Critical Annotated Webliography (Q.1)

Question 1. Cyborgs are hybrid entities that are neither wholly technological nor completely prganic, which means that the cyborg has the potential not only to disrupt persistent dualism [in language and thought] ... but also to refashion our thinking’. (Balsamo). Drawing on current scholarly work, discuss ways in which the cyborg is still a transgressive figure.

In the past, cyborg is defined as half human and half machine, the idea was initially brought by the United States N.A.S.A for helping to investigate the space. However, the meaning of cyborg has changed via times, it seems that a person who wears glasses, or is too dependent on computer, are also defined as cyborg, I will further explain the new nowadays definition in the following paragraphs. I will also use the sources which I have found to explain how current scholars think whether cyborg is a transgressive figure or not.

Technological Transcendence: Why It’s Okay that the Future Doesn’t Need Us--Thomas Blake

I will first start with how scholars define the word ‘cyborg’. According to Blake, cyborg means an integration of organism and information technology. In the present time, a combination with any kind of technology is also counted as cyborgs, thus he has suggested that people with immunizations or with glasses are considered as cyborg under this sense, but he believes that the above examples cannot really be cyborgs. He thinks a real cyborg is that a human has added some technological devices into his body physically, which is totally combined with the biological body and the owner can control it by himself. Besides, Blake thinks that ethics and human nature are closely interrelated, hence, if a person transforms (change) into a cyborg, the ethics will change as well, because cyborgs are not something of human nature. Furthermore, he claims that cyborgs cannot be considered as ‘he’ or ‘she’, but ‘it’, as it is a thing, not people. However, he also admit when he look at a cyborg at the first time, it seems there is no difference in nature. From what Blake has mentioned, it results that cyborgs are neither human nor machine, they are transgressive.

Fatally Flawed--Greg Halenda

The author has suggested some cyborgs’ characters in four movies as examples, using them to show that general people lean to think cyborgs are transgressive, dangerous and afraid of them, as movies can well represent most of the public’s thinking, especially fear. This online writing can let me to show that cyborgs are still considered as transgressive. As the author, Halenda mainly illustrates that the cyborgs’ characters in Blade Runner, Bubblegum Crisis, Ghost in the shell and Max Headroom are portrayed as a figure with human-liked appearance, but actually deep inside are inhuman by looking at their activities and needs in the films, for instance, drink blood to survive, need steady repair when break down. He claimed that people believe cyborgs are totally not human, just a hybrid of machine and human, thus, they are always suffered from bad things in the movie, in order to show people’s (director and audience) hatred and panic towards the cyborgs, they count them as otherness. Nevertheless, they will not regard them as just a technological device, it is because they have different gender roles, and will also die, simply like human. This writing can clarify that people are commonly think that cyborgs are transgressive, something different from human and machine. 

The Modernistic Posthuman Prophecy of Donna Haraway--Peta S. Cook

This writing will use for discussing the reasons of cyborgs are transgressive in advance. The writer believes that a cyborg is a hybrid entitle with a techno-organic soul and human flesh. In addition, he thinks that cyborgs are not just a science and military integration of human and technology, but some fundamental dualistic prospect that influence daily self-conceptualizations, thus it is a challenge of organic and scientific differentiation. In the reality, he thinks that some people has some technological devices inside his body can be considered as not a cyborg in some cases, like, the people who has a prosthetic leg, although he should be seen as a cybrog scientifically, the writers claims that we should look over the body, but focus more on people’s thinking,

Brain-Computer Interface Systems--Dylan McKeever & Andrew Stevenson

For this piece of writing, I will use it to explain that some scholars consider a few cyborg cases are somehow not transgressive. In the above writing, the writer believes that if a disabled person with a prosthetic limb should not be really considered as cyborg, as he or she still has his or her own thinking. The writers of ‘Brain-Computer Interface Systems’ also have a similar idea, have mentioned a case about a brain-paralysed cyborg. A group of scientists implanted a machine, called neuromotor prosthesis into a paralysed patient’s brain, which allow him to control objects by his own thoughts, such as, switch on and off the television, and even change channels. It is obvious that this paralysed patient totally matches the definition of cyborgs. The writers believe that it is nice to help people with disability to live like a normal person. Moreover, they avoid using the term ‘cyborg’ as well, as they may think ‘cyborg’ is a bit negative, show no respect to the patient, or they may consider the patient is totally a human though he is really a cyborg technically. Therefore, they just use other scientific terms to replace this word, such as, people with brain-computer interfaces. This writing can show that people tend to imagine disabled people with implanted device or dependent on machine are still ‘very’ human, at least they have their own mind.

Performing the Cyborg: Stelarc--Andrew Eglinton

This essay allows me to reinforce the though of the above paralysed patient’s case, and also gives an idea that when cyborgs have dissimilar purposes, they are considered as two different things in someway. The writer has similar idea on the above case, he weighs this circumstance as a life-enhancement, does not deny the patient is not human. Then he further explains that, if the idea of cyborg use in military force, such as, enhancing soldiers to become stronger, modifying them into a kind of weapons or military equipment, he thinks that it is ethically questionable, not quite acceptable. Besides, the writer has proposed that cyborgs should be considered as the ‘others’, and classified into a lower rank. Apparently, he believes that cyborg is definitely not human, if not, he will not think they are ‘others’. I will use this to show that people always think cyborg for military use is morally inappropriate, it is something more than a machine, but obviously not a human. On the other hand, they accept the people becoming a cyborg, because of their physical disabilities or illness, though in technological level, this kind of cyborg is the same as the cyborg for military use, just different in purpose. From the above writings, we can see that scholars tend to think cyborgs are transgressive, but when they consider the cases of disabled people, there maybe some contradictions.

Reference

Andrew Eglinton (2006) ‘Performing the Cyborg: Stelarc’http://www.londontheatreblog.co.uk/performing-the-cyborg-stelarc/ (accessed 27 February 2009) 

Dylan McKeever & Andrew Stevenson (2007) ‘Brain-Computer Interface Systems’.http://www.cyborgdb.org/mckeever.htm(accessed 27 February 2009) 

Greg Halenda (2005) ‘Fatally Flawed’. http://www.cyberartsweb.org/cpace/cyborg/halenda/3.html(accessed 27 February 2009)

Peta S. Cook (2004) ‘The Modernistic Posthuman Prophecy of Donna Haraway’http://eprints.qut.edu.au/646/1/cook_peta.pdf (accessed 26 February 2009)

Thomas Blake (2007) ‘Technological Transcendence: Why It’s Okay that the Future Doesn’t Need Us’. http://www.ccsr.cse.dmu.ac.uk/conferences/ethicomp/ethicomp2007/abstracts/83.html (accessed 25 February 2009)

Stella's Critical Annotated Webliography

Question 3: Frankenstein continues to occupy the popular imagination as a monstrous scientist. Analyze some of the ways in which Frankenstein haunts discussion of recent technologies.


Mary Shelley created a novel so profound in its themes that its prose and force has survived for almost 200 years. This epic novel that would become an immortal favorite in literary, academic, and entertainment circles that even today is the basis of nightmares, horror films and even a few comedy films. The themes of Frankenstein have been cited as inspirational to thousands of medical professionals. By reading Shelley in the context of present technologically advanced times, her tale of monstrous creation provides a very gruesome caution. For today, it is not merely a human being the sciences are lusting blindly to bring to life, but rather to generate something potentially even more dangerous and horrifying with implications that could endanger the entire world and human population.

Brian P. Bloomfield and Theo Vurdubakis’s article started with useful points for my discussion, as it outlines the significance of the notion that reproductive technology provided a new discursive register for social debates nowadays. The authors offer valid examples and cases on the potential of scientific knowledge to generate and uphold new forms of social organization. For instance, the "biological interventions" that indicated by Haldane's paper, Daedalus, or Science and the Future within the article, showing how the reproductive technology transforms the entire society and sets out to outline how this is expected to rewrite the logic of the social order. He said, “on the influence of biology on history during the 20th century”, the paper argued that the future of society would be shaped more and more by biological knowledge and its applications, just as in the past physics and chemistry had been the driving force of change. He thought that ‘A world where parents could effect any improvement they chose upon the gene pool, shaping each generation as desired "from increased output of first-class music to.... decreased convictions for theft". The author then quoted the Alvin Toffler’s expectation in Future Shock (1971), accounting "new genetic knowledge will permit us to tinker with human heredity and manipulate genes to create altogether new versions of man."

The second essay is from Mr. Roboto . I would like to use this short article of him to continue discuss the trend that modern people are more likely to develop the reproductive technologies. It is not only the reproduction upon the animals, like, the cloned sheep Dolly, but also having the trend towards human beings. In this article, the author shows a real example of a Los Angeles clinic that offering parents a chance to moderate their future babies via genetic manipulation. As Mr. Roboto said, “The technique, called preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), allows parents and doctors to screen out potential gene-borne diseases and other “defects,” but soon could be used to increase the chance of a baby to have certain “choice” attributes like height, hair color, and even IQ. This genetic screening can also offer the parents to “choose” the gender of the baby. Following that, the author listed out the disadvantages of the ‘Frankenstein-baby’ and indicates that the machines may change over our life.

Brian P.Bloomfield, and Theo Vurdubakis examine more closely on how the socio-moral dilemmas associated with new technological developments in the late twentieth centuries. It is an article that can provide effective debates over developments in reproduction technology to offer some observations on the ways in which such technologies routinely become enmirred in cultural ambivalence. They focus on the use of chimerical figures such as the ‘Designer Baby’ or the ‘Human Clone’ as metaphors for the power of the new technologies to re-make both society and the body. Meanwhile, the authors use the example of the well-known successful ‘cloning’ of an adult sheep by scientists at the Roslin Institute in Scotland in 1997 as the case studies for the discussion. The authors draw a conclusion that the fantasies of self-creation, the ‘designer baby’ and the human clone are functioning as symbols of a new era of ontological insecurity. Post-natural bodies can represent the joyful opening of new possibilities, but simultaneously generate effects of anxiety, disorientation and revulsion to the society. It is quite critical to say if we should continue the reproductive technologies process as it is true that the raises of the spectre of human values has inexorably weakened by this techno-scientific advance.

The fourth essay is from Alisa Burn . She clearly produced valid instances for the essay to imply the disadvantages of enjoying the advanced technology in the aspect of human’s daily life. Other than that, she indicates the notion that the potential for disaster is very real when we are taking the power of our minds and placing it into machines that have the ability to act in ways that exceed our own abilities. She offers a detail account for the advanced technologies that we are all blinded by the seemingly beneficial qualities of this growing use of it, naively becoming more and more dependent upon this very powerful creation. Burn uses the updated electronic “smart” machines (or we can say, essential machines in our daily life), like the TVs, PCs, and pocket planners, to show that we are more likely to dependent on the machines. It is true that they make life simple and naively we seem to maintain that we are master over this immense power, when the role is shifting as we become more and more attached to the perks technology seems to offer every day.

Wheeler wrote a blog called ‘Frankenstein VS Cloning – Man: Created or Creator’ to compare the similarity of the Frankenstein and cloning. However, she used a very different angle upon the discussion, that is, viewed it in a religious perspective. The author first defined the meaning of cloning, which is, referring to the DNA and the reproductive cloning nowadays. The process creates copies of DNA or cells to create organism whereas Frankenstein assembled the body ingredients into new specie. Meanwhile, Wheeler stated his opposite point of view of the Christians. She claimed that the cloning process is practiced like what the Frankenstein scientist did – human tries to take God’s place. The cloning, that is, the reproductive technology, is taken place in an unnatural way that violated the principles and morality of human beings.

From all the above, the discussion about Frankenstein is mainly related to the fear between humanity and technology. Most of the sources used Frankenstein as a metaphor to illustrate the problem of modern science and technologies such as reproductive technology and cloning. Topics about moral issues, humanity and religion are also being discussed accordingly. Frankenstein myth and its theme of the dangers of science and technologies do consist of unknown number of risks. It obviously makes life simper but at the same time it destroys the natural way of reproduction, as well as shifted the power of our minds to the electronic appliances. It is true that human life is indeed on top of the manipulation of science and technologies, but what we can do, is to strive a balance between the dilemmas that we are facing and the science-techno development with our principles and morality.



References

Bloomfield.P. B., Vurdubakis. T. (2006) ‘Re-Engineering the Human: New Reproductive Technologies and the Specter of’ Frankenstein’ http://www.waset.org/ijss/v1/v1-1-4.pdf (accessed on March 1,2009)

Bloomfield.P. B., Vurdubakis. T. (2003) ‘The Curse of Frankenstein: Visions of Technology and Society in the Debate over New Reproductive Technologies.’ http://72.14.235.132/search?q=cache:UGNkRbDgvVAJ:www.lums.lancs.ac.uk/publications/viewpdf/000215/+Frankenstein+and+haunted+Technologies&hl=zh-TW&ct=clnk&cd=104 (accessed on 20 March 2009)

Burns. A. (2002) ‘Frankenstein of the Future’ http://www.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/frank.comment4.html (accessed on March 20, 2009)

Roboto, (2009) ‘Designer Babies, Only in L.A. (for now)’ (March 4, 2009) Cyberpunkreview.http://www.cyberpunkreview.com/news-as-cyberpunk/designer-babies-only-in-la-for-now/ (accessed on March 4,2009)


Wheeler, H. (2007). ‘Frankenstein vs. Cloning – Man: Created or Creator.’ (June 21, 2007) Harmonious Glow Writings. http://harmoniousglow.blogspot.com/2007/06/frankenstein-vs-cloning-man-created-or.html (accessed on 20 March 2009)

Hi! It's me!!!!!

It's Edith here. This is the first time I write a blog.  

In everyday morning, when I wake up, I will immediately turn on my computer and visit Apple Daily. If I don't have enough time, I will check it up with my phone on the way I go to school. I think it is quite important to know what has happened in HK and the world, I will feel like missing something if I don't have a look of it. When I back home, I will also visit miniforum (this is Jacqueline's favourite website, too^^), there are so many different categories, e.g. football, cooking, fashion, 'blow water'. I usually visit the football one ,it provides many update football news and live talks of matches, but not much Arsenal fans there...

Recently, strawberries are very cheap and sweet, and I have addicted in drinking strawberry milkshake, my mom make it everyday, and I drink at least two glasses....yummy!

Webliography-Q1

Cyborg is a word that consisted of cybernetic and organism. It was a term that firstly used by Manfred Clynes and Nathan K. Due to the new frontier of space exploration was beginning to take place, they started to think about the need for an intimate relationship between human and machine. Cyborg was used as a concept about human-machine systems in outer space.
Originally, a cyborg referred to a human being with bodily functions aided or controlled by technological devices, like artificial heart valve. But over the years, cyborg seemed to carry an uncomplicated meaning.


In“The End of the Human? The Cyborg Past and Present”, Carole M. Cusack mentioned the cyborg may be viewed as a violation of humanity’ s special status, but she also mentioned the cybrog is still human, “one of us” even though it is modified. Since the internet, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality become more and more important in our life, many humans are no longer entirely “natural”.
Contemporary academic researches argued against the cyborg’s transgression of boundaries. The cyborg against the stability or reality of the individual since it allows the reconstructions of personal identity. Cusack also examined a range of figures from Indo-European mythology to reveals that the melding of human and machine has been imagined far longer than it has been technologically realizable. The myths are useful to prove that cyborg are neither wholly technological not completely organic. The organic cyborg is naturally both flesh and metal, and she is intensely desirable because she combines the lust for riches with the desires of the flesh. The myths perform the function of connecting the imagination with real craft.

In The Cyborg, the Scientist, the Feminist and Her Critic”, Krista Scott criticized Haraway’s “Cyborg Manifesto” as it reveal the ambiguity and irrelevance of nature-culture binarisms in the cyborg age. I It is useful for me to argue the very dichotomous definition of cyborg.n the manifesto, Haraway attempts to create what she calls “an ironic political myth” which combines postmodernism with socialist feminism. Scott challenged Haraway does not limit her critique of an imagined “natural” to feminists as Haraway is consistent in her opposition to false organics in other fields, particularly the scientific.
Haraway mentioned that the feminists cannot use an imagined organic ontology as a point of politics or engage in “knee-jerk technophobi” because there simply isn’t such a “natural” self. Thus, for Haraway, the cyborg is the merger between nature and civilization. Refers to Scott’s article, the cyborg does not exist as nature or culture, but is rather a hybrid of both and more. The cyborg is not limited by traditional binarisms and dualist paradigms. The cyborg is polymorphous perversity. Haraway’s cyborg myth is about indiscriminate boundaries.


Justin Roby disagreed with William Gibson and Donna Haraway s’ views on cyborg in “Systematic Change: William Gibson, Monsters, Cyborgs, and Time”. Roby used the stories William Gibson tells to pull Gowther’s story into a new focus. This new focus helps me to criticize William Gibson and Donna Haraways’ views on cyborg led the sake of mere dichotomy.Gibson writes of historical hybridity as well as physical hybridity. Gibson sees space itself as allowing hybridity: fleshly and divine, the body has as much place in cyberspace as it does anywhere else. He developed a hybrid view of the world in which identity depends upon instability for its survival. Hence, the hybridity has become the norm, and attempts to make sense of it or control it are presented as intensely problematic in his novels. Both entities are infinitely removed from humanity, having the power to maintain their lines indefinitely. This indicates a new way of thinking about postmodern space-time in favor of subjects who are capable of navigating such complex structures.
And Roby also mentioned Haraway sees the cyborg as a deeply problematic entity as it is excess of technology and excess of time. Roby argued that such entities of excess are now more necessary than ever. He argued that the modern hybrids of technology, we ought not to be controlled or domesticated by Gibson’s philosophy and its resonances with Haraway’s argument. Hence, Roby tried to argue instead that new ways of organizing time and space enable new conceptions of the subject, the author, and identity.

In “Identity, Power, and Representation in Virtual Environments”, Frank Vander Valk used Second Life as a specific example. Valk’s point of view support my agreement that cyborg is still a transgressive figure.The real life norms governing the relationship between interpersonal distance and gaze are maintained in Second Life. The rules that govern our physical bodies in the real world have come to govern our embodied identities in the virtual world. Therefore, virtual life does not transcend real life, but rather mirrors it.
Thus, Valk challenges the view that virtual environments are reliably neutral venues for the creation of virtual identities that escape the culturally constructed power structures of the real world. Valk claims that the very dichotomy between real and virtual is itself questionable.
Valk though that the new technological developments oblige us to become transgressive mixtures of biology, technology, and code. The blurs and fragments boundaries and senses of self and place and functions as a virtual microcosm for cultural, economic and identity recombination.

Hari Kunzru used “a baddest girl on the block” as a metaphor of cyborg in “Bad Girl Versus the Astronaut Christ: The Strange Political Journey of the Cyborg”. The metaphor made by Kunzru provides examples that the cyborg’s meaning is complicated. “The structures revealed by her transgressive linking of supposedly-separate domains are precisely those which are most unpalatable to the vested interests of technocapital.”[1], for instance, the cyborg reminds us that a naked human body might be networked to gene patenting.
Yet, we may say the cyborg was designed to engineer man closer to God. We may regard cyborg as an “Astronaut Christ” due to its primary function as a transgressive figure. The cyborg operates by transgressing the regimes of signification. The cyborg is useful as long as it retains its power to transgress, and does not recede into a conventional articulation of anxieties about plastic surgery, AI, etc. The cyborg allows us to transcend physical limitations. Human can transcend own physical boundaries, we could attain a higher level of spiritual discipline.
According to Kunzru, cyborg forces us to situate thought in the body, and in turn to situate bodies in networks which contain elements of biology, politics, desire and technology. It produces continuities between these disparate strata, allowing us to think what would otherwise be unthinkable.

Over the years, cyborg has acquired different meanings. Cyborg can be used to characterize anyone who relies on a computer to complete their daily work when describing the dependence of human beings on technology. It also means “a cybernetic organism”, “a hybrid of machine and organism”, or “a creature of social reality as well as a creature of fiction”. Hence, cyborg seems to carry complicated meaning now.


[1] Hari, Kunzru. (1997) ‘Bad Girl Versus the Astronaut Christ: The Strange Political Journey of the Cyborg’, http://90.146.8.18/en/archiv_files/19971/E1997_100.pdf, (accessed 26 February 2009).

Reference:

1. Carole, M. Cusack. ‘The End of the Human? The Cyborg Past and Present’, http://escholarship.library.usyd.edu.au/journals/index.php/SSR/article/view/213/193, (accessed 26 February 2009).

2. Frank, Vander Valk. (2008) ‘Identity, Power, and Representation in Virtual Environments’, http://jolt.merlot.org/vol4no2/vandervalk0608.htm, (accessed 2 March 2009).

3. Hari, Kunzru. (1997) ‘Bad Girl Versus the Astronaut Christ: The Strange Political Journey of the Cyborg’, http://90.146.8.18/en/archiv_files/19971/E1997_100.pdf, (accessed 26 February 2009).

4. Justin, Roby. (2001) ‘Systematic Change: William Gibson, Monsters, Cyborgs, and Time’, http://www.janushead.org/gwu-2001/roby.cfm, (accessed 26 February 2009).

5. Krista, Scott. (1997) ‘The Cyborg, the Scientist, the Feminist and Her Critic’, http://www.stumptuous.com/cyborg.html, (accessed 28 February 2009).

Outline of presentation -week 5 topic jenniCAM

Hello, I will present Krissi M. Jimroglou's article which named a camera with a view JenniCAM, visual representation and cybrog subjectivity in week 5 tutorial.

Here are the outlines:

1) Technology may be harm for the privacy and benefit for publice

2) Visual life all challenged the tradition life style

3) Technologies and the real life are affecting our new daily life

Outline of presentation

Hi everyone. I am going to give out a short presentation on the article written by Alison Adam, cyberstalking , gender and computer ethics on 5th March.

An outline of the presentation is provided as fellows.

1) The power relations of gender reflecting in information and communication technologies.- technological determinism
2) The Feminist ethnics and the computer-based behavior
-inequalities in power

3) Online sexual harassment -Quotation from Catherine MacKinnon, the sexual harassment as “the unwanted imposition of the sexual requirement in the context of a relationship of unequal power. Central to the concept is the use of power derived from one social sphere to lever benefits or impose deprivations in another.”

4) Cyberstalking - Victims in the cases discussed are all females.

My Critical Annotated Webliography

Guiding Question:
Cyborgs are hybrid entities that are neither wholly technological nor completely prganic, which means that the cyborg has the potential not only to disrupt persistent dualism [in language and thought] ... but also to refashion our thinking’. (Balsamo). Drawing on current scholarly work, discuss ways in which the cyborg is still a transgressive figure.

Cyborg is a creation of both man and machine, its concept lies within a gray area, or blurred boundaries. Considering the guiding question, one way to approach the question is to research on the current cyborg phenomenon and see in what ways the cyborg is still a transgressive figure under the current cyborg phenomenon.

“Should there be a limit placed on the integration of humans and computers and electronic technology?” by Steve Mizrach
First, it is important to define cyborg and why it would be considered a transgressive figure. As mentioned in this article, cyborg can be depicted as “[this being was] a sort of hybrid, a mesh of flesh and steel, neurons and wires, blood and circuits. It was a human being partially transformed into a machine”. In other word, cyborg is neither wholly technological nor completely organic. This article tells us about how the computer allows the augmentation of the human being through the integration of electronic technology into the human being. This brings us to the notion of cyborgization of the human race. Such integration suggests that the human race is able to “transcend limitations of intellect, strength, and longevity previously ‘programmed’ into its DNA by eons of evolution”. The article also includes useful examples in illustrating the statement mentioned just now. Thus, the article helps illustrate the present cyborg phenomenon, telling us that the augmentation of human being through technology can be regarded as cyborgization of the human race. This suggests being cyborg is possible for anybody in today’s world.

“Cyber Gender” by Jennifer Breen
This article shows a broader sense of cyborg. It is particularly about the emergence of the “internet cyborg” brought about by technological advancement. Obviously, the term “internet cyborg” seems a lot more related to us. Cyborg, in the broad sense, includes people who have connection with any technological devices. This article is useful in illustrating a new notion of cyborg(the internet cyborg) and how the internet cyborg may be considered a trangressive figure.
As can be seen from the title “Cyber Gender”, it is about gender-trangressive on the internet. As mentioned in the article, the new identity is formed from the relationship between the original identity and the internet. It is a cyborg identity, part machine, part human. The author explains that “the internet identity you create might be an extension of yourself, but you too become an extension of that identity.” She mentions that postmodern identity is crucially about the individual freedom of choice regarding identity. The author says that identity is a multifaceted concept and people will probably choose to change only certain aspects of their identity. The author states that gender is one aspect of identity that people will commonly change online. She mentions that the internet cyborg considers gender as something that can be easily altered at will, and they are not bound to the gender system. By being able to change gender at will, the internet cyborg is able to generate a change in how we think about “gender”. The ability to choose whoever you want to be on the internet brings to us the notion of “hybrid entity”. This article gives example on how gender can be transgressed by the internet cyborgs.

“Technological Transcendence: Why It’s Okay that the Future Doesn’t Need Us” by Thomas Blake
Cyborg is similarly defined as “a combination of information technology and living matter” in this article. The author specifies a cyborg as “a human who has undergone the physical addition of mechanical parts such that they are integrated with the human’s biological body”. This can be referred to any living being that has been integrated with any kind of technology. The author provides examples showing that a child with immunizations or a man wearing glasses would count as a cyborg in this very broad sense. The writer then questions, how we, in this very broad sense, should define cyborg. As it seems that the addition of mechanical parts to the human body will not result in a being with a different nature at first glance. He then mentions that “when we see a cyborg in science fiction, however, with all robotic limbs and laser eyes, there seems to be something unnatural and even menacing about it. In fact, it seems better to call such a thing “it” rather than “him” or “her”.” In this sense, a confusion regarding what it is meant to be cyborg raised, especially in today’s world where technology is so advanced and people are so reliant on technology. However, it is suggested that though cyborg in the form of “a human who has undergone the physical addition of mechanic parts” seems common in today’s world, as long as they have undergone such “physical addition”, they can be regarded as cyborgs and are neither wholly technological nor completely organic as according to the definition made preciously.

“Being Cyborg is Possible for anybody” by Heo Jae-sung
This journal shows a changing nature of cyborg and how easily for one to fall into the category of cyborg nowadays. Originally, the conception of cyborg was meant to replace the body with the artificial organs so that people may survive severe circumstances. With technological development, today’s cyborg is used to provide people with artificial organs in case of losing a part of their body owing to disease or accident. The author mentions that “cyborg is a human who has certain physiological processes aided or controlled by mechanical or electronic devices”. Most artificial instruments fall into category of cyborg with the exception of natural organs of the body. The artificial instruments “are the cyborgs tools for crossing [these] borders” as shown in the article written by Chuck Meyer. Similar to the article written by Thomas Blake, the author states that cyborg includes people, for example, who prolong their life span by changing their old and ill organs to fresh artificial parts. That is why the writer titles the article as “Being cyborg is Possible for anybody” because in this very broad sense of cyborg, there are in fact already many cyborgs all over the world. This relates back to the article “Cyber Gender” that cyborg, in the broad sense, includes people who have connection with any technological devices.

“Human Identity in the Age of Computers” by Chuck Meyer
This article mainly focuses on the author’s response to Haraway’s conception of cyborg identity. The author mentions Haraway’s statement that “we are already cyborgs”. Haraway also recognizes the fragmentary nature of identity. Haraway believes that the cyborg myth should try to dissolve ideas of organic wholeness. The author states that the evolution of the cyborg identity is based in a series of border wars. Cyborgs stand at the borders between man and animal, animal and machine, physical and non-physical. The author further states that modern communication technologies and biotechnologies are the cyborgs tools for crossing these borders. We, as cyborgs, are transgressive figure that are neither wholly technological nor organic. In this sense, it can no longer be argued that we are completely organic as the concept of cyborg lies within a gray area.
The author gives useful daily examples on how one would be considered cyborg and how easily for one to fall into the category of cyborg nowadays. These examples are all startling boundary transgressions that we now accept as part of daily life. We cannot make strong distinctions between humans and computers as we are extending through cyborg couplings. The author stresses that science is displacing the boundaries between human and machine.

These online sources are useful in illustrating the cyborg phenomenon. They also provide adequate examples of how one would fall into the category of cyborg in today's world and in this sense, in what ways cyborg is still a transgressive figure.

References:
Chuck Meyer (2002) ‘Human Identity in the Age of Computers’.
http://fragment.nl/mirror/Meyer/CyborgIdentity.htm (accessed 26 February 2009)
Heo Jae-sung (2002) ‘Being Cyborg is Possible for anybody’ The Argus 369,
http://maincc.hufs.ac.kr/~theargus/369/theory_04.htm (accessed 26 February 2009)
Jennifer Breen (2007) ‘Cyber Gender’. http://cyborgdb.org/breen.htm (accessed 26 February 2009)
Steve Mizrach ‘Should there be a limit placed on the integration of humans and computers and electronic technology?’. http://www.fiu.edu/~mizrachs/cyborg-ethics.html (accessed 26 February 2009)
Thomas Blake (2007) ‘Technological Transcendence: Why It’s Okay that the Future Doesn’t Need Us’.
http://www.ccsr.cse.dmu.ac.uk/conferences/ethicomp/ethicomp2007/abstracts/83.html (accessed 26 February 2009)

My Introduction

Hi everyone! This is Sybil and you are reading my first blog here :)

One of my favorite websites is RTHK. It may sound too "serious" and educational to some, but it is interesting. Various media forms are included there. Apart from archives of radio and TV programs, news articles, and Podcast video clips, there is a section which provides numerous accesses to learn new languages. The website is tightly connected with Hong Kong society and the rest of the world, so it serves as a significant tool to get to know different cultures. As maybe you can guess, I really enjoy traveling as it's fun to explore different cultures (learn their language, meet new people, try out new food...)

Anyone planning to travel somewhere after graduation?

I'll share my travel experiences with you guys in the coming posts.

Until then :)
Sybil

I am Kory ^.^

I am Kory.
Little tortoise is my nick name.
My favorite website is Youtube.
I got a funny video in Youtube in last week.
Crzay woman at the airport

About VY...

I am VY. I like reading manga and watching animation since my childhood. This may be influenced by my aunt since she always introduces some interesting manga and animation to me. We also like to discuss the stories and the characters as well as their products. In the past, we can only watch the animation on TV. But now we can search them on the Internet. In my favourite web failforum, it has all the latest updates.

I like the products with skull pattern. Therefore, I have bought a lot of T-shirts, caps and other stuff with skull pattern. In Skull-A-Day, it posts a picture of skull everyday. I will download some of them and use as wallpaper.

I like listening songs as well, especially the rock & roll and pop music. I can't go out without briniging my mp3, even I may just go out for 5 minutes.

Greeting from grace

Hi, everyone. Here is Grace.
Travelzoo is the website often visted by me to search for any packages or air flight tickets offering promotion in different seasons.

The site often sent me their newsletters for any hot items which selected as Top 20 and promoted by different travel agencies.

The semi-independent travel packages are often promoted. And there is some description from
the website which highlighting diffferent flea markets or spots in different countries for the visitors to go.

I liked to visit different flea markets because it allowed the visitors like me to know more about the local lifestyle or culture of the citizens and explore somethings
differences in a new city.

Stella's introduction

Hi there!
Let me introduce myself here.
Actually I am just an ordinary girl.
I like listening to music very much. And I like all kinds of music, for example, jazz, rock, acid jazz, and even classical.
Jason Mraz, Joanna Wang, Jamiroquai and Rachael Yamagata are my all time favourites.
I always listen to their music when i was travelling to school.

Oh Yes! I can tell I have to go to school for 2 hours a day (in total). That's just because I live in Tuen Mun. Although alll of you always think it is such a remote place(and it really is...), I love my growing-up home.
In Tuen Mun, air is fresher, people are lesser, and even environment is more spacious!
I just love living here though I have to spend time on travelling every day.
And I think this is probably the reason that I dont like to go to those crowded places, like Mong Kok.

Here's come to my music sharing of Jason Mraz :)
"Lucky" Official Video With Colbie Caillat


"I'm Yours" Official Video

Maggie tsang's first post here

hello, I am maggie. I love cats.And what my favorite website is youtube! it provides both audio and vedio entatinment to me! And it is very popular website that many people would share their vedio there. Accessing this website is a way of keeping up the speed of the popular culture.

Tracy's profile

Hi, everyone. I'm Tracy. I've just joined this new blog. This is my first post here.

The following is my profile:

Nickname: Little Red

Birthday: 11th October

Horoscope: Libra

Interests: watching films, reading books, listening songs, singing karaoke, playing bowling, cooking, photography, traveling, shopping...

-My best friends

-Taiwan trip in 2007

-Mille feuille, the cake I baked

Family status: father, mother, 2 younger sisters

Education: Chinese Methodist School (North Point) (A.M.)

Wesley College

University of Western Australia

Favourite food: Japanese food-sushi (especially Hotate)

Favourite cartoon character: Dokin

My Blog: SiuTraTra's Xanga

My favourite website is Lesuire Cat recipes. It is a nice website, you can find different recipes there.

I am Kanus

Hello, I am Kanus. One of my favourite websites is HongKongfilms. This is a website that collects many reviews of the movies in Hong Kong. I have learnt more about how to criticise a movie from it. I love movies, whatever genre except horror films. Although I am not look like a craven, I am very scared of the ghost films dread plots. And you may share your point of view about the movies with me anytime, but no horror films please! Because I didn't watched these films as I will have nightmare.
Besides movies, I also love reading. I would like to read whatever types of book as I can learn different branches of learning. Do you have any recommendation?

Kelvin's Self Introduction

To introduce myself i would like to talk about my pet. He is a Yorkshire Terrie and he was born in England. He was my first doggy and he turns me into an animal lover. Therefore, apart from dogs, I had had raised two chickens, birds and some equatorial fishes before.

Moreover, I am interested in photography and taking photos from the nature. Therefore, the website that i usually browse has a lot of information about digital cameras. I tried to learn more about photography to improve my skills when taking photos.

In addition, I like to express myself from my writings. So, I own a blog at yahoo.com.hk. There is a lot of stories(but a bit weird) and sharing some of my personal feelings towards different things.

Ellie~introduction

hi everyone, I am Ellie, nice to see you guys in this blog. To introduce myself, I like white and pink, I like sleeping, eating, reading books, seeing movies, listening to pop songs, etc. In my leisure time, I like staying at home, go shopping with friends just like most girls do. I like singing karaoke as well!!!
I love children very much, I think they are cute, simple and direct to express themselves, and I want to be a responsible mother in the future. I promise I would try my best to nurture my children as well as possible.
I like this website music............it gives some latest music news for me...

Who am I?

Hi there! This is Priscilla and you are now reading a post which is introducing about myself.

Me - Sporty

I love playing any kinds of sports besides volleyball because it hurts a lot. Korfball is my most favorite sport and I have been playing it since Secondary 3. As this is the draft, so... I am going to stop here and post one of my favorite link here which is... Korftball. YEAH~

Me - Curly Hair

Actually, I got curly hair since I was born. I started to have 'long' hair and make it stright since I left secondary school where I had my SUPER short hair which available for me in doing Korfball. However, I did so afterwards is because I don't want to spend time in combing my hair as I am very lazy. If I didn't make it stright, then it would scare people as it's in a mess.

Me - Love Playing - - - - - - - - - (it's hard for me to stop whenever i start my engine)

Jumping!!!

Kung Fu!!!

I love carrying my friends at my back and start spining!!!

I was inside this ball with one of my friend... SUPER exciting!!!!!!!!!!!!

The first impression that I heard from my friends is 'You are so cool as you don't talk and smile.' Actually, it is only my outlook and it's fake. Believe me I am not that cool... I just don't get used to talk. wakaka!!!!!! I love playing all the time! To me, there's an equation --> ''Silence'' = ''Getting into sleep mode'' <-- When I sit still, I fall asleep easily, head down and don't move at all. LOL!!! The only thing that can wake me up is CocaCola!!!

hellooo, this is Jacqueline

Hello! Nice to meet you all here. This is Jacqueline and this is my first post here. :)

I like traveling and I really wish to travel around the world in the future.
The place i would really love to visit is the Czech Republic. I think it's a very beautiful country.


My favorite website is Facebook because I can keep update with my friends.
There are many mini games as well, so I think it's a good website for me to spend my spare time.


Jacqueline

Intro of Jenifaaa

Hello everyone, my name is Jenifa Ma.  

To let you guys know more about me, well my favorite color is pink, i love music and playing video games (especially shooting games like Biohazard and Rainbow six series)!

I also love watching movies very much ! For anyone who also like movies, here is my favourite websites that i recommend : Internet Movie Database . Here you can find the ratings from others, the plots or even the taglines!

Hope you guys will enjoy it ;]