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.
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