‘real’ messages transmitted by tv
remote controls --> digital tv recorders
To conclude:
New technologies offer consumers the power to bypass or resist the commodification of cultural objects through ads
Shift of identities -->Consumers are also producers, distributors, reproducers of the commodity.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Presentation - Virtual Ethics
Topic: Virtual Ethics
Article: The Ethics of Pron on the Net – by Kath Albury
Perspectives on Pornography
a.) Immoral + NOT ethical
- Judeo-Christian
- Left-wing
Marxist
Feminist
- Feminist
Andrea Dworkin
b.) Immoral + Ethical
- Kathy Albury
- Don Slater
- Michael Foucault
Emergence of Porn on the net
Porno Communities formed
- no restrictions on the spread pornography
- invade our most private space
- Don Slater’s view
- Internet porn is formed in the virtual community
- a pleasurable space where people escape from the real life everyday
- part of everyday sexuality
- not de-humanizing or objectifying
- Some porn sites and sex chats list --> reveal the ethical sensibilities
Influence of the emergence
- Internet tells a different story of Porn
--> Amateurs do it for love but not money
--> atypical pornographic beauties created via the internet
--> sexual attractive women
- The rapid spread of sexual imagery --> internet porn’s ethical sensibility
- a facilitator to facilitate the anonymous sexual experimentation
- Relax the threaten of the cybersex and cyberporn
- Part of a spectrum of contemporary sexual tastes and practices
Conclusion: Pronography is immoral but Ethical
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Outline of Week 7 Presentation
Topic: Virtual Ethics
Article: Diary of a Webdiarist: Ethics goes Online
Margo Kingston
The article is the diary of an online journalist Margo Kingston.
A new form of journalism
1. Online Journalism and its differences from traditional journalism
2. “Trust” Ethics online
3. Relationship between journalists and readers
Arguments:
1. Anonymity online
2. Offensive articles online
3. Conflicts of interest
4. Plagiarism and corrections
Ethic codes of a Journalist.
Main argument of Margo Kingston:
- Online Journalism differs from Traditional Journalism
1. He possesses absolute power towards his online webdiary.
2. The distance between readers and the author is removed
- Mutual Trust between authors and readers
1. Facts are not created
2. Corrections on the blog
Article: Diary of a Webdiarist: Ethics goes Online
Margo Kingston
The article is the diary of an online journalist Margo Kingston.
A new form of journalism
1. Online Journalism and its differences from traditional journalism
2. “Trust” Ethics online
3. Relationship between journalists and readers
Arguments:
1. Anonymity online
2. Offensive articles online
3. Conflicts of interest
4. Plagiarism and corrections
Ethic codes of a Journalist.
Main argument of Margo Kingston:
- Online Journalism differs from Traditional Journalism
1. He possesses absolute power towards his online webdiary.
2. The distance between readers and the author is removed
- Mutual Trust between authors and readers
1. Facts are not created
2. Corrections on the blog
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Week 6 Presentation Outline
Here is my outline of "Hong Kong Cyberculture: A Case Study" by Amy Lai Tak-yee.
- Brief Introduction of article & author
- Background of ICERED
- Setting Boundaries of Users (Marginalization)
1. "Your English sucks" Accusation
2. The White Domination
3. The Sexist Threads
4. Homophobia and Queerness
- Impact on the Real World
1. The real imitates the virtual imitates the real
2. Online "celebrities"
3. Organizing real-life parties & gatherings
- Conclusion
1. ICERED loses popularity
2. Societal differences in online interactions (Hong Kong Vs. Singapore)
Sybil
- Brief Introduction of article & author
- Background of ICERED
- Setting Boundaries of Users (Marginalization)
1. "Your English sucks" Accusation
2. The White Domination
3. The Sexist Threads
4. Homophobia and Queerness
- Impact on the Real World
1. The real imitates the virtual imitates the real
2. Online "celebrities"
3. Organizing real-life parties & gatherings
- Conclusion
1. ICERED loses popularity
2. Societal differences in online interactions (Hong Kong Vs. Singapore)
Sybil
Outline of presetation - Week 6
Here is the outline of my presentation on Jerry Kang’s article “Rumination on Cyber-Race”.
1. The difference of constructing race between real world and cyberspace
- In real world, racial categorization is based on law and culture
- In cyberspace, racial mechanics are inefficient
- In cyberspace, anonymity is allowed
2. The possibility of abolition, integration and transmutation strategies on cyber-race
- Race cannot completely be abolished in cyberspace
- Several environmental conditions are significant for opposing the prejudice
- Cyber-passing cannot collapse social categories
3. The conflicts around these three strategies
- Abolition versus integration
- Abolition versus transmutation
1. The difference of constructing race between real world and cyberspace
- In real world, racial categorization is based on law and culture
- In cyberspace, racial mechanics are inefficient
- In cyberspace, anonymity is allowed
2. The possibility of abolition, integration and transmutation strategies on cyber-race
- Race cannot completely be abolished in cyberspace
- Several environmental conditions are significant for opposing the prejudice
- Cyber-passing cannot collapse social categories
3. The conflicts around these three strategies
- Abolition versus integration
- Abolition versus transmutation
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Critical Annotated Webliography (Question 2)
2. 'When the body is fractured into organs, fluids, and genetic codes, what happens to gender identity?' (Balsamo). Discuss some of the issues raised by the Visible Human Project about the embodiment gender, race and class.
The Visible Human Project Overview gives an overview of the Visible Human Project, which is one of the important terms that should be defined from the question. The official U.S. National Library of Medicine website describes the background and the methodology of the project thoroughly.
The project was established in 1989 in order to display the male and female anatomy visually. From this website, the details (i.e. data) of the project can be examined. It would be easier to see how it is related to the embodiment gender, race and class and how it challenges the notion of gender identity. There are problems with the Visual Human Project, however, such as the female corpse being from a woman who did not have reproductive organs that accurately represented one from a normal young woman. Additionally, the male was an executed man whose consent may have not been obtained willingly. Still, the Visual Human Project does fulfill its original purpose and has been a basis for many arguments and realizations in the scientific and general world.
In the article Both/And: Science Fiction and the Question of Changing Gender, Vint compared the different point of views by various authors regarding the issues of gender identity. The arguments of the authors can serve as evidence or counter-arguments for Balsamo's statement. It is essential to avoid bias when answering the stated question. Vint emphasizes the transsexual issue as it is controversial. Apart from this, Vint quotes Balsamo's line to support her ideas of speculative fiction.
It is also brought up that fictional bodies on the Internet have no definitive material form; they have no organs, no fluids. The online body can be any gender or no gender and can change between those forms at will. It will never be restricted by a form because such a construction cannot be created. The purpose of male and female is entirely temporal; there is no need for gender in a world that does not support reproduction. And so this point is particularly interesting because it raises the point of culture shaping gender, be it real culture or online culture.
Technologies of the Gendered Body: Reading Cyborg Women gives summaries of what Balsamo mentioned in her book. There is an introduction and six chapters that emphasize different gender issues. Although not all chapters are completely relevant to the stated question, it is still important to note what Balsamo believes. She suggests that women are reduced to "organs without bodies" and their surveillance is bred into society. People learn to treat women differently.
However, women have no organs online and thus their reproductive purpose is nullified. There is no meaning to gender on the Internet aside from ones our real life culture already created. However, the technology will bring women back eventually. The future will see that humanity and technology are inseparable and, though women have little place in modern technological history, technology is ultimately genderless and a rise for women will occur due to this.
Tara and Jui suggests in Anne Balsamo's Technologies of the Gendered Body: Reading Cyborg Women that gender has been forced upon technology because it is a part of culture and society. Humanity decided that the minds must be different and then, when that could not be proven, decided that women must be inferior due to their menstruation, child-bearing, and breasts. The old identities are easily recognized and we are trained to notice the differences from early ages. Society has no need for new definitions of body, new definitions of gender. People also cannot deny their real life experience and existence. There is no way to step away from the corporeal form and take an entirely virtual form. Therefore, even in cyberspace, gender remains to be constructed according to preformed ideas.
King discusses the problems revolving around current gender identities in Gender Identity Disorder: Analysis of a Cyberspace Support Group. There are potentially several genders aside from just male and female due to sexual preference and current biology. As well, such people that do not conform to the normal idea of gender are victimized in society and their abnormal gender endangers their mental health and living style. Even as the body has been torn apart, their will does not conform to their organs, the purpose that society decided they were to fulfill.
The cyberspace support group breaks down all the genders and creates a help group that is not concerned with sex or preference but with the support of each other. Breaking apart this boundary is essential to help because people are still too concerned with race, gender, and class. Even if the group will accept everyone, the person joining may feel insecure and may not receive the help that they need. People need cyberspace because it normalizes them into a state where they can be comfortable. They need not think about race, class, or gender because, for those moments, it does not exist.
Spittle suggests that social change and progression is inhibited by the rigid definitions of race, gender, and class from his article Gender, Subjectivity and Identity in Cyberspace. Humans have changed greatly as noted, we have become cyborgs in the sense that we are one with our machines to a point that we are inseparable from them. Yet we still focus on what we see in order to classify each other. Cyberspace takes away the visual; people can no longer see inside our bodies to see the reproductive organs as they can in the Visual Human Project. There is no identity but that created online, the avatar.
Some feminists have gone against this progression, however. They wish to create a united action of women that identifies them as equal to men instead of the erasure of all identities. If gender identities are destroyed, if the organs are no longer visible, then women here have become useless a second time. A patriarchal society should not be able to decide that gender is unnecessary just when women were beginning to make advances in society. Thus, progression is further hindered by conventional beliefs as well as specialist movements which seek to keep the status quo or promote their own agendas instead of embracing the future.
These six articles discuss the Visual Human Project and impose their findings, subjective or otherwise, in a format that clearly defines the past, present, and future of humanity. They explain in detail the evolution of humanity and the recognition that we are both our material bodies and we are not. At this time, we cannot separate from our reproductive organs and yet, what is a sterile man or a sterile woman? They may have the organs but they serve no reproductive purpose in society. Still, we subject them to the same identities because we have grown accustomed to them. Yet one day, our future cyborg selves may determine that such a definition has outlived its usefulness.
References
Balsamo, Anne,"Technologies of the Gendered Body: Reading Cyborg Women", Durham: Duke University Press, 1996. http://www.stumptuous.com/comps/balsamo.html (accessed 2 Mar 2009)
King, Storm A., "Gender Identity Disorder: Analysis of a Cyberspace Support Group", 1995, http://webpages.charter.net/stormking/gender.html (accessed 1 Mar 2009)
Spittle, Steve, "Gender, Subjectivity and Identity in Cyberspace", 1995, http://www.ucm.es/info/rqtr/biblioteca/ciberespacio%20gltb/Is%20Any%20Body%20Out%20There.pdf (accessed 1 Mar 2009)
Tara and Jui, "Anne Balsamo's Technologies of the Gendered Body: Reading Cyborg Women",
http://cndls.georgetown.edu/applications/posterTool/index.cfm?fuseaction=poster.display&posterID=3851 (accessed 2 Mar 2009)
U.S. National Library of Medicine, "The Visible Human Project Overview", 2003,
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/research/visible/visible_human.html (accessed 27 Feb 2009)
Vint, Sherryl, "Both/And: Science Fiction and the Question of Changing Gender",2002, http://www.strangehorizons.com/2002/20020218/both_and.shtml (accessed 1 Mar 2009)
Critical Annotated Webliography question 3
Frankenstein continues to occupy the popular imaginations as a monstrous scientist. Analyze some of the ways in which Frankenstein continues to haunt discussions of recent technologies.
Frankenstein is a typical representation of artificial technology. It reflects human beings are striving for more advancing technologies. Humanity is easily seen to be have greater challenged by the rise of artificial technologies. It draws the attention to the fear between humanity and technology and induced different debate over morality and technology. Different discussion about the reproductive technology and other perspective which related to Frankenstein were showed.
In “Biotechnology and the fear of Frankenstein"[1](Campbell, 2003), it mentioned that the story of Frankenstein is always used to discuss about biotechnology. Although Frankenstein is a story wrote in 19th century, it still has high relevance to nowadays even Frankenstein is a story written in 19the century. Campbell (2003) illustrated the difference between “scientific fact” and “science-fiction”. It discussed about 1970s DNA revolution caused the fear of Frankenstein as the myth of Frankenstein are realized not just the fantasy of a novel. As people can change or control the nature of human by biotechnology including DNA or genetic technology, it terrorized the human sense of identity, uniqueness and primacy. At the same time, Campbell pointed out that the ambition of Frankenstein to trace the sources is good, but needed to be careful and caring science which the technology is needed to avoid turning the success into abnormality just like Frankenstein. This paper is contained an in-depth discussion about Frankenstein. It is very useful to see the relationship between biotechnology and the story of Frankenstein, the fear of people about the biotechnology nowadays as Frankenstein myth may become real.
Damyanov[2]explored the influence of the science and technologies on the society with referring to the Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and William Gibson's Neuromancer. It examined that as the information and computer technologies provided human the knowledge and power over nature. As inequalities between human and nature would be increased by modern science, they would destroy the nature and caused different problems such as moral responsibility. Modern technologies such as genetic engineering increased the chances to manipulate life. The source allowed the exploration of the potential dangers and human anxiety in the discussion of another area of technologies. It did not only show the concern in aspects of moral and human nature, but also a new area that revealed the fear of technology with the possible consequence of dependency of technology.
Will technology change humanity, or has it already? [3] This article has provided a critical reflection of the advanced technology has changed the living culture. Humanity was declining towards the human communication and basic human nature. It has proved that the artificial technologies would take the advantage over everything and would be able to control the human life. The technology helped people solve different problems but it also bought out a number of issues have to concern. Things were getting into too complicated while our life are fully occupied by mechanical sense and can’t live without technologies. The human value now was totally relied on technology. It suggested that people have to postpone the rapid development of artificial technologies in order to give a space for people learn and enjoy the success of human evolution. And it reminded people that technology is just a most beneficialoutcome for the society. Then, it also reminded people not to be over controlled by the machine in which people can see the negative influence by the growth of new technologies from this article.
Sack's[4] article was about the question of the human nature and artificial intelligence, showed that the technology is too powerful to duplicate the ‘human nature’. He stated that it was easier for us to define the differences between us and them from artificial beings such as cyborgs and replicants, since machine was supposed not to have emotion and spirit. However, with the development of artificial intelligence, machine was indistinguishable from human. Therefore, human started to worry about the computer acts like a person, and himself as being like a computer. Therefore, Sack used the example of ELIZA to explain how the ‘Wired-style community’ disregarded the man-machine relationship. ELIZA was a computer program could carry on a textual conversation with people by varies replies. Scientists and researches have attempted to merge some human characteristics like the senses, perception and social discourse with computer. As the result, the artificial human perception and sensation of cybernetics would eliminate the artificial / natural boundary and which it challenged human identity.
From Technology vs. Humanity[5], which was written by a psychotherapist --Michael J. Hurd from the Capitalism Magazine, he pointed out that the technology has surpassed our humanity. The technology was designed and gave birth by the human. However, in nowadays, our technology has seems surpassed our humanity. As we were relied in these technologies too much, such as mobile phone, saving medicine, etc. If we didn’t get these things in our daily life, we seem we will not still alive. The Technology was become so powerful and it seems over controlling us. Our daily life was controlled by these technologies. Therefore, at the end of his article, he reminded us we should not rely on the technologies so much as we might lose our humanity if we were so fascinated in it. He believed that our human mind is the best among the others. And we should not let them to over controlling us and we need to talk a balance between the technology and our humanity.
Encountering the Frankenstein Complex [6]discussed the Frankenstein Complex that is the fear towards technology in aspects of robots. It indicated the possible risk of the robots with artificial intelligence. For examples, the harm to humanity, the replacement of the human by machines with artificial intelligence and which may cause that the robot may be out of control. On the other, the author argued that the risk of destroying the humanity may not happen based on three factors such as avoidance of producing the human-level robots and the economic. And he concluded with possibility of the risk of robots and artificial intelligence but a belief of the human life will be inevitably supplemented with robots or machines in future. With the negative impact suggesting inside, the article showed how the fear of technology revealing in other field of technology in robotics and artificial intelligence and thus support the assumptions of Frankenstein haunting the discussion of recent technologies. Moreover, an interesting point was brought out that whether the fear of technology will continue in the discussion of technology if the human life was inevitably full of technology in future and we almost become cyborg in some extents.
In the conclusion, the popular imagination of Frankenstein would continue a controversial argument to the recent technology especially relate to the evolution of artificial technology. Moreover, moral and ethnic issues increasingly bring up to the mainstream topic of technological development and they are gradually being popular to be more concerned and discuss. There are some similarities could be found between Frankenstein and artificial intelligence, but mostly the humanity aspect is still being challenged and constrained.
References:
[1]Campbell, C. S. (2003). Biotechnology and the Fear of Frankenstein. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, 12. Retrieved from February 27, 2009, from http://journals.cambridge.org.eproxy2.lib.hku.hk/action/displayFulltext?type=1&fid=170174&jid=CQH&volumeId=12&issueId=04&aid=170172
[2]Damyanov, Orlin. (1996). Technology and its Dangerous Effects on Nature and Human life as Perceived in Mary Shelly's Frankenstein and William Gibson's Neuromancer. Retrieved February 29, 2009, from http://www.geocities.com/Paris/5972/gibson.html
[3]Robin, P. (2005) Will Technology changed humanity, or has it already?. Canada Free Press, Retrieved February 27, 2009, fromhttp://www.canadafreepress.com/2005/robin022805.htm
[4] Sack, Warren. (1998) ‘Artificial Human Nature’. (Retrieved 27 February,2009)
http://project.cyberpunk.ru/idb/artificial_human_nature.html#fnB11
[5] Michael J. Hurd, Technology vs. Humanity on Capitalism Magazine ( 2001) (retreived 28 February 2009)
http://capmag.com/article.asp?id=152
[6]Lee, McCauley. (2007). Enountering the Frankenstein Complex. Retrieved from February 29, 2009, http://www-robotics.usc.edu/~tapus/AAAISpringSymposium2007/submissions/aaai_ss_07_id06.pdf
Frankenstein is a typical representation of artificial technology. It reflects human beings are striving for more advancing technologies. Humanity is easily seen to be have greater challenged by the rise of artificial technologies. It draws the attention to the fear between humanity and technology and induced different debate over morality and technology. Different discussion about the reproductive technology and other perspective which related to Frankenstein were showed.
In “Biotechnology and the fear of Frankenstein"[1](Campbell, 2003), it mentioned that the story of Frankenstein is always used to discuss about biotechnology. Although Frankenstein is a story wrote in 19th century, it still has high relevance to nowadays even Frankenstein is a story written in 19the century. Campbell (2003) illustrated the difference between “scientific fact” and “science-fiction”. It discussed about 1970s DNA revolution caused the fear of Frankenstein as the myth of Frankenstein are realized not just the fantasy of a novel. As people can change or control the nature of human by biotechnology including DNA or genetic technology, it terrorized the human sense of identity, uniqueness and primacy. At the same time, Campbell pointed out that the ambition of Frankenstein to trace the sources is good, but needed to be careful and caring science which the technology is needed to avoid turning the success into abnormality just like Frankenstein. This paper is contained an in-depth discussion about Frankenstein. It is very useful to see the relationship between biotechnology and the story of Frankenstein, the fear of people about the biotechnology nowadays as Frankenstein myth may become real.
Damyanov[2]explored the influence of the science and technologies on the society with referring to the Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and William Gibson's Neuromancer. It examined that as the information and computer technologies provided human the knowledge and power over nature. As inequalities between human and nature would be increased by modern science, they would destroy the nature and caused different problems such as moral responsibility. Modern technologies such as genetic engineering increased the chances to manipulate life. The source allowed the exploration of the potential dangers and human anxiety in the discussion of another area of technologies. It did not only show the concern in aspects of moral and human nature, but also a new area that revealed the fear of technology with the possible consequence of dependency of technology.
Will technology change humanity, or has it already? [3] This article has provided a critical reflection of the advanced technology has changed the living culture. Humanity was declining towards the human communication and basic human nature. It has proved that the artificial technologies would take the advantage over everything and would be able to control the human life. The technology helped people solve different problems but it also bought out a number of issues have to concern. Things were getting into too complicated while our life are fully occupied by mechanical sense and can’t live without technologies. The human value now was totally relied on technology. It suggested that people have to postpone the rapid development of artificial technologies in order to give a space for people learn and enjoy the success of human evolution. And it reminded people that technology is just a most beneficialoutcome for the society. Then, it also reminded people not to be over controlled by the machine in which people can see the negative influence by the growth of new technologies from this article.
Sack's[4] article was about the question of the human nature and artificial intelligence, showed that the technology is too powerful to duplicate the ‘human nature’. He stated that it was easier for us to define the differences between us and them from artificial beings such as cyborgs and replicants, since machine was supposed not to have emotion and spirit. However, with the development of artificial intelligence, machine was indistinguishable from human. Therefore, human started to worry about the computer acts like a person, and himself as being like a computer. Therefore, Sack used the example of ELIZA to explain how the ‘Wired-style community’ disregarded the man-machine relationship. ELIZA was a computer program could carry on a textual conversation with people by varies replies. Scientists and researches have attempted to merge some human characteristics like the senses, perception and social discourse with computer. As the result, the artificial human perception and sensation of cybernetics would eliminate the artificial / natural boundary and which it challenged human identity.
From Technology vs. Humanity[5], which was written by a psychotherapist --Michael J. Hurd from the Capitalism Magazine, he pointed out that the technology has surpassed our humanity. The technology was designed and gave birth by the human. However, in nowadays, our technology has seems surpassed our humanity. As we were relied in these technologies too much, such as mobile phone, saving medicine, etc. If we didn’t get these things in our daily life, we seem we will not still alive. The Technology was become so powerful and it seems over controlling us. Our daily life was controlled by these technologies. Therefore, at the end of his article, he reminded us we should not rely on the technologies so much as we might lose our humanity if we were so fascinated in it. He believed that our human mind is the best among the others. And we should not let them to over controlling us and we need to talk a balance between the technology and our humanity.
Encountering the Frankenstein Complex [6]discussed the Frankenstein Complex that is the fear towards technology in aspects of robots. It indicated the possible risk of the robots with artificial intelligence. For examples, the harm to humanity, the replacement of the human by machines with artificial intelligence and which may cause that the robot may be out of control. On the other, the author argued that the risk of destroying the humanity may not happen based on three factors such as avoidance of producing the human-level robots and the economic. And he concluded with possibility of the risk of robots and artificial intelligence but a belief of the human life will be inevitably supplemented with robots or machines in future. With the negative impact suggesting inside, the article showed how the fear of technology revealing in other field of technology in robotics and artificial intelligence and thus support the assumptions of Frankenstein haunting the discussion of recent technologies. Moreover, an interesting point was brought out that whether the fear of technology will continue in the discussion of technology if the human life was inevitably full of technology in future and we almost become cyborg in some extents.
In the conclusion, the popular imagination of Frankenstein would continue a controversial argument to the recent technology especially relate to the evolution of artificial technology. Moreover, moral and ethnic issues increasingly bring up to the mainstream topic of technological development and they are gradually being popular to be more concerned and discuss. There are some similarities could be found between Frankenstein and artificial intelligence, but mostly the humanity aspect is still being challenged and constrained.
References:
[1]Campbell, C. S. (2003). Biotechnology and the Fear of Frankenstein. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, 12. Retrieved from February 27, 2009, from http://journals.cambridge.org.eproxy2.lib.hku.hk/action/displayFulltext?type=1&fid=170174&jid=CQH&volumeId=12&issueId=04&aid=170172
[2]Damyanov, Orlin. (1996). Technology and its Dangerous Effects on Nature and Human life as Perceived in Mary Shelly's Frankenstein and William Gibson's Neuromancer. Retrieved February 29, 2009, from http://www.geocities.com/Paris/5972/gibson.html
[3]Robin, P. (2005) Will Technology changed humanity, or has it already?. Canada Free Press, Retrieved February 27, 2009, fromhttp://www.canadafreepress.com/2005/robin022805.htm
[4] Sack, Warren. (1998) ‘Artificial Human Nature’. (Retrieved 27 February,2009)
http://project.cyberpunk.ru/idb/artificial_human_nature.html#fnB11
[5] Michael J. Hurd, Technology vs. Humanity on Capitalism Magazine ( 2001) (retreived 28 February 2009)
http://capmag.com/article.asp?id=152
[6]Lee, McCauley. (2007). Enountering the Frankenstein Complex. Retrieved from February 29, 2009, http://www-robotics.usc.edu/~tapus/AAAISpringSymposium2007/submissions/aaai_ss_07_id06.pdf
critical annotated webliography
In a reading written by Jennifer Gonzalez, “Envisioning cyborg bodies: notes from current research”, it mentions about different kinds of cyborg, some of their parts are electronic or mechanical. It indicates that a notion of cyborg can be related to gender and social status which have been brought out in the past century. The writer states that the cyborg body becomes the historical record of changes in human perception, thus cyborg helps people to understand contemporary society. Besides that, photomontage would be an appropriate channel to view on cyborg, e.g. Dadaist Raoul Hausmann’s assemblags Tete Mechanique. For an advertisement published in 1993, which promotes a fax machine, using the concept of cyborg to promote the speedy of fax machine. It is found that cyborg could also be applied on political sphere, when soldiers would be mechanical; they can use their certain ability in a battle. Lastly, it gives an example of a character in Japan comic book Silent Mobius, and then brings out some questions for people to think about differences between human being and cyborg. From the reading, it indicates that cyborg is not only a topic for technology; however, it can apply on different circumstances and stages during people keep going for development and evolution.
There is a reading discussing about urban discourses entitled as “Cyborg Urbanization: Complexity and Monstrosity in the Contemporary City” by Matthew Gandy, it tries to explore the haphazard presence of cyborg in current urban discourses. Considering cyborg, it is viewed as sophisticated creation in modern society, and it starts to challenge some traditional and original ideas among people. The cyborg figure becomes a sign of militarization in society, as people find that technology is a crucial factor for getting victory in present battles. Also, social welfare is also related to technology, in the coming future, we may face lot of challenges and changes from developing technology and cyborg. It mentions that a creation of cyborg may be viewed as being “post human”, and it also emancipates people between illusion and reality, as cyborg is a combination of robot and human. Some people suggest that cyborg can form a new kind of social interaction when some oppose because it causes some confusion of human thought. Besides that, the reading points out that all people have contributed to the existence of cyborg, because we living in one world, we also help to build up cultural and technical sphere. It helps people to know more about urban discourses and influences from cyborg.
Moreover, in a book, “The Cyborg Experiments the extensions of the body in the media age”, there is a chapter “The Human/ Not Human in the Work of Orlan and Stelarc” from Julie Clarke. It raises a notion of post human which is always linked to cyborg, that a human identity is being “other” than itself, and that self is being changed and mediated by technology. The visual image and of the post-human is both a fact and fiction by its representation but also product of the imaginary. Donna Haraway suggests that trans-human means “across” or “beyond”, it includes transition or interaction between two objects, for example, human and machine. In addition, the images of cyborg appear in many science fiction films such as The Terminator and Westworld, are part human and part machine. When cyborg is getting hurt or die, the loss is not only of the body but also the self. Lastly, it states that the cyborg request the uncanniness associated with body mutation and fragmentation, when they are death, a decomposition of its bodies would be unusual and out of people expectation.
Besides the above reading mentioned about post human, another book, “Posthuman bodies” also focuses on it. It is going to examine the reading, “Terminating Bodies: Toward a Cyborg History of Abortion” written by Carol Mason, it talks about cyborg would be divided into good and bad rising by Andrew Ross and cyborgism from being a myth. There is a novel “He, She, and It”, written by Mary Piercy, which represents good cyborg intensifying identities and boundaries marked by sexual differences. And, in Terminator 2, it also encourages audiences to divide cyborg into good or bad. We have to notice about the color of cyborg as it contains special meanings as well. For example, in Terminator 2, the “fact of blackness” is the most immutable and reasonable signifier of individual embodiment. Afterwards, Connor and Dyson do not only show black or white, female or male, but it represents a certain extent of masculinities and sexualities. They re-produce race, gender and class not according to their own bodies but depend on historical discourses. Moreover, one of main troubles faced by cyborg, according to Haraway, “is that they are the illegitimate offspring of militarism and patriarchal capitalism”. They would be viewed as unfaithful as they are made of the stuff. Lastly, it brings out an idea that a fetus as black when women as white according to terrorist Paul Hill for people to notice abortion as a contest between races.
An article post on The New York Times on 2 March 2003 is talking about influences of media and technology, which focuses on whether violent video games would bring children to be more aggressive or not. It mentions a science research about mobile phone help to train young people having more powerful thumbs, then, it shows some notion of technology and cyborg transforming the body in its own image in present society. The early idea of cyborgian life is about at the Enlightenment, as shown in Gaby Wood’s book, “Edison’s Eve”, he tries to make a talking doll figure. Afterwards, there is a cyberfeminist, Sadie Plant; she also does some digital research. Although many robotic engineers try to create cyborg to be more humanlike, they still face lots of difficulties in doing it. However, there are some examples we should not overlook, for example, cosmetic plastic surgery, chip attached to arm, Superthumbs and Robocop-like visual scanning could be viewed as virtual implants, and people can put it with machine intelligence into human bodies without surgery. It reveals that notion of cyborg is no longer strange to the public; it is going to develop functions and characteristics into human bodies.
Reference
Clarke, J. “The Human/ Not Human in the Work of Orlan and Stelarc” The Cyborg Experiments the extensions of the body in the media age. J. Zylinska. Continuum: London. New York. http://books.google.com/books?hl=zh-TW&lr=&id=iWbtdujciTIC&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=cyborg&ots=ugP9YD18bl&sig=Tm_Hf5cjkcTTAqc7C1Z7WjRiH7U#PPA39,M1 (accessed 3 Mar 2009)
Mason, C. “Terminating Bodies: Toward a Cyborg History of Abortion” Posthuman bodies. Eds. J. Halbertstam and I. Livingston. Indiana University Press: Bloomington and Indianapolis.
http://books.google.com/books?hl=zh-TW&lr=&id=MkQPztA7TTIC&oi=fnd&pg=PA225&dq=cyborg&ots=3uaQvL3b9z&sig=gZzvYr1wdTFluJOvk3z7pAzPM6g#PPA240,M1 (accessed 3 Mar 2009)
Gandy, M. “Cyborg Urbanization: Complexity and Monstrosity in the Contemporary City” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. Vol. 29.1. Mar. 2005: 26-49. http://www.geog.ucl.ac.uk:8080/print-version/about-the-department/people/academics/matthew-gandy/files/pdf1.pdf (accessed 3 Mar 2009)
Gonzalez, J. “Envisioning cyborg bodies: notes from current research” Maryflanagan
http://www.maryflanagan.com/private/essays/gonzalez01.pdf (accessed 3 Mar 2009)
Talbot, M. “The Way we live now: 6-15-03; My Son, the Cyborg” The New York Times 15.6 (2003).
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9905EFDC1339F936A25755C0A9659C8B63&scp=5&sq=cyborg&st=cse (accessed 3 Mar 2009)
There is a reading discussing about urban discourses entitled as “Cyborg Urbanization: Complexity and Monstrosity in the Contemporary City” by Matthew Gandy, it tries to explore the haphazard presence of cyborg in current urban discourses. Considering cyborg, it is viewed as sophisticated creation in modern society, and it starts to challenge some traditional and original ideas among people. The cyborg figure becomes a sign of militarization in society, as people find that technology is a crucial factor for getting victory in present battles. Also, social welfare is also related to technology, in the coming future, we may face lot of challenges and changes from developing technology and cyborg. It mentions that a creation of cyborg may be viewed as being “post human”, and it also emancipates people between illusion and reality, as cyborg is a combination of robot and human. Some people suggest that cyborg can form a new kind of social interaction when some oppose because it causes some confusion of human thought. Besides that, the reading points out that all people have contributed to the existence of cyborg, because we living in one world, we also help to build up cultural and technical sphere. It helps people to know more about urban discourses and influences from cyborg.
Moreover, in a book, “The Cyborg Experiments the extensions of the body in the media age”, there is a chapter “The Human/ Not Human in the Work of Orlan and Stelarc” from Julie Clarke. It raises a notion of post human which is always linked to cyborg, that a human identity is being “other” than itself, and that self is being changed and mediated by technology. The visual image and of the post-human is both a fact and fiction by its representation but also product of the imaginary. Donna Haraway suggests that trans-human means “across” or “beyond”, it includes transition or interaction between two objects, for example, human and machine. In addition, the images of cyborg appear in many science fiction films such as The Terminator and Westworld, are part human and part machine. When cyborg is getting hurt or die, the loss is not only of the body but also the self. Lastly, it states that the cyborg request the uncanniness associated with body mutation and fragmentation, when they are death, a decomposition of its bodies would be unusual and out of people expectation.
Besides the above reading mentioned about post human, another book, “Posthuman bodies” also focuses on it. It is going to examine the reading, “Terminating Bodies: Toward a Cyborg History of Abortion” written by Carol Mason, it talks about cyborg would be divided into good and bad rising by Andrew Ross and cyborgism from being a myth. There is a novel “He, She, and It”, written by Mary Piercy, which represents good cyborg intensifying identities and boundaries marked by sexual differences. And, in Terminator 2, it also encourages audiences to divide cyborg into good or bad. We have to notice about the color of cyborg as it contains special meanings as well. For example, in Terminator 2, the “fact of blackness” is the most immutable and reasonable signifier of individual embodiment. Afterwards, Connor and Dyson do not only show black or white, female or male, but it represents a certain extent of masculinities and sexualities. They re-produce race, gender and class not according to their own bodies but depend on historical discourses. Moreover, one of main troubles faced by cyborg, according to Haraway, “is that they are the illegitimate offspring of militarism and patriarchal capitalism”. They would be viewed as unfaithful as they are made of the stuff. Lastly, it brings out an idea that a fetus as black when women as white according to terrorist Paul Hill for people to notice abortion as a contest between races.
An article post on The New York Times on 2 March 2003 is talking about influences of media and technology, which focuses on whether violent video games would bring children to be more aggressive or not. It mentions a science research about mobile phone help to train young people having more powerful thumbs, then, it shows some notion of technology and cyborg transforming the body in its own image in present society. The early idea of cyborgian life is about at the Enlightenment, as shown in Gaby Wood’s book, “Edison’s Eve”, he tries to make a talking doll figure. Afterwards, there is a cyberfeminist, Sadie Plant; she also does some digital research. Although many robotic engineers try to create cyborg to be more humanlike, they still face lots of difficulties in doing it. However, there are some examples we should not overlook, for example, cosmetic plastic surgery, chip attached to arm, Superthumbs and Robocop-like visual scanning could be viewed as virtual implants, and people can put it with machine intelligence into human bodies without surgery. It reveals that notion of cyborg is no longer strange to the public; it is going to develop functions and characteristics into human bodies.
Reference
Clarke, J. “The Human/ Not Human in the Work of Orlan and Stelarc” The Cyborg Experiments the extensions of the body in the media age. J. Zylinska. Continuum: London. New York. http://books.google.com/books?hl=zh-TW&lr=&id=iWbtdujciTIC&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=cyborg&ots=ugP9YD18bl&sig=Tm_Hf5cjkcTTAqc7C1Z7WjRiH7U#PPA39,M1 (accessed 3 Mar 2009)
Mason, C. “Terminating Bodies: Toward a Cyborg History of Abortion” Posthuman bodies. Eds. J. Halbertstam and I. Livingston. Indiana University Press: Bloomington and Indianapolis.
http://books.google.com/books?hl=zh-TW&lr=&id=MkQPztA7TTIC&oi=fnd&pg=PA225&dq=cyborg&ots=3uaQvL3b9z&sig=gZzvYr1wdTFluJOvk3z7pAzPM6g#PPA240,M1 (accessed 3 Mar 2009)
Gandy, M. “Cyborg Urbanization: Complexity and Monstrosity in the Contemporary City” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. Vol. 29.1. Mar. 2005: 26-49. http://www.geog.ucl.ac.uk:8080/print-version/about-the-department/people/academics/matthew-gandy/files/pdf1.pdf (accessed 3 Mar 2009)
Gonzalez, J. “Envisioning cyborg bodies: notes from current research” Maryflanagan
http://www.maryflanagan.com/private/essays/gonzalez01.pdf (accessed 3 Mar 2009)
Talbot, M. “The Way we live now: 6-15-03; My Son, the Cyborg” The New York Times 15.6 (2003).
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9905EFDC1339F936A25755C0A9659C8B63&scp=5&sq=cyborg&st=cse (accessed 3 Mar 2009)
CRITICAL ANNOTATED WEBLIOGRAPHY
Anne Balsamo claims that ‘Cyborgs are hybrid entities that are neither wholly technological nor completely organic, which means that the cyborg has the potential not only to disrupt persistent dualisms that set the natural body in opposition to the technologically recrafted body, but also to refashion our thinking. In short, cyborg is still a transgressive figure’[1] . The major resource that I used to locate sources was the search engine Google, especially the Google Scholar.
Reading Cybogs, writing Feminism is one of the charters of Technologies of the Gender Body. It is a useful article which was written by Anne Marie Balsamo, the writer of the above argument. This article begins with a review of famous cyborgs in popular culture. Balsamo states that “Cyborg bodies are definitionally transgressive of the dominant culture order, not so much because of their ‘constructed’ nature, but rather because of indeterminacy of their hybrid design”[2]. The statement strongly points out that the ‘hybrid design’ is an important reason for the cyborg’s transgressive figure. Cyborg also provides a framework for studying gender identity. The article reread Michel Foucault through various feminist studies of the historical construction of the gendered body. Then, in the second part of the article she draws on Norbert Wiender’s theory of cybernetics and Marshall Mcluhan’s media analysis to discuss the role of the female body in one well-known account of the postmodern body. And finally, she concludes with a discussion of a range of feminist scholarship on the body that establishes the importance of maintaining an emphasis on the notion of a material body by promoting a gendered body that has been not simply material but rather a hybrid construction of materiality and discourse. Balsamo also discusses works by Donna Haraway, Ruth Bleier, and Paula Treichler, who in different ways investigate how the material female body is actually constructed by and within discourse to support the argument.
In Rene Munnik’s Donna Haraway: Cyborgs for earthly Survival?, she first discusses Donna Jeanne Haraway’s article, which entitled “Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the 1980s”. Haraway provides a definition of cyborg, which is “a bionic being, partly human and partly robot—a being in which the border between nature and culture is blurred in a body that mingles flesh and titanium”[3]. The blurred boundaries for the hybrid design of cyborg made it become transgressive. By the same time, Haraway proposes that people should imagine cyborgs as beings that bourdaries, bastardizations of humans and technology, which was already the view of Clynes, Kline, and Minsky[4]. After that Rene Munnik mentioned cyborgs are transgressive of boundaries, which corrupt beings and chimerical monsters. And Cyborgs are not unambiguously identifiable as “man” or “woman,” “nature” or “culture”, “human” or “machine”. This point was expressed with reference to language. Finally she discusses some political analysis of Haraway’s article. This article is useful for answering the guiding question, as the writer discuss transgressive boundaries of cyborg by analysis Donna Haraway’s earlier article.
Cyberspace/Cyberbodies/Cyberpunk The book first discuss what a cyborg is and which is clear that an overriding theme in the writings of William Gibson, McHale, Csicsery-Ronay and a number of contributions to McCaffrey is the assumption that the boundaries between subjects, their bodies and the ‘outside world’ are being radically reconfigured[5]. That means the analytical categories derive from the fundamental division between technology and nature, are in danger of dissolving, the categories of the biological, the technological, the natural, the artificial and the human are beginning to blur. These contributions strongly support the argument which I choose for this assignment. The author argues that it is the extent and complexity of the changes from the mainstreaming of cosmetic surgery, also rise of biotechnology, genetic engineering and nanotechnology, which have led some to predict that the next generation could well be the last of ‘pure’ humans. And something worried the author is that if there is an increasing acceptance of cosmetic surgery by consumers and other associated technological interventions to modify the body, over the last decade are at all indicative of future trends, then the next 50 years will see even more radical plastic surgery, computer-chip brain implants and gene splicing become routine[6]. The transformation of body was usually being considered when discussing the topic of cyborg and its transgressive figure.
In Robbie Davis-Floyd and Joseph Dumit’s Cyborg Babies: From Techno-Sex to Techno-Tots Cyborg Babies is an exploration of the increasingly pervasive role of technology in how children are brought into and raised in our society. From fetuses scanned ultrasonically to computer hackers in daycare, contemporary children are being rendered cyborg by their immersion in technoculture. Besides, a range of perspectives are heard, from cultural anthropologists to social critics, as they offer cutting-edge critiques and personal narratives of how, as we are faced with reproductive choices connected directly with technologies. The writers try to discuss some of the ways in which North American women may use the “transgressed boundaries and potent fusions” of ultrasound’s cybory fetus to reflect on and rework their experiences of pregnancy[7]. The article about cybory babies shows that the new technology may reflect the transgressive figure of cyborgs, either using the technology to reproduce baby, or a man become pregnancy. Nowadays, we often have trouble gaining perspective on our own cultural co-dependency with these similar technologies.
Cyborg As Cyberbody is an article similarly to ‘Cyborg Babies’, Chritiane Paul points out that the fusion of man and machine has reached new level today. We must be aware that in this information age or digital networked society, the body and the identity have become a much-discussed topic. Some conflicting ideas, such as man vs. machine and its relation to evolution vs. design was presented in the article. Besides, the information presented which proved to be good writing material for addressing the issue of boundaries and the whole concept of identity; it is because interaction between man and machine with our ever increasing dependency on these technological devices is responsible for dissolving the very borders which separate machines from humans. And hence, thinking whether computers are designed for helping us or making us closer to either becoming or have already to a certain extent become cyborys. Here we also need to consider the transgressive boundaries of man and machine body which is still confusing people.
In Computers and the Communication of Gender, Lawley uses the essay to discuss the topics of computer and gender. She tries to examine the ways in which our definitions of “woman” and “man” are shifting in the new communication environment. It is possible to use new theoretical perspectives on the shifting boundaries of gender definitions to rethink a previously deterministic view of the effect of new technologies on society, and particularly the effect of those technologies on women[8]. She points out that the computerized communication systems allow women to escape boundaries and categories which have constrained activities and their identities in the past. In Lawley’s essay, few authors have been chosen to share Haraway’s vision of a re-gendered world based on the merging of biology and technology. It can be seen, gender is one of the aspects that one may consider when discuss cyborg.
All of the sources collated are in agreement with Anne Balsamo’s statement that cyborg is still a transgressive figure, because they are hybrids of machine and organism, which blur its boundary.
NOTES:
[1] Anne Marie Balsamo, “Reading Cybogs, writing Feminism,” in Technologies of the Gender Body, 1996, p.11. Google books online, retrieved 28 February 2009, < id="lkr11mXPYKEC&printsec=" hl="zh-TW">.
[2] ibid.
[3] Rene Munnik, “Donna Haraway: Cyborgs for earthly Survival?,” in American Philosophy of technology, 2001, p.95. Google books online, retrieved 28 February 2009,.
[4] ibid., p.103.
[5] Mike Featherstone, Roger Burrows, Cyberspace/Cyberbodies/Cyberpunk, 1995, p.3. Google books online, retrieved 28 February 2009, < id="wjtm5I1XUd8C&hl=">.
[6] ibid., p.4.
[7] Robbie Davis-Floyd, Joseph Dumit, Cyborg Babies: From Techno-Sex to Techno-Tots, 1998, p.107. Google books online, retrieved 28 February 2009, < id="jHyMOknhegEC&printsec=" hl="zh-TW#PPA1941,M1">.
[8] Elizabeth Lane Lawley, Computers and the Communication of Gender, 1993, Google books online, retrieved 1 March 2009, <>.
Webliography:
Anne Marie Balsamo, “Reading Cybogs, writing Feminism,” in Technologies of the Gender Body, 1996, Google books online, retrieved 28 February 2009, http://books.google.com/books?id=lkr11mXPYKEC&printsec=frontcover&hl=zh-TW
Elizabeth Lane Lawley, Computers and the Communication of Gender, 1993, Google books online, retrieved 1 March 2009, http://www.itcs.com/elawley/gender.html
Mike Featherstone, Roger Burrows, Cyberspace/Cyberbodies/Cyberpunk, 1995, Google books online, retrieved 28 February 2009, http://books.google.com/books?id=wjtm5I1XUd8C&hl=zh-TW
Rene Munnik, “Donna Haraway: Cyborgs for earthly Survival?,” in American Philosophy of technology, 2001, Google books online, retrieved 28 February 2009, http://books.google.com/books?hl=zh-TW&lr=&id=nnBLgPN1wYoC&oi=fnd&pg=PA95&dq=cyborgs+is+a+transgressive+figure&ots=G6nCNDw2nU&sig=-N16fh7DbvdXkZdDeqxRFgoYaXg#PPA95,M1
Robbie Davis-Floyd, Joseph Dumit, Cyborg Babies: From Techno-Sex to Techno-Tots, 1998, Google books online, retrieved 28 February 2009, http://books.google.com/books?id=jHyMOknhegEC&printsec=frontcover&hl=zh-TW#PPA1941,M1
Reading Cybogs, writing Feminism is one of the charters of Technologies of the Gender Body. It is a useful article which was written by Anne Marie Balsamo, the writer of the above argument. This article begins with a review of famous cyborgs in popular culture. Balsamo states that “Cyborg bodies are definitionally transgressive of the dominant culture order, not so much because of their ‘constructed’ nature, but rather because of indeterminacy of their hybrid design”[2]. The statement strongly points out that the ‘hybrid design’ is an important reason for the cyborg’s transgressive figure. Cyborg also provides a framework for studying gender identity. The article reread Michel Foucault through various feminist studies of the historical construction of the gendered body. Then, in the second part of the article she draws on Norbert Wiender’s theory of cybernetics and Marshall Mcluhan’s media analysis to discuss the role of the female body in one well-known account of the postmodern body. And finally, she concludes with a discussion of a range of feminist scholarship on the body that establishes the importance of maintaining an emphasis on the notion of a material body by promoting a gendered body that has been not simply material but rather a hybrid construction of materiality and discourse. Balsamo also discusses works by Donna Haraway, Ruth Bleier, and Paula Treichler, who in different ways investigate how the material female body is actually constructed by and within discourse to support the argument.
In Rene Munnik’s Donna Haraway: Cyborgs for earthly Survival?, she first discusses Donna Jeanne Haraway’s article, which entitled “Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the 1980s”. Haraway provides a definition of cyborg, which is “a bionic being, partly human and partly robot—a being in which the border between nature and culture is blurred in a body that mingles flesh and titanium”[3]. The blurred boundaries for the hybrid design of cyborg made it become transgressive. By the same time, Haraway proposes that people should imagine cyborgs as beings that bourdaries, bastardizations of humans and technology, which was already the view of Clynes, Kline, and Minsky[4]. After that Rene Munnik mentioned cyborgs are transgressive of boundaries, which corrupt beings and chimerical monsters. And Cyborgs are not unambiguously identifiable as “man” or “woman,” “nature” or “culture”, “human” or “machine”. This point was expressed with reference to language. Finally she discusses some political analysis of Haraway’s article. This article is useful for answering the guiding question, as the writer discuss transgressive boundaries of cyborg by analysis Donna Haraway’s earlier article.
Cyberspace/Cyberbodies/Cyberpunk The book first discuss what a cyborg is and which is clear that an overriding theme in the writings of William Gibson, McHale, Csicsery-Ronay and a number of contributions to McCaffrey is the assumption that the boundaries between subjects, their bodies and the ‘outside world’ are being radically reconfigured[5]. That means the analytical categories derive from the fundamental division between technology and nature, are in danger of dissolving, the categories of the biological, the technological, the natural, the artificial and the human are beginning to blur. These contributions strongly support the argument which I choose for this assignment. The author argues that it is the extent and complexity of the changes from the mainstreaming of cosmetic surgery, also rise of biotechnology, genetic engineering and nanotechnology, which have led some to predict that the next generation could well be the last of ‘pure’ humans. And something worried the author is that if there is an increasing acceptance of cosmetic surgery by consumers and other associated technological interventions to modify the body, over the last decade are at all indicative of future trends, then the next 50 years will see even more radical plastic surgery, computer-chip brain implants and gene splicing become routine[6]. The transformation of body was usually being considered when discussing the topic of cyborg and its transgressive figure.
In Robbie Davis-Floyd and Joseph Dumit’s Cyborg Babies: From Techno-Sex to Techno-Tots Cyborg Babies is an exploration of the increasingly pervasive role of technology in how children are brought into and raised in our society. From fetuses scanned ultrasonically to computer hackers in daycare, contemporary children are being rendered cyborg by their immersion in technoculture. Besides, a range of perspectives are heard, from cultural anthropologists to social critics, as they offer cutting-edge critiques and personal narratives of how, as we are faced with reproductive choices connected directly with technologies. The writers try to discuss some of the ways in which North American women may use the “transgressed boundaries and potent fusions” of ultrasound’s cybory fetus to reflect on and rework their experiences of pregnancy[7]. The article about cybory babies shows that the new technology may reflect the transgressive figure of cyborgs, either using the technology to reproduce baby, or a man become pregnancy. Nowadays, we often have trouble gaining perspective on our own cultural co-dependency with these similar technologies.
Cyborg As Cyberbody is an article similarly to ‘Cyborg Babies’, Chritiane Paul points out that the fusion of man and machine has reached new level today. We must be aware that in this information age or digital networked society, the body and the identity have become a much-discussed topic. Some conflicting ideas, such as man vs. machine and its relation to evolution vs. design was presented in the article. Besides, the information presented which proved to be good writing material for addressing the issue of boundaries and the whole concept of identity; it is because interaction between man and machine with our ever increasing dependency on these technological devices is responsible for dissolving the very borders which separate machines from humans. And hence, thinking whether computers are designed for helping us or making us closer to either becoming or have already to a certain extent become cyborys. Here we also need to consider the transgressive boundaries of man and machine body which is still confusing people.
In Computers and the Communication of Gender, Lawley uses the essay to discuss the topics of computer and gender. She tries to examine the ways in which our definitions of “woman” and “man” are shifting in the new communication environment. It is possible to use new theoretical perspectives on the shifting boundaries of gender definitions to rethink a previously deterministic view of the effect of new technologies on society, and particularly the effect of those technologies on women[8]. She points out that the computerized communication systems allow women to escape boundaries and categories which have constrained activities and their identities in the past. In Lawley’s essay, few authors have been chosen to share Haraway’s vision of a re-gendered world based on the merging of biology and technology. It can be seen, gender is one of the aspects that one may consider when discuss cyborg.
All of the sources collated are in agreement with Anne Balsamo’s statement that cyborg is still a transgressive figure, because they are hybrids of machine and organism, which blur its boundary.
NOTES:
[1] Anne Marie Balsamo, “Reading Cybogs, writing Feminism,” in Technologies of the Gender Body, 1996, p.11. Google books online, retrieved 28 February 2009, < id="lkr11mXPYKEC&printsec=" hl="zh-TW">.
[2] ibid.
[3] Rene Munnik, “Donna Haraway: Cyborgs for earthly Survival?,” in American Philosophy of technology, 2001, p.95. Google books online, retrieved 28 February 2009,
[4] ibid., p.103.
[5] Mike Featherstone, Roger Burrows, Cyberspace/Cyberbodies/Cyberpunk, 1995, p.3. Google books online, retrieved 28 February 2009, < id="wjtm5I1XUd8C&hl=">.
[6] ibid., p.4.
[7] Robbie Davis-Floyd, Joseph Dumit, Cyborg Babies: From Techno-Sex to Techno-Tots, 1998, p.107. Google books online, retrieved 28 February 2009, < id="jHyMOknhegEC&printsec=" hl="zh-TW#PPA1941,M1">.
[8] Elizabeth Lane Lawley, Computers and the Communication of Gender, 1993, Google books online, retrieved 1 March 2009, <>.
Webliography:
Anne Marie Balsamo, “Reading Cybogs, writing Feminism,” in Technologies of the Gender Body, 1996, Google books online, retrieved 28 February 2009, http://books.google.com/books?id=lkr11mXPYKEC&printsec=frontcover&hl=zh-TW
Elizabeth Lane Lawley, Computers and the Communication of Gender, 1993, Google books online, retrieved 1 March 2009, http://www.itcs.com/elawley/gender.html
Mike Featherstone, Roger Burrows, Cyberspace/Cyberbodies/Cyberpunk, 1995, Google books online, retrieved 28 February 2009, http://books.google.com/books?id=wjtm5I1XUd8C&hl=zh-TW
Rene Munnik, “Donna Haraway: Cyborgs for earthly Survival?,” in American Philosophy of technology, 2001, Google books online, retrieved 28 February 2009, http://books.google.com/books?hl=zh-TW&lr=&id=nnBLgPN1wYoC&oi=fnd&pg=PA95&dq=cyborgs+is+a+transgressive+figure&ots=G6nCNDw2nU&sig=-N16fh7DbvdXkZdDeqxRFgoYaXg#PPA95,M1
Robbie Davis-Floyd, Joseph Dumit, Cyborg Babies: From Techno-Sex to Techno-Tots, 1998, Google books online, retrieved 28 February 2009, http://books.google.com/books?id=jHyMOknhegEC&printsec=frontcover&hl=zh-TW#PPA1941,M1
CRITICAL ANNOTATED WEBLIOGRAPHY ~Q3
Guiding Questions:
Frankenstein continues to occupy the popular imagination as a monstrous
scientist. Analyze some of the ways in which Frankenstein haunts discussions of recent technologies.
Frankenstein was named by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s novel in 1818. She talked about a scientist named Victor Frankenstein who collect different part of dead body and recombination that. Also Frankenstein created life for that and make it like a men who have more powerful. After that, people have tended to use “Frankenstein” to describe scientist. And Frankenstein as an elements infused in different types of films, stories etc. Also, public use to describe something which infuse scientist especially for technologies. Therefore I will find some case to analyze Frankenstein discussions of recent technologies in some of the ways.
In the article of The Curse of Frankenstein, Robert is talking about Genetic Foods. He argues that Genetic food as a Frankenstein. For many years, people are started arguing the harms for human being caused by the genetic foods. Nowadays, the FDA set up new regulations to restrict and monitor these kinds of foods. Started from baby-bomb, the food production became cant fulfill populations need. Thus made scientist and the farmer had new idea to modify the crops and livestock gene to make a larger gain for the fasting food needs. However, some people are just considered how harm did the genetics foods will affect human being body. Food is the most importance factory for human to maintain the life, thus all argue started have a large supporter to made the genetic modify must stop for ensure people’s health because of lack of limitations and restriction for this kinds of foods. Even though the FDA listed the regulations for restricted these kinds of food, however some people are still not willing to choose these kinds of the genetic food. This is because they do not know the sciences and technologies well and they afraid this is a kind of food. It is time to expose and reject the primitive fear of technology that lurks behind the attack on genetically modified foods.
Also, I find out the other one article Baby cloning: a Frankenstein experiment or the answer to many which is talking about baby cloning for some couple who have problem of male sterility.Since there are some argue of that, Severino Antinori an Italian professor points out scientific feats scientific feats not as a Frankenstein experiment, but as practical solution to the problem of male infertility. He believes that cloning may be a method to solve the problem of male infertility and help them have an ordinary child who is unique individual. Also, he thinks that cloning as a fruitful scientific to help sterility couple to have a child which they want. However, this idea was bans in some countries because of legislation. So he finds out some case to support his views such as a couple who live in Monifieth they want to have a girl to replace "the female dimension in their family" because of cloning can help them to select the sex of their baby. Besides that, in the article it also mentions that Professor Antinori had succeeded helping a 62 year-old women have a baby in 1994. However, it was query by Lord Robert Winston the fertility expert. And regional organizer also against cloning baby because it will be brings out a lot of ethical and medical problems.
Besides that, some people will reference to “Frankenstein” when they hear some new technology which challenges our traditional ideas of human such as organ transplants, genetic engineering or cloning. For those situations, Harold the director of National Institutes of Health points out some views in the article of Promise and Peril "They may come up with a disease that can't be cured, even a monster. Is this the answer to Dr. Frankenstein's dream?" In the article, it mention that how to find out the balance of science and medicine, animal organs in humans, Human Dissection etc between science research and the fears from Mary Shelley’s novel.. Harold believes that transplantation of tissue and dissected human corpses are use for medical research which is different of Victor Frankenstein who is a doctor in Mary Shelley’s novel. Also, technicians sliced helps us know more about our body and it is useful for teach anatomy and surgical techniques. However, those technologies also brings out some public fears such as the case of cloned sheep—Dolly it make public concern more about consequences of cloning and the case of Unresolved Risks in transmittal of animal viruses to humans.
Technologies out of control and will harms human? In the article of "You are my creator, but I am your master...." -- Frankenstein’s monster, Frankenstein in the University by Luke Femandez, he had some views against on these issues especially on the academic events. As the new technologies developed and it helps a lot for helping people to education in the different ways, such like to give lesson by internet, the distance learning. All these methods are based by through the new media. This made people can be learnt more convenience but it also caused problem on the technology support. Because of we enjoy all these soft media but it let us lack of interact to the other learners and the teachers. These phenomenons just look likes we had done something with a robot. In case when the robot becomes with problem, we have to hold on out studies. In the meantime, the technologies support also being controlled by the systems vendor, as the learning systems are designed by this party, the knowledge and the skills are all set up and maintained by them. It means our technology, our working, our learning and our life shall be controlled of their labor.
As thinking of our daily life, the new technology affects us a lot everywhere and it caused a lot of the problem thereby from the war to religion, for the life style to the environment. Form the article of The Advocates of Technophobia; it mentioned the issue as well. The new technology limited human’s developing on different way caused by the region and the sources. For some countries, they can use a lot of amount of sources to develop the technology for improve he life, but for some others, they still struggle for the basic need. The technology cause unfair for the world but nobody can change it as the power decided everything at this moment. Disease is the only thing whom is fair for every one, but the technology had broken it as well due as some countries can develop new method for remedy it but not for all. We are now seeking the equal world for humans, thus the technology should not be the threat for restrict the forward step.
Reference
Alan Caruba, The Advocates of Technophobia
http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=3833 (Accessed 3 March 2009)
Harold E. Varmus, M.D, Promise and Peril "They may come up with a disease that can't be cured, even a monster. Is this the answer to Dr. Frankenstein's dream?"
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/frankenstein/frank_promise.html(Accessed 3 March 2009)
Luke Fernandez, "You are my creator, but I am your master...." -- Frankenstein’s monster, Frankenstein in the University.
http://campustechnology.com/Articles/2008/05/Frankenstein-in-the-University.aspx?Page=1 (Accessed 3 March 2009)
Robert W. Tracinski, The Curse of Frankenstein It’s time for the villagers to torch the “Frankenfood”myth http://www.capitalismcenter.org/ProTech/Archives/Curse_of_Frankenstein.htm(Accessed 3 March 2009)
Sarah-Kate Templeton, Baby cloning: a Frankenstein experiment or the answer too many
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4156/is_20010311/ai_n13956370(Accessed 3 March 2009)
Frankenstein continues to occupy the popular imagination as a monstrous
scientist. Analyze some of the ways in which Frankenstein haunts discussions of recent technologies.
Frankenstein was named by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s novel in 1818. She talked about a scientist named Victor Frankenstein who collect different part of dead body and recombination that. Also Frankenstein created life for that and make it like a men who have more powerful. After that, people have tended to use “Frankenstein” to describe scientist. And Frankenstein as an elements infused in different types of films, stories etc. Also, public use to describe something which infuse scientist especially for technologies. Therefore I will find some case to analyze Frankenstein discussions of recent technologies in some of the ways.
In the article of The Curse of Frankenstein, Robert is talking about Genetic Foods. He argues that Genetic food as a Frankenstein. For many years, people are started arguing the harms for human being caused by the genetic foods. Nowadays, the FDA set up new regulations to restrict and monitor these kinds of foods. Started from baby-bomb, the food production became cant fulfill populations need. Thus made scientist and the farmer had new idea to modify the crops and livestock gene to make a larger gain for the fasting food needs. However, some people are just considered how harm did the genetics foods will affect human being body. Food is the most importance factory for human to maintain the life, thus all argue started have a large supporter to made the genetic modify must stop for ensure people’s health because of lack of limitations and restriction for this kinds of foods. Even though the FDA listed the regulations for restricted these kinds of food, however some people are still not willing to choose these kinds of the genetic food. This is because they do not know the sciences and technologies well and they afraid this is a kind of food. It is time to expose and reject the primitive fear of technology that lurks behind the attack on genetically modified foods.
Also, I find out the other one article Baby cloning: a Frankenstein experiment or the answer to many which is talking about baby cloning for some couple who have problem of male sterility.Since there are some argue of that, Severino Antinori an Italian professor points out scientific feats scientific feats not as a Frankenstein experiment, but as practical solution to the problem of male infertility. He believes that cloning may be a method to solve the problem of male infertility and help them have an ordinary child who is unique individual. Also, he thinks that cloning as a fruitful scientific to help sterility couple to have a child which they want. However, this idea was bans in some countries because of legislation. So he finds out some case to support his views such as a couple who live in Monifieth they want to have a girl to replace "the female dimension in their family" because of cloning can help them to select the sex of their baby. Besides that, in the article it also mentions that Professor Antinori had succeeded helping a 62 year-old women have a baby in 1994. However, it was query by Lord Robert Winston the fertility expert. And regional organizer also against cloning baby because it will be brings out a lot of ethical and medical problems.
Besides that, some people will reference to “Frankenstein” when they hear some new technology which challenges our traditional ideas of human such as organ transplants, genetic engineering or cloning. For those situations, Harold the director of National Institutes of Health points out some views in the article of Promise and Peril "They may come up with a disease that can't be cured, even a monster. Is this the answer to Dr. Frankenstein's dream?" In the article, it mention that how to find out the balance of science and medicine, animal organs in humans, Human Dissection etc between science research and the fears from Mary Shelley’s novel.. Harold believes that transplantation of tissue and dissected human corpses are use for medical research which is different of Victor Frankenstein who is a doctor in Mary Shelley’s novel. Also, technicians sliced helps us know more about our body and it is useful for teach anatomy and surgical techniques. However, those technologies also brings out some public fears such as the case of cloned sheep—Dolly it make public concern more about consequences of cloning and the case of Unresolved Risks in transmittal of animal viruses to humans.
Technologies out of control and will harms human? In the article of "You are my creator, but I am your master...." -- Frankenstein’s monster, Frankenstein in the University by Luke Femandez, he had some views against on these issues especially on the academic events. As the new technologies developed and it helps a lot for helping people to education in the different ways, such like to give lesson by internet, the distance learning. All these methods are based by through the new media. This made people can be learnt more convenience but it also caused problem on the technology support. Because of we enjoy all these soft media but it let us lack of interact to the other learners and the teachers. These phenomenons just look likes we had done something with a robot. In case when the robot becomes with problem, we have to hold on out studies. In the meantime, the technologies support also being controlled by the systems vendor, as the learning systems are designed by this party, the knowledge and the skills are all set up and maintained by them. It means our technology, our working, our learning and our life shall be controlled of their labor.
As thinking of our daily life, the new technology affects us a lot everywhere and it caused a lot of the problem thereby from the war to religion, for the life style to the environment. Form the article of The Advocates of Technophobia; it mentioned the issue as well. The new technology limited human’s developing on different way caused by the region and the sources. For some countries, they can use a lot of amount of sources to develop the technology for improve he life, but for some others, they still struggle for the basic need. The technology cause unfair for the world but nobody can change it as the power decided everything at this moment. Disease is the only thing whom is fair for every one, but the technology had broken it as well due as some countries can develop new method for remedy it but not for all. We are now seeking the equal world for humans, thus the technology should not be the threat for restrict the forward step.
Reference
Alan Caruba, The Advocates of Technophobia
http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=3833 (Accessed 3 March 2009)
Harold E. Varmus, M.D, Promise and Peril "They may come up with a disease that can't be cured, even a monster. Is this the answer to Dr. Frankenstein's dream?"
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/frankenstein/frank_promise.html(Accessed 3 March 2009)
Luke Fernandez, "You are my creator, but I am your master...." -- Frankenstein’s monster, Frankenstein in the University.
http://campustechnology.com/Articles/2008/05/Frankenstein-in-the-University.aspx?Page=1 (Accessed 3 March 2009)
Robert W. Tracinski, The Curse of Frankenstein It’s time for the villagers to torch the “Frankenfood”myth http://www.capitalismcenter.org/ProTech/Archives/Curse_of_Frankenstein.htm(Accessed 3 March 2009)
Sarah-Kate Templeton, Baby cloning: a Frankenstein experiment or the answer too many
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4156/is_20010311/ai_n13956370(Accessed 3 March 2009)
Friday, March 6, 2009
Critical Annotated Webliography Q.3
Frankenstein continues to occupy the popular imagination as a monstrous scientist. Analyse some of the ways in which Frankenstein haunts discussions of recent technologies.
Does anyone notice in what extent the technology affect to us? Think about what if we don’t have mobile phone one day? We would probably feel insecure and nervous as if we do not exist that day. And, Frankenstein is a classic sci-fiction novel, boosting our imagination of the effect in our technological life. Here are five writings which help us to think about the horror of technologies in different aspects: politics, sciences, ethics, humanities, futures. Nearly, all of these approaches except sciences required us to criticize the development of technology for the sake of avoiding technology disordered while we highly depend on it. The issues of ‘democracy’, ‘human cloning’, ‘genetic food’, ‘dehumanization’, and ‘AI’ would be discussed, which told us to take it seriously without naïve mind. It is because the earlier we sense the consequences of Frankenstein; the more we could do to prevent it.
According to Shari Poen’s article, Thinking Though Technology: Frankenstein’s Problem (or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Technology),
we could see his emphasize on the technology as a metaphor of ‘tools’ have too much ‘power’ to affect our view of looking the world. We are living in a ‘techno-culture’, in which it does not mean that we should take a negative view of the emergence of technology, but need to pay attention to the way technology would arrange our lives unpredictably. Frankenstein is a creation that symbolize the technologies that could not receive the ‘sufficient care’ just like we use it without critical and analysis manners. Besides, he questioned about whether the democracy could continue to be exist in the lacking of ‘critical technological citizenship’. The emerging of ‘deskilling’ and ‘surveillance’ would cause, although technology could fulfill our wants, it could not wholly free us without ‘democratic practices’. It has been suggested that the real monster is not Frankenstein (technology), but the evil mind that allows these happen. To avoid this, we are required to critically deal with the ‘noir’ side of technology with ‘adult’ mind of using it.
There are a lot of upcoming technologies generating debate on their usage and existence in human’s living or even alters our fate. In the article of The Curse of Frankenstein has revealed different stand point of creation of genetic food, but it tends to support the invention of it. It has been stigmatized by environment activists as “Frank food”, the word is embodied from Frankenstein, which closely relates the story of Mary Shelly about the fear of the scientist monster. The author hereby tends to emphasis this is just a ‘myth’ of Frankenstein to give an excuse for the science and technology haters. There are several negative discourses about these foods in no evident supports or most of them were unknown. But, environmentalists have stood firm to their sense of the altered foods would cause harm to us and the environment under the ‘genetic manipulation’. In order to lessen the fear of the science and technology, FDA imposed rules to reassuring the safety of genetic food. Actually, the invention of this technology helps much in farming. In the perspective of farmers, this technology is a magic in dealing with the difficulties of harvesting. Therefore, a total rejection of the primitive fear of technology of genetic foods is needed rather than constant regulations on biotechnology in ‘anti-science campaign’.
However, the emergence of advance technologies is not actually a good thing. It has been argued that the medical technology in the deepest level could be seen as the way to the process of ‘dehumanization’. It has been claimed that one of the ‘human qualities’ is the decision to death. In the writing of Dehumanization, the author alleged the medical technology would dehumanize four basic human abilities, including ‘the inherent of worth in being human’, ‘the uniqueness of the individual’, ‘the freedom to act and the ability to make decisions’, and ‘the equality of status’. Human is treated as an ‘object’ under the ‘medicalization’ when he is dying. Sometimes, we could not be seen as individuals, instead of it, we are cyborg, because some patients should rely on the ‘life-sustaining machine’. It just likes the scientist monster ‘Frankenstein’ that we could not have a very clear distinction. There has been a ‘death-denying culture’ boosted with the development of these ‘impersonal systems’ to manage our health.
In the writing of Thinking Through the Ethics of Cloning, Dr. James F. Drane collects different ethical interpretations of different ethical experts on this big ethical issue, human cloning. But his comment on it is not focus on the rightness of cloning but the fact of the possibility of both good and evil of human being. The fear of evil human attitudes is the main concern. Here are ethicists who speak for their view on this issue. One of the ethicists, literary ethicists has taken a critical stand point on cloning, and Frankenstein is the first novel which provides the negative assessment on it. Their ethical view point on cloning are reflected in the literature works, stated that it is ‘unnatural’. And other ethicists like religion and government have the same reflection with literature. Pope’s view has already rejected any use of technology which interferes with sexual reproduction within marriage. However, scientists and business take optimistic view of the cloning. They suggested many advantages of cloning on either view of protect diseases or business prospects. The most fairness commentary should be addressed to bioethicists, setting strict guidelines on both cell genes intervened on human beings and human cloning. This genetic technology raised us the questions on ethics of human being.
Eventually, I would like to predict that consequences of long-term advancements of technology by analysis the history of technology which affects our life deeply. In Frankenstein of the Future, Alison Burns has a critical analysis on the future of human life in the technological world. He emphasizes what human do with technology is a ‘blind’ act. The creation of ‘Artificial Intelligence’ could lead the opening of a ‘Pandora’s box of monstrosities’ in which just like Victor Frankenstein did with his monster. The author argued that it causes serious result if the machines are given the ability to ‘learn’. He used the sci-fiction ‘Matrix’ to illustrate the uncontrollable result of technology dominate the world. Also, AI was symbolized as ‘children’ and we human as ‘parent’ who has the responsibility to teach them. Nor bearing a child, or bearing a more destructive and powerful child, AI is easy. By looking backward of the history of technology development, from 1940’s invention of first computer to today’s system which can imitate human thought, the ability of the machine has transcended human, like ‘best human chess player’. Nowadays, we depend on ‘smart machines’ which could replace jobs of human , this ‘dependence’ is not revealing our power to master them, but the hidden shocks it bring to life.
There will be a rapid growth of advance technology which has been predicted. We somehow become cyborgs, just like the nature of Frankenstein because of certain reliance on technology; gradually ‘techno-culture’ and ‘death-denying culture’ are boosted. Someone would think Frankenstein is a legend in which there are no evidence to prove it, even though technologies help us in many ways, there are a lot of bad speech has been discussed in the level of ethics, politics, humanities and futures. The common view that came up with is that we should be considerate its effects on our future life. The fear of Frankenstein is not because of the advance technology, but the bad intentions of the human who use it.
References:
Shari, Poen. (1998). 'Thinking Though Technology: Frankenstein’s Problem' (or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Technology)
http://www.viterbo.edu/analytic/Vol%2019%20no.%201/thinking%20through%20tecnology.pdf (accessed 1 March 2009)
Tracinski, Robert W. 'The Curse of Frankenstein' http://www.capitalismcenter.org/ProTech/Archives/Curse_of_Frankenstein.htm (accessed 1 March 2009)
(2007). 'Dehumanization' http://www.deathreference.com/Da-Em/Dehumanization.html (accessed 1 March 2009)
Drane, James F. (2002). 'Thinking Through the Ethics of Cloning'
http://www.uchile.cl/bioetica/doc/think.htm (accessed 28 February 2009)
Burns, Alisa. (2002). 'Frankenstein of the Future' http://www.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/frank.comment4.html (accessed 1 March 2009)
Does anyone notice in what extent the technology affect to us? Think about what if we don’t have mobile phone one day? We would probably feel insecure and nervous as if we do not exist that day. And, Frankenstein is a classic sci-fiction novel, boosting our imagination of the effect in our technological life. Here are five writings which help us to think about the horror of technologies in different aspects: politics, sciences, ethics, humanities, futures. Nearly, all of these approaches except sciences required us to criticize the development of technology for the sake of avoiding technology disordered while we highly depend on it. The issues of ‘democracy’, ‘human cloning’, ‘genetic food’, ‘dehumanization’, and ‘AI’ would be discussed, which told us to take it seriously without naïve mind. It is because the earlier we sense the consequences of Frankenstein; the more we could do to prevent it.
According to Shari Poen’s article, Thinking Though Technology: Frankenstein’s Problem (or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Technology),
we could see his emphasize on the technology as a metaphor of ‘tools’ have too much ‘power’ to affect our view of looking the world. We are living in a ‘techno-culture’, in which it does not mean that we should take a negative view of the emergence of technology, but need to pay attention to the way technology would arrange our lives unpredictably. Frankenstein is a creation that symbolize the technologies that could not receive the ‘sufficient care’ just like we use it without critical and analysis manners. Besides, he questioned about whether the democracy could continue to be exist in the lacking of ‘critical technological citizenship’. The emerging of ‘deskilling’ and ‘surveillance’ would cause, although technology could fulfill our wants, it could not wholly free us without ‘democratic practices’. It has been suggested that the real monster is not Frankenstein (technology), but the evil mind that allows these happen. To avoid this, we are required to critically deal with the ‘noir’ side of technology with ‘adult’ mind of using it.
There are a lot of upcoming technologies generating debate on their usage and existence in human’s living or even alters our fate. In the article of The Curse of Frankenstein has revealed different stand point of creation of genetic food, but it tends to support the invention of it. It has been stigmatized by environment activists as “Frank food”, the word is embodied from Frankenstein, which closely relates the story of Mary Shelly about the fear of the scientist monster. The author hereby tends to emphasis this is just a ‘myth’ of Frankenstein to give an excuse for the science and technology haters. There are several negative discourses about these foods in no evident supports or most of them were unknown. But, environmentalists have stood firm to their sense of the altered foods would cause harm to us and the environment under the ‘genetic manipulation’. In order to lessen the fear of the science and technology, FDA imposed rules to reassuring the safety of genetic food. Actually, the invention of this technology helps much in farming. In the perspective of farmers, this technology is a magic in dealing with the difficulties of harvesting. Therefore, a total rejection of the primitive fear of technology of genetic foods is needed rather than constant regulations on biotechnology in ‘anti-science campaign’.
However, the emergence of advance technologies is not actually a good thing. It has been argued that the medical technology in the deepest level could be seen as the way to the process of ‘dehumanization’. It has been claimed that one of the ‘human qualities’ is the decision to death. In the writing of Dehumanization, the author alleged the medical technology would dehumanize four basic human abilities, including ‘the inherent of worth in being human’, ‘the uniqueness of the individual’, ‘the freedom to act and the ability to make decisions’, and ‘the equality of status’. Human is treated as an ‘object’ under the ‘medicalization’ when he is dying. Sometimes, we could not be seen as individuals, instead of it, we are cyborg, because some patients should rely on the ‘life-sustaining machine’. It just likes the scientist monster ‘Frankenstein’ that we could not have a very clear distinction. There has been a ‘death-denying culture’ boosted with the development of these ‘impersonal systems’ to manage our health.
In the writing of Thinking Through the Ethics of Cloning, Dr. James F. Drane collects different ethical interpretations of different ethical experts on this big ethical issue, human cloning. But his comment on it is not focus on the rightness of cloning but the fact of the possibility of both good and evil of human being. The fear of evil human attitudes is the main concern. Here are ethicists who speak for their view on this issue. One of the ethicists, literary ethicists has taken a critical stand point on cloning, and Frankenstein is the first novel which provides the negative assessment on it. Their ethical view point on cloning are reflected in the literature works, stated that it is ‘unnatural’. And other ethicists like religion and government have the same reflection with literature. Pope’s view has already rejected any use of technology which interferes with sexual reproduction within marriage. However, scientists and business take optimistic view of the cloning. They suggested many advantages of cloning on either view of protect diseases or business prospects. The most fairness commentary should be addressed to bioethicists, setting strict guidelines on both cell genes intervened on human beings and human cloning. This genetic technology raised us the questions on ethics of human being.
Eventually, I would like to predict that consequences of long-term advancements of technology by analysis the history of technology which affects our life deeply. In Frankenstein of the Future, Alison Burns has a critical analysis on the future of human life in the technological world. He emphasizes what human do with technology is a ‘blind’ act. The creation of ‘Artificial Intelligence’ could lead the opening of a ‘Pandora’s box of monstrosities’ in which just like Victor Frankenstein did with his monster. The author argued that it causes serious result if the machines are given the ability to ‘learn’. He used the sci-fiction ‘Matrix’ to illustrate the uncontrollable result of technology dominate the world. Also, AI was symbolized as ‘children’ and we human as ‘parent’ who has the responsibility to teach them. Nor bearing a child, or bearing a more destructive and powerful child, AI is easy. By looking backward of the history of technology development, from 1940’s invention of first computer to today’s system which can imitate human thought, the ability of the machine has transcended human, like ‘best human chess player’. Nowadays, we depend on ‘smart machines’ which could replace jobs of human , this ‘dependence’ is not revealing our power to master them, but the hidden shocks it bring to life.
There will be a rapid growth of advance technology which has been predicted. We somehow become cyborgs, just like the nature of Frankenstein because of certain reliance on technology; gradually ‘techno-culture’ and ‘death-denying culture’ are boosted. Someone would think Frankenstein is a legend in which there are no evidence to prove it, even though technologies help us in many ways, there are a lot of bad speech has been discussed in the level of ethics, politics, humanities and futures. The common view that came up with is that we should be considerate its effects on our future life. The fear of Frankenstein is not because of the advance technology, but the bad intentions of the human who use it.
References:
Shari, Poen. (1998). 'Thinking Though Technology: Frankenstein’s Problem' (or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Technology)
http://www.viterbo.edu/analytic/Vol%2019%20no.%201/thinking%20through%20tecnology.pdf (accessed 1 March 2009)
Tracinski, Robert W. 'The Curse of Frankenstein' http://www.capitalismcenter.org/ProTech/Archives/Curse_of_Frankenstein.htm (accessed 1 March 2009)
(2007). 'Dehumanization' http://www.deathreference.com/Da-Em/Dehumanization.html (accessed 1 March 2009)
Drane, James F. (2002). 'Thinking Through the Ethics of Cloning'
http://www.uchile.cl/bioetica/doc/think.htm (accessed 28 February 2009)
Burns, Alisa. (2002). 'Frankenstein of the Future' http://www.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/frank.comment4.html (accessed 1 March 2009)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)