arin 1000 week 11 - kathy cleland
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Cyborgs
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What is a cyborg?
Cyborg = 'cybernetic organism
Term coined by Manfred E. Clynes and Nathan S. Kline in1960 to describe a lab rat with an osmotic pumpprogrammed to dispense chemicals
an animal-machine hybrid entity that is partbiological/organic and part machine
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Cybernetics - Norbert Wiener
Cyberneticsstudies organization, communication andcontrol in complex systems by focusing on circular (feedback)mechanisms
Cybernetics is an interdisciplinary science that studies humanand machine systems including: electrical engineering,biology, neurophysiology, computer science, anthropology,
and psychology
Sources:http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/CYBERN.htmlhttp://www.hyperdictionary.com
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Cybernetics - Norbert Wiener
Cybernetics aims to understand the similarities anddifferences in internal workings of organic and machineprocesses (action - feedback - response) and, by
formulating abstract concepts common to all systems, tounderstand their behaviour.
Example: thermoregulation in humans and machines
Sources:http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/CYBERN.htmlhttp://www.hyperdictionary.com
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Cybernetics:
Humans and Machines In cybernetics, machines, organisms and many other types
of systems are said to be analogous or 'isomorphic'.
This means that they are, in principle, the same - they
function or behave in fundamentally the same way with
respect to processes and feedback.
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Cybernetic Equation:
Human = Machine Computers are often imbued with human or biological qualities.
(e.g. computers think, have memory, get viruses, etc)
Similarly, human processes are often seen analogous tocomputer processes.
e.g. we talk about humans being programmed to act or behave in a certain
way (programmed by our parents, culture, education etc)
DNA is described as being analagous to a computer program Hardware (computer) - Software - Wetware (human)
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In The Human Uses of Human Beings (1948), NorbertWiener refers to the 'cybernation' of the world and his fearthat that this would lead to a dehumanisation of human
beings (e.g. automation replacing human jobs and humansbeing treated as just a cog in the machine)
According to Wiener we must consider the social
dimensions of cybernetic systems and make sure that thesesystems are designed with human use in mind and for thebenefit of humans.
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Who are cyborgs?
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Everyday human/machine cyborgs
Human life in the 21st century involves a close
relationship with a myriad of technologies that we are
finding it increasingly difficult to live without
e.g. computers, phones, cameras, cars, television etc)
Computer systems link humans and machines in
cybernetic feedback loops
This is the broadest possible definition of the cyborg
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Bio-medical Cyborgs
Cyborg technologies used to replace lost or impaired
biological functions
Pacemakers
Artificial hips and other joints
Prosthetic limbs
Cochlear implants
Artificial skin and other organs
The elderly in society are becoming the first cyborgs
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Bio-medical Cyborgs
humans/animals born as a result of reproductive
technologies including genetic engineering
pharmacological cyborgs - drugs used to optimise or
enhance normal biological functions
eg. sports medicine
Cosmetic surgery
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Examples of Cyborgs
Cyborg technologies used to amplify and extend human
capacities
For example, the kinds of melding of machine and human
that we see in VR technologies (eg fighter pilot training)
Telepresence technologies
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The Cyborg and the Posthuman
Cyborg discourses are linked with the concept of the
posthuman.
Our cyborg technologies are giving us the capacity to
intervene in our own evolution both through technological
augmentation and genetic engineering.
The re-design of the human is leading us into the realms of
the posthuman and its associated unstable boundaries and
shifting identities.
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The cyborg crosses boundaries
The cyborg signposts the fact that the distinctions between
machine/human no longer hold. The cyborg blurs
boundaries between:
Living Non-living
Organic Inorganic
Natural Artificial
Body Machine
Human Non-human
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What do the theorists say?
Marshall McLuhan
"All media are extensions of some human faculty - physic
or physical.
McHugh (quoted in Gray reading)
"Soon perhaps, it will be impossible to tell where human
ends and machines begin."
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What do the theorists say?
Donna Haraway
"We are all cyborgs."
Figuratively, we are "living through a movement from an
organic, industrial society to [society as] an ...information
system".
[i.e. humans are being re-crafted by biological andcommunications technologies.]
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What do the theorists say?
futurologist Alvin Toffler:
soon, miniaturised computers "will not only beimplanted to compensate for some physical defect but
eventually will be implanted to enhance human capability.
The line between human and computer at some point will
become completely blurred.
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What do the theorists say?
N. Katherine Hayles
According to Hayles we are moving from the human-machine hyphen where the human is connected to the
machine, to the human/machine splice where the human
and the machine extend into each other and there is no
clearly distinguishable boundary between them.
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Kevin Warwick
Kevin Warwick, Professor
of Cybernetics at the
University of Reading,UK, has implanted
computer chips into his
arm allowing him to
communicate with a
computer.Image Source: http://www.kevinwarwick.com/
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Stelarc
It is time the question whether a bipedal [two legged], breathing body
with binocular vision and a 1400 cc brain us an adequate biological form.
It cannot cope with the...information it has accumulated. The most
significant planetary pressure is no longer the gravitational pull but the
information thrust. Gravity has moulded the evolved body in shape and
structure and contained it on the planet. Information [technology] propels
the body beyond itself and its biosphere. Information fashions the form
and function of the post evolutionary body (quoted in Dery 161)
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Stelarc - Extra Ear
Image source:http://www.stelarc.va.com.au
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Stelarc - Prosthetic Head
Image source:http://www.stelarc.va.com.au
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Patricia Piccinini
Image from TMGP (The Mutant Genome Project)
Image source: http://www.patriciapiccinini.net/
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Patricia Piccinini
We Are Family Series - Game Boys Advanced
Image source: http://www.patriciapiccinini.net/
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Patricia Piccinini
We Are Family Series - Still Life with Stem Cells
Image source: http://www.patriciapiccinini.net/
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Patricia Piccinini
Protein Lattice, 1997
Image source: http://www.patriciapiccinini.net/
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Patricia Piccinini
We Are Family Series - The Young Family
Image source: http://www.patriciapiccinini.net/
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Film example:Robocop
Robocop, 1987, dir: Paul Verhoeven
The narrative is set in a near future Detroit.
Law enforcement has been privatised taken over by the
corporation Omni Consumer Products (OCP).
OCP is developing a new cyborg police officer called the
Robocop - part human, part machine.
The robocop cyborg is build using the body of a police
officer (Murphy) who is declared dead after being
severely injured in the line of duty.
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Robocop - central themes
Dehumanisation threatened by the advent of the cyborg
The human is viewed as a product
Murphys memory is wiped so he can be re-programmed
Murphy is owned by the corporation OCP
Reassertion of human identity despite technological
transformations Murphy re-asserts his human identity by reclaiming his
human memories and human relationships
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Terminator 2: Judgement Day
Terminator 2: Judgement Day,1991, dir. James Cameron
Theme - the humanisation of the machine
The terminator learns human values
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References
Additional Readings in Fisher Reserve Gray, C. H. (ed), (1995), Introduction, in The Cyborg Handbook, London: Routledge.
Gray, C. H. (2001) Cyborg Citizen: Politics in the Posthuman Age, New York: Routledge.
Haraway, D. Foreword, in Chris Hables Gray (ed), (1995) The Cyborg Handbook, London:
Routledge. Haraway, D. (1991) A Manifesto for Cyborgs, in Simians, Cyborgs and Women, London: FreeAssociation Books.
Murphie, A. and Potts, J. (2003) Culture and Technology, Basingstoke: Palgrave.
See Chapter 5 Cyborgs: the Body, Information and Technology.
Springer, C. (1996) Muscular Circuitry, in Electronic Eros: Bodies and Desire in thePostindustrial Age, University of Texas Press.
Telotte, J. P. (1995) Life at the Horizon: The Tremulous Public Body, and The ExposedModern Body: Terminatorand Terminator 2, in Telotte, J. P. (1995) Replications: A RoboticHistory of the Science Fiction Film, University of Illinois Press.
Tofts, D. et al (eds.) (2002) Prefiguring Cyberculture: an intellectual history, Sydney: PowerPublications; Cambridge, Mass.: MIT.