Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Week 8: Self. Gov II: Resistance

The reading is titled ‘Pranking rhetoric: “culture jamming” as media activism’ which is written by Christine Harold. Her main focus in the essay is theory of culture jamming and the rhetorical appropriation of pranking. She has stated that the consuming desire of consumers is controlled by the corporate powers and the control from the powers has been increased in recent years, consumers are so passive in the case that some may not resist from this increase. Therefore, culture jamming is a very way to resist from the act of the corporate powers. So what culture jamming is?

Culture jamming is a ‘rhetorical process of intervention and invention’ which is to say it interrupts some power structures or discourses and uses the original resources existed to recreate or invent a new idea to challenge or oppose the original one. This introduces noises to the issues, or gives alternatives to audiences to think about the issue critically, or reveal the truth of the issue behind, etc. In the essay, Harold has listed some examples from Adbusters. Adbusters is a medium for global culture jammers to post their culture jammed pieces online in order to ‘change the way information flows, the way corporations wield power, and the way meaning is produced in our society. It not only publishes magazines but also holds campaigns. Here is an example from Adbusters.






This picture shows us the evolution of human beings. And the culture jammed part is the word ‘buyological’ which is assonance of ‘biological’. This means that human’s evolution recently doesn’t evolve not in the way of what human originally do already but with tones of products and brands.

However, Harold stated that what adbusters is doing is not comprehensive as it just asks people to say ‘No!’ to the corporate powers that audiences is not really involved in. So, she has suggested the pranking rhetoric as a tool of culture jamming. Pranking defines as to trick, to fold, and to adorn. What pranksters do is to strategically augment and utilize the precious resources to a new invention which is often comedic in challenging consumer culture. People use this method to resist ‘by playfully and provocatively folding existing cultural forms in on themselves’. This becomes the main characteristics of culture jamming nowadays especially in Hong Kong. Here is an example listed in the essay which is about The Barbie Liberation Organization (BLO). BLO was founded in 1989 and aimed at revealing and correcting the problem of gender – based stereotyping in children’s toys. They have a project of buying hundreds of Barbie and G.I Joe and selling them out during the Christmas shopping season. In the project, they have exchanged the voice box of Barbie and G.I Joe that Barbie would say, ‘Vengeance is mine!’ while G.I Joe would say ‘Let’s plan our dream wedding!’. What amazing is that children loves the edited toys more than the original one.

This kind of resistance not only enhances the involvement of audiences, but also brings large responses to consumerism and corporate power which is provocative.

We have considered 4 questions to the discussion part.

1. Are there any pros and cons of online jamming?

2. Why do you share pieces with culture jamming through online social network like facebook?

3. According to utilitarianism by Immanuel Kant while majority happiness is fulfilled, materials of online jamming would be moral, do you agree? Why?

4. Is there any relationship among protest and online jamming?

For the first question we discussed, this would lead to the effectiveness of online jamming and there are some other advantages rather than resistance aspect. For the second question, this leads to the issue of constructing identity and impression management. Besides, the third question raised concern of utilitarianism by Immanuel Kant as what people shared or jammed is using the original resources like news, drama or movies so morality or ethics can be discussed whether majority happiness is more important than the feelings of minority/the victims and the copyright of the creation. As we have mentioned before, there are some culture jammed products are created to resist in political aspects so we considered the forth question about relationship of protest and online jamming.

To conclude, why does the topic related to our course? First, the medium people share and spread the culture jammed ideas are usually online social network so it has reached the question of online and offline identity that online identity is being constructed while people share the idea. Second, the person, or victim, being culture jammed is actually a cyborg. As the idea of ‘human body should end at skin’ and ‘human has linkage with every part of the body’ has been mentioned in lectures, the person, being edited by technology like Photoshop and slaughtered into different parts to suit in the jammed one, is a cyborg.


By Leung Frances and Ng Angela

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Week 7: Self.Gov 1 : Virtual Ethics

Cyberstalking


Cyberstalking is meaning that using internet or other electronic to stalk or harass a person, a group of people or even an organization. This may include false accusations, making threats, identity theft, damage data or the equipment, the solicitation of minors for sex or gathering information to harass.
For the traditional liberal ethic values, that assumes everyone has equal abilities and enjoy the equal interactions on internet, but seems that they have isolated the truth that men and women are not equal.

Women and men are treated differently in cyberspace, and as Herring said that the online sexual harassment tends to mirror the levels of harassment that women find in real life. “Cyberstalking” has been created to describe the stalking behavior perpetrated through some aspect of information and the technology of the communication. According to the readers, there are three case studies, they all shows that usually the women are the victims, and why they became the victim is just because they chose to speak up publicly on the internet about perceived injustices. This raises a question of individual privacy, but this really hammers home what is involved in violations of individual privacy.
Although men and women can be the victims of the cyberstalking, the majority is still shows that women as the victims and the men as the perpetrators. Cyberstalking behavior is strongly gendered.
As the reader mention that the feminist ethics emphasizes the web of responsibilities we have towards one another in an “ethic of care” rather than seeing us as individual moral agents that implied by the traditional liberal ethics.
As Taylor mentions that cyberstalking displays clearly gendered aspects and it has noted that hacking is largely a masculine phenomenon. The author said that the feminist ethics holds much promise both in forming alternative analyses of computer ethics problems and in offering a more collectivist vector for computer ethics.



The Ethics of Porn on the Net

As internet is becoming more and more important nowadays, the internet porn is become both non-academic and academic issue. It is no longer a secret anymore.
Internet porn seems like a kind of “domestication” of pornography. It also allows all the people to be the amateur pornographers.

Pornography understood in term of morality, the Judeo-Christian “sex is a matter of procreation, private “married love”. On the other hand, the internet porn depicts non-reproductive sex acts, performed in public, or for profit between two unmarried and not heterosexual, partners. Pornography consider to be immoral because
It makes something “public” that should be private. It also encourages people to exchange sex for money and exploits women by representing them as being sexually active and available. The last reason is that it represents a limited range of body types as sexually appealing.

Nowadays more and more people want to share their sexy photo or video to the public without any commercial purpose. It seems like that the people want to try to change the traditional sexual idea and break the taboo. It also allows the non-professionals can become a porn star. The amateur pornographers are also trying to shape a new idea of traditional “sexy” in the internet.

All in all, as there are some advantage and disadvantage for the internet porn, it all depends on what you think and feel.

After we finished the reading, we wanted to ask few question for our classmates. Please feel free to answer us.
1. Why the girls are always being in a low status and always be the target of the cyberstalking?
2. In Hong Kong, is there have any example for the cyberstalking? For Example: HKgolden
3. Does the cyberstalking exist any advantage or disadvantage?
4. Will the internet porn affect our real life or the real sex? Will the internet porn change the status of the women? Will the internet porn affect the definition of Ethic?

By Sing Wong
BY POyuponyo Ng

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Critical Annotated Webliography by Charlene Yim

Question
Is a cyborg queer? Discuss critical thinking in the intersections between sexuality and technology.

Reference Summary

1. Marti, Stefan. “On Elizabeth Reid: Cultural Formations. Chapter Three: Identity and Cyborg Body.” MIT Media Lab. 26 Apr 1998. 11 Mar 2011. < http://web.media.mit.edu/~stefanm/vsociety/ElizabethReid.html>

This article is describing the identity of people on the Internet and also the cyborg sexuality. Actually, people do not have a constant identity on the Internet. It is because people not only can say whatever they want, they can also be whoever they want. On the Internet, both gender and race are hard to be detected. We cannot distinguish the gender and race purely by words. Therefore, people can may an identity which is different from their real life on the Internet.

Moreover, this article also talked about some important cultural factors in the Western society which are gender, race and class. The male-female cross gendering has been a great issue in the Western society. It is because of three reasons. First, female is getting some kind of privileges on the Internet. Second, when a male playing a female role on the Internet, he will be regards as “lying”. The third reason is that many people would feel uncomfortable when talking to a people whose gender is unclear.

Cyborg Sexuality is also an important issue as virtual sex is the most expressive of all virtual interaction. The line between virtual action and actual desires can become blurred. This arise the question that cyborg and actual identity are distinct, or are the same.


2. Munkittrick, Kyle. “On the importance of being a Cyborg Feminist.” H+ Community. 21 Jul 2009. 11 Mar 2011. < http://hplusmagazine.com/2009/07/21/importance-being-cyborg-feminist/>


This article is written by Kyle Munkittrick in 2009. It is based on Haraway’s essay “ A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist- Ferminism in the Late Twentieth Century”. This passage has talked about the transhumanism’s relationship with postmodern philosophy and critical theory and also the cyberfeminism. In the passage, it mentions that cyborg is capable to take the West’s concept of historical and intellectual progress and transmuted into a postmodern socialist-feminist counter-force.

Cyberferminism is focus on the ways in which science and technology interact with gender roles and their and their mutual constructions in the society. The rise of cyberfeminism has given people the tools and understanding to better utilize technology for feminist goals, technology currently dose more to reinforce gender roles than to undermine them. The article has used an example to illustrate the point that is the transgenders and intersexuals. Both communities are heavily dependant upon and subject to the medical, technoscience, and legal instiutions that form our society in the ways that uniquely highlight how transhumanism is interlinked with cyberfememinism.


3. M. Maheu, Marlene. “The Future of Cyber-Sex and Relationship Fidelity: Cyborg Theory.” Self Help Magazine. 11 Mar 2011. < http://www.selfhelpmagazine.com/article/node/1337>

This article is written by Marlene M. Maheu, Ph.D. At the beginning of the article, it has already pointed out the situation I the contemporary society, the technology is becoming more and more advanced and more people become familiar with the Internet, as a result, the interactions between humans and technology will become more and more complex. The Cyborg theory has examined this phenomenon from the perspective of sociology. It is a powerful tool for human to consider future of relationships and sexuality in a wider society.

In fact, there are a lot of examples of cyborg around us, for example, man surviving with a pacemaker, or a woman surviving with a respirator. These kinds of people are being cyborgs due to health reason. However, Marlene pointed out that some people are having problematic interactions between humans and computers in Cyborgasms. He has taken a young woman who named Rebecca as an example. Rebecca is considered as a cyborg because her sex life is undeniably tied to and dependent upon AOL chat rooms. All her sexual activities involving partners are online. This is definitely not a good scenario. Rebecca has plugged herself into the computer. She is lacking of normal social life. In this case, technology has greatly affected her social and sexual life.

4. Carter, Kelsey. “Fine for a Robot: A Look at Sex and Technology in Cinema.” Eye Candy. 11 Mar 2011. < http://eyecandy.ucsc.edu/articles/carter/>

We can know more about the intersections between sexuality and technology through films. David Cronenbery, a famous director, is notorious for sexualizing technology’s functions. His films have everything to do with the impact of machinery on the body—humans whose bodies merge with VCRs (as in Videodrome, 1983) or with gaming devices (as in eXistenZ, 1999). Through his films, we can self-examine our life. Did all of us likely accustom to being “plugged in” for the majority of their day, be it to mobile phones, media players, or the Internet? We have increasingly embodied relationship to technology has produced in us a disturbing detachment from the “real world.” In addition to bringing forth the disreputable reality of sexually active minors, the term ‘sexting’ which means “sex” and “texting” has pathologizes the link between humans and their devices. As many people would believe that this is a new phenomenon, the coupling of sex and technology has been a new issue that deserves our concern.

In this article, it has also mention the example of Avatar (2009) which is a film talking about cyborg. This film has lead to a deep thinking of cyborg sexuality. The sex scene in the film has aroused a lot of discussion among the public. Will it become the reality in the future? As we all know, sex is something happen between two human beings. Traditionally, it is about the continuing of life. Will technology allow cyborg to achieve this in the future? If yes, I believe that it must provoke a huge moral problem.



5. “The Thin Line Separating Science & Intimacy” Onward, Forward, Toward…. 8 Nov 2008. 11 Mar 2011.

This article is talking about a cyborg who named Kevin Warwick. He has a 100-electrode array implanted in his forearm that allowed a computer to tap into the neuro-electric signals coursing through his arm. And his wife also had two electrodes inserted into her arm, and the Warwicks connected their nervous systems from separate rooms over a computer network. He claimed that he has a very profound feeling on that. He felt that he is having no distance between himself and his wife. The author then liked this to human sexuality. He believed that human sexuality is not only not only the merging of the physical and sensual side of male and female but also the holy state matrimony between man and woman. These actions help us to draw the line between the natural and ‘creationist’ aspect of humanity and the ‘evolving’ of technology to as a superseding force to mesh the physical and Spiritual together as a substitute to the authentic intimacy.

Moreover, the author has also raised the question of how to further define the line between science & nature. He used the example of life-support machine to illustrate the point. The line is still blurred as in the Christian’s point of view, “pull the plug” is seen as murder. However, the fact is that patient cannot stay alive without the plug. Can we consider him/her still alive? A normal human would not use an iron lung to breath. It is a question that deserves our profound thinking.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Critical Annotated Webliography

Self,Net – Identity in the Digital Age

WOMN.2205

Assignment 1

Critical Annotated Webliography


1. Miyake, Esperanza.”My, is that Cyborg a little bit Queer?”.15 March 2011.<http://www.bridgew.edu/soas/jiws/Mar04/Miyake.pdf>

l Summary:

The title of this essay is “My, is that Cyborg a little bit Queer?”. The essay will discuss the cyborg as queer into different aspect of queer theory such as(sociological, ideological, political and ontological). The essay also explores the status of cyborg in many ways such as gender, sexuality, identity, representation and the body. The essay argues that the cyborg is really like a real person. The essay also mentions that there are three area which draw our attention. The first area is the sexual power in social life. The second area is roblematizes sexual and gender categories, and identities in general. The third and the largest area is the social politics. The essay also mentions that the cyborg world will be appeared in earth finally. In this cyborg world, there is no any sexual power and the gender different. On the other hand, the essay also argues that the cyborg world is very important. It is because the cyborg can be set a means which like lesbian/gay/queer into the politics and action. The essay also mentions that the cyborg is even better the real world. It is because the real person body always requires so many things to fulfill their body but the cyborg is not. In the cyborg world, it is only full of code. The essay mentions that the cyborg is not related to any racial, ethnic, class, gendered or sexual body. The essay argue that gender will be completely destroyed by cyborg due to there is no gender in the cyborg world. The essay also argues that there will have so many problems if there is no gender in this world and this phenomenon will happen very soon.

2. Kupczak, Tania.” “So You Wanna Be A Cyborg Mommy? Queer Identity and the New Reproductive Technologies” 15 March 2011.<http://www.refugia.net/domainerrors/DE2g_queer.pdf>

l Summary:

The title of this essay is “So You Wanna Be A Cyborg Mommy? Queer Identity and the New Reproductive Technologies”. The essay argues that the cyborg is a creature in a post-gender world. Nowadays the gender identity is still remaining but there are someone wanting to get over this tradition. The essay point out that the reproduction is a great identity between the human and the cyborg. The essay argues that the cyborg in twenty-first century have already became not only base on the mechanical and biological part, but also the cyborg has become a representative for humans’ lifestyle and technologically mediated identities. As the cyborg is the hybrid of the flesh and the machine. The essay uses a Cryobaby as a example. The fact is a human baby should be created by sex. However, the Cryobaby should be created by science. The essay also talks about the gay men and lesbian are trying to use different ways to create a baby for their own. It finds out that it is very hard to find a human to have sex and create a baby for you. So that the Cryobaby should be the best way which means create by the science. It is safe and it is work. Unfortunately, the law is still can deny this. Finally, the essay point out that nowadays the society is already changing. Respect the gay men and lesbian and accept the cyborg baby. It seems cyborg baby will become “normal” in the future.

3. Franklin, Sarah.” The Cyborg Embryo : Our Path to Transbiology”. sagepub.com.2006. 16 March 2011.<http://tcs.sagepub.com/content/23/7-8/167.full.pdf>

l Summary:

The title of this essay is “The Cyborg Embryo”. The essay point out the development of the cyborg embryo had been started so many years. The people in order to know more about it, they tend to study the anthropology of the embryos such as life, health, sex, hope and money. Someone said the cyborg embryo profane the god and break the tradition. There is a question that no one can define their identities up to now. In 1980s, Haraway said the cyborg was “a slightly perverse shift” in the relation between society and technology. The essay point out why IVF is very common, but cyborg embryo is perceived as something of an oddity. It is because IVF has already been perceived as normal in our world. The education is the main key to draw the IVF becoming normal in humans’ mind. The essay argues that there are always so many similar issues which are between the socialized and the scientific understandings such as the social values and gender identities. It will be more and more visibly in the coming days.The last thing is that there is one thing remain for certain. If we want to develop the cyborg embryo well, we need to know more about the history of the cyborg.

4. Asberg,Cecilia.” Enter cyborg: tracing the historiography and ontological

turn of feminist technoscience studies” feministtechnoscience.3 June 2010. 16 March 2011.<http://feministtechnoscience.se/wp/wp-content/uploads/enter-cyborg-international-journal-of-feminist-technoscience-v-1_1.pdf>

l Summary:

The title of this essay is “Enter cyborg: tracing the historiography and ontological turn of feminist technoscience studies”. At the beginning of the essay, the essay mentions that a photo makes the cyborg becoming a icon of the feminist. Cyborg becomes a very hot topic which between the technology and the identity formations of the modern human Self in the society. It mentions that a cyborg is a hybrid, not entirely human and not entirely woman.

The cyborg is not only a matter of the gender equality in academia. It even affects the cultures of modern of science in the whole world. The essay point out that the cyborg is not only the metaphor for the joint merging of biology and technology, but also is a collection of different identities and border zones of many kinds like body, the virtual and the real. The essay also mentions that the cyborg has a great potential to make the natural and the culture mix together. The essay also described the cyborg as a “post gender”. The cyborg is a very crucial key figure to the ontological issues that haunts feminist materialist

thinking today.

5. Julie Levin Russo. “cyborg sex in public,fan fiction on-line,and a fantasyof politicalconsumption” Swarthmore.12 July 2002. 16 March 2011.

<http://j-l-r.org/asmic/fanfic/print/TTcyborgsex.pdf>

l Summary:

The title of this essay is “cyborg sex in public,fan fiction on-line,and a fantasyof politicalconsumption”. The essay starts with a story which is talking about the sex between two cyborgs. It point out the mass culture is hegemonic, they can set the ideological for you whenever they want. The mass culture always point out that the cyborg is queer. The cyborg is challenging the public sex within a queer tradition. The essay mentions that there is a title for the cyborg sex which called “non-sexual reproduction plus non-reproductive sex”. It makes a very strong power for the political resistance and change. The essay also mention that if we want to change the tradition mind of the cyborg sex, we need to find out a new way and a new disseminating way to express a new idea and new image of the cyborg sex, in order to develop a new culture to the cyborg sex. The essay uses a very good example which is fan-written stories. The fan-written stories always talk about the cyborg sex and the the lesbian staff. As the internet develops rapidly, it is a very good way to get there so that the public will not belittle the cyborg and the cyborg sex.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Critical Annotated Webliography by Frances Leung


2. ‘The machine/ organism relationships are obsolete, unnecessary’ writes Haraway. In what ways have our relations to machines been theorized?


Source 1

Sebastian Thrun (2004) Towards a framework for Human-Robot Interaction
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.92.7300&rep=rep1&type=pdf (accessed on 14 March 2011)

The author has pointed out why robots are different from other devices that robots are autonomy while devices like home appliances are not. The field of robotics has covered the system of how the robots are empowered the ability to react to questions and some situations and therefore different techniques used to enhance reactions are also inputted. And that is why the autonomy of robots enhances different interfaces and interaction with humans.

A brief understanding on robotics is essential to help us familiarize the interaction between the two. Before a deep analysis of the interaction interfaces, this article enhances us knowledge of robotics and discover how significant robotics is when approaching the issue of social interaction. There are three kinds of basic robots introduced in the article which are industrial robot, professional service robot and personal service robot while all of them require different autonomy and interfaces.

The author finally concludes that robotics is changing time by time that interaction between humans and robots can be more advanced by technology and would be a primary concern to the up – rising trend of production of robots.

Source 2

Machiko, Kusahara (2001) ‘The Art of Creating Subjective Reality: An Analysis of Japanese Digital Pets’ http://browse.reticular.info/index.php?fpp=100&did=6-0-4&fid=1&gid=2 (accessed 15 March 2011)

The most obvious relationship between human and machines would be human and a digital pet. The author analyzed the digital pets invented and described the trend of playing digital pets in Japan. One of the popular digital pets is tamagotchis. Japanese has the sense of artificial entertaining and created the pets with its advanced technology. For those who own a digital pet would like to take care of it and therefore an attachment with the pet has been developed. This can be called as “subjective reality” that it’s not necessarily a reality but a ‘virtual reality’.

The author stated that “these systems involve sense of reality, manners of communication, and ways which we see other life – forms” that the systems of artificial pets originally mainly focus on simulating the reality but this led to another issue about cyborg. Once we are attached with the technology, we have to cyborgize to be attached with it. Or else, you cannot follow the pace of the advanced world and lag behind forever. This can lead us to re – think the significance of caring them once we have feelings on the relationships on whether it is authentic or not.


Source 3

Sueur, C ‘Man or Machine: Cyborgs in Japanese Cinema’ http://www.filmfortress.com/essays/cyborgs_essay/ (accessed 15 March 2011)

Japan is one of the most advanced countries in terms of technology inventions. The author has raised a concept of “second – nature” that the use of technology in japan has driven vigorously and almost become an extension of the human body. They relies on technology in every single minutes like using smart phones for not only calling or texting somebody but also easy electronic payments like octopus card in Hong Kong and playing apps.

Therefore, What happens when the line between man and machine is erased completely and when does a man cease to be a man and become a machine?” asked the Japanese as the boundaries of human and machines are kind of blurring and nearly invisible. The author wrote this article to raise a concern of the blurring of or complex relationship between human and machines/ technology nowadays. There are some Japanese cult movies listed as examples to explain the blurring effect and as a result of human being a strange, complex and confused identity, “cyborg”. The author concluded with a point of “duality of character” that humans are finally living with dual roles as boundaries are dissolving - there would be no visible separation between organisms and machines.

Source 4

Verdoux, Philippe (2010) (Post) Human-Technology Relations http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/verdoux20100329/ (accessed 15 March 2011)

The article written from Verdoux has discussed the concept of post – humans and the relations between humans and technology in terms of current and future aspects by listing different philosophers’ perspectives. He first introduced two approaches to the issue which is classified into ‘subjective’ and ‘objective’ point of view while Idle’s four – way typology can explain the relations which are embodiment, hermeneutics, alterity and background. Then, another philosopher Verbeek has further elaborated the four – way typology and suggested the term “cyborg intentionality” that humans are driven by the advanced technology and always intentionally demanded machines and technology in daily lives.

On the other hand, he brings out an example of plastic surgery to explain technological modification that technology can be part of human. It is no wonder that technology should be visible in front of humans which can be “materially or functionally” human parts. He elaborated this by concepts of extensions, substitutions and enhancements in the example. Also, he raised an argument of differences between post – humans and cyborgs. The post – humans can overcome some limitations in the future which cannot be solved by humans in the present while cyborgization is one of the process to become a post – human. Cyborgization is a process which requires humans to mediate our perceptions and transform body minds to hybrid states of “natural” and “artificial” and produces brand new intentions. Those so called intentions and relying on technology definitely dissolve the boundaries of human and technology.

Source 5

PJ Rey A brief Reflection on Donna Harawayhttp://thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/2010/11/11/a-brief-reflection-on-donna-haraway/ (accessed 16 March 2011)

This is a brief reflection on Donna Haraway’s Cyborg theory by the author, Rey. Haraway has foreseen the physical limitations of humans and therefore, to break through restrictions through concept of cyborgs and this has changed the relationship between humans and machines and eventually the social condition among sexes.

The author raised an idea of “post – humanism” which is also discussed in Haraway’s cyborg theory. He claimed that “post – humans” is only a term describing “humans” in which “humans” is already not sufficient to describe current human beings now but this is a concept which is always misunderstood by people that “post – humans” are something else of other species or creature and misled to the word “cyborgs”.

On the other hand, Rey has reinforced Haraway’s idea that use and invention of technology is both an oppoirtunity and a danger. Advanced technologies bring us many benefits but at the same moment blur the boundaries between the two. The phenomenon cannot be determined as positive or negative. It is the argument of “humans control machines” or “humans are controlled by machines, which is to say humans have become cyborgs eventually” or simply a fight between humans and cyborgs.

Critical Annotated Webliography -- Yan Shek

1) 'Why Should our bodies end at the skin?' asks Donna Haraway. Discuss the idea of skin in relation to how we might imagine our future embodiment.

1. Ballard, Susan. “My viewing body does not end at the skin” <http://www.voyd.com/ttlg/textual/ballardessay.htm>, 15 Mar 2011.

The writer argues that the viewings of bodies are not just from our eyes but also a connection with the engaged babies. It becomes the question of seeing and also a question that related to the body. She has uses the Alexander bell’s experiments as an example. In these experiments, Avital Ronell use a similar transformation that is hearing devices to show the voice can transmit by itself and it can sperated with the body. It shows that the skin is not the major barrier that to obstruct our bodies to have connect with other.
Nowadays, there are many technologies enter our body. Such as reproduct technologies and communication technologies, etc. That technology can help the body transport through many different boundaries. And it has created the new sense of corporeal body. She uses Donna Haraway’s cyborg as an example to explain the construct body. Some people may argue that those cyborg or construct body is an object but it will have their own subjectivity. It shows that they are both subject and object. And they will become "us, our processes, an aspect of our embodiment." (Haraway, 1991, p.180)
Those technologies already burrow beneath our skin and we cannot separate with them. The boundary of our body will become blurred because the technology already becomes a part of our body or a part of our living. “My viewing body cannot end at the skin because there is too much to see out there”. (Ballard)

2. Biocca ,Frank. “The Cyborg's Dilemma, The Cyborg's Dilemma: Progressive Embodiment in Virtual Environments”
<http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol3/issue2/biocca2.html#cyborg's>, 14 Mar 2011.

“The cyborg's dilemma: The more natural the interface the more "human" it is, the more it adapts to the human body and mind. The more the interface adapts to the human body and mind, the more the body and mind adapts to the non-human interface. Therefore, the more natural the interface, the more we become "unnatural," the more we become cyborgs. “ (Biocca) The write suggest that if we want cyborg become more “human”, we can combine body's senses and motor systems. That mean we can use human skin cover on the machine to make the cyborg more “human”.
Also, in this article it suggests that “we are designed to be cyborg”. We will combine our minds and bodies with the externalizations of ourselves. The interesting part is we will build up a third world. That is not a world that about self and our minds and bodies with the externalizations of ourselves but a world that mix human forms and technology. It is not difficult to imagine that in the future, human or cyborg embodiment may couple of the physical body and the computer interface.

3. Boyle, Alan. “Human evolution at the crossroads”. <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7103668/ns/technology_and_science-science/>, (24 Jun 2010), 13 Mar 2011.

Many people may think that superhuman, cyborg and astrans only exist in the science fiction. But this article point out that they are the fact and they will become the reality in the future. For example, the changes of genes will product the superhuman. Although they look like “human”, they will come with improve power and performance. Also, their living will surround many high technologies. The write uses the superheroes of the ’30s and the ’40s to prove superhuman are existing in our world now because all of the technologies are existed today.
Also, cyborg are already appear in our living. Nowadays, those people who have mechanical hearts, cochlear implants and artificial retinas are already cyborg. But their images are still human. In future, the image of cyborg will become more elegant. The aspects of the human body and the human intelligent will replace by the machine or become less important. It makes some experts worry that when one intelligent robot has created successfully, the human species will enter to the robot species.

4. Hsu, Jerem. “The Future Is Here: Cyborgs Walk Among Us“ <http://www.livescience.com/10317-future-cyborgs-walk.html>, (08 December 2010), 15 Mar 2011.

This article is talking about the future views of cyborg. In nowadays, many people still think cyborg is only exist in the science fiction stories but there are some experts have pointed out that cyborg are already living among us. For example, the elderly who wear hearing aid, even those people who wear Bluetooth in-ear headsets are also call cyborg. The new definition of cyborg is human being who is augmented by technology. In this article it has use Terminator and skywalker as an example to explain what is cyborg. For example, the people lost his hand or a part of his body, he can use machine to replace that part to maintain his living. Then he will become cyborg. It is because he has combined the machine and human being. Although the part of the machine does not cover by the skin, it will not affect his identity.
In fact, it has blurred the boundary of human and machine. For example, a rebort which coated with living human skin and flesh also call cyborg. It seems that the skin become less important for the human being.

5. Vita-More , Natasha .“The New [human] Genre — Primo Posthuman “ <http://www.natasha.cc/paper.htm> (April 2004), 14 Mar 2011.

"…there is nothing to be seen more wonderful than the image of man." [Fleming 1966, p. 284] Many scientists want to create ideal human. In this article, the write has find three different human style that may exist in the future. They are the classical image, the cyborg, and the transcendent entity. First, the classical image is similar to the human in nowadays. Also, they will surround by high technology but they will still grow old, develop rounded bellies, and balding scalps. Second, the cyborg is part of human and part of machine. Their image are prefer to machine image rather than as same as human. And most of them are having superhuman powers. But they argue that the cyborg will lack of social consciousness and suggests a grim and dire nature by impersonalizing humanity. Third, the transcendent entity will be closer with spiritual ideals. Their nature will remove from the perfection and the superhuman power by consciousness. They will lost their human image and become the collective mind. These three image shows that human image will change over time.
At the end the write has suggest the fourth image that may appear in the future and it is call Primo Posthuman. They are the human that combine the biology and technology. Their body will not old and they will have 24-hour remote Net relay system inside their body. The skin is not important to them because their skin will replace by itself over time to time. Their image will become closer to the “ideal man” with improved human condition and value.

Critical Annotated Webliography -- Michael Wan

"Why should our bodies end at skin?"

1. Isaac M. McPhee “ The Physiology of Skin”
http://www.suite101.com/content/the-physiology-of-skin-a52807 (accessed 16 March 2011)



McPhee has a detailed introduction of human skin. We always ignore the functions of skin and take it for granted. There are different colors on the skin which can tell us our race. Apart from telling one’s race, skin is important to human body as it tells the body conditions and protects us from outside threat. Skin is a multi-Purpose organ. It is the largest single organ in the entire human body, nearly fifteen percent of total body weight is from our skin.


Skin protects all of our fragile organs on the inside from all the very harmful and abrasive stuff in the outside world. Skin is to provide humans a sense of touch, there are more than a thousand nerve endings for each square inch of skin in the human body. That’ why humans are sensitive for their actions and able to maintain a healthy chemical balance.



Skin tells the body conditions. McPhee mentioned “When bashful the face can turn red, and when frightened the face can turn pale white. “ Therefore, skin acts as an important tool for us to “hail” other humans with important information.



2 .The Danish Council of Ethics “Recommendations concerning Cyborg Technology”

http://etiskraad.dk/en/Temauniverser/Homo-Artefakt/Anbefalinger/Udtalelse%20om%20cyborgteknologi.aspx#5
(accessed 16 March 2011)

The writers said that new technology connects humans with machines. Humans can connect the bioelectrical signals of the brain and central nervous system directly to computers and robot parts that are either outside the body or implanted into the body. Cyborg technologies create a radical change in what it means to be human. Cyborg-technology also challenges the limits of individuality.

Human bodies marked inequalities. A lot of people benefit from their genetic advantages, for example some athletes naturally produce more hormones than other opponents and therefore have a clear advantage in the competition. Based on an ideal of equality, some people suggested obtaining enhancements with the help of cyborg technology. However, technology for developing a cyborg is expensive and not many people know how to make a cyborg. Only the rich can afford the technology nowadays, the writer doubted can cyborg create social equality?

Moreover, the writers raised the point that how cyborgs behave and think are under the system written by programmers. It will be possible to completely digitalize human beings. This could be described as man's total separation from his biological foundation. Should a non-biological body covered with skin?


3. PJ Rey “A brief Reflection on Donna Haraway” http://thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/2010/11/11/a-brief-reflection-on-donna-haraway/ (accessed 16 March 2011)

Rey made his reflection on Donna Haraway’s “Cyborg Manifesto”. Haraway is the authority and pioneer in Cyborg theory. A lot of articles are based on her idea and the writers made further discussion.

Rey pointed out that Haraway has foreseen humans are not sufficient in the future. Humans are under restriction of phyicall body parts. We need to change the boundaries of the world by entering cyborg era. With technological development, individuals may have chance to challenge prevailing norms, like racial discrimination and inequality on women social status. Cyborg era marks the social changes. If we want to build a world with equality and discrimination and bias, do the cyborgs need to have sex organs to recognize their gender? DO we need skin to tell where do we come from? Do they need to skin to protect their material-semiotic bodies as the functions are written in programs?

However, emergence of new technology is both an opportunity and a danger. It gives us a chance to develop a better world on one hand. On the other hand, can humans control cyborgs in the future? Will it bring into another World War by using robots and cyborgs?

4. Susan Ballard My viewing body does not end at the skin.

http://www.voyd.com/ttlg/textual/ballardessay.htm (accessed 16 March 2011)

Ballard questioned that communications and relationships with others are not restricted by boundaries and bodies. She suggested that entrapment by images occurs because of the mimetic nature of the relationship of viewer to viewed. She argued that the viewing experience is not simply one of looking with the eyes but involves a connected, corporeally engaged body. She focused on the interactions with others and viewing functions on human beings. The transformations that new technologies engender create a new sense of the corporeal body. For example, we can see others face by webcam and we can know what’s happening in the world with the help of mediating technology. How we feel about others and things should not be under restriction of our bodies.

She believed that scanners, memory storage or other electrical devices can be our organs to help us receiving information from the world in the future.

She concluded that “My viewing body cannot end at the skin because there is too much to see out there”.


5. Claudia Castaneda “Robotic Skin The future of touch”

http://books.google.com.hk/books?id=hf50Izr-Wz0C&pg=PA223&lpg=PA223&dq=skin%2Bfuture%2Bembodiment&source=bl&ots=dR8J1BJFSj&sig=rVAviNxnX3ZfKK4g_kWvP-TFLoA&hl=zh-TW&ei=OM2BTcSEKIbCcaCF8IYD&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCIQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=skin%2Bfuture%2Bembodiment&f=false (accessed 16 March 2011)

Claudia Castaneda started her essay by raising the question, : Can robots have skin?” Feminists thought that apparent givenness grounded the inequalities in human world. Castaneda quoted the statement from Donna Haraway and has her own explanation in the essay. Cyborg are the illegitimate offspring. Cyborg should have different design in order to distinguish from the old hierarchies of embodiment. They should not be restricted the race, gender, class and sexuality. Besides, skin is a bodily envelop that constitutes the material limits of human body, the material-semiotic body of cyborg should not have same restriction.

She mentioned robot would not simply emulate humans but entirely replace them. Artificial intelligence (AI) embodiments should have capacity to overcome the limitation of human hands. The cyborgs should able to do what humans can’t do under the limitation of physical body. Moreover, She pointed out if we (former humans) are already cyborgs, then how might a focus on skin enable both the difference between cyborgs and the the nature of their encounter. Cyborgs and humans are different in nature, they are not simply human beings. Why do cyborgs need skin to cover their body? There should be a clear-cut division of human embodiment and cyborg embodiment.