The History Of Cyborg Body PoliticsEssay Preview: The History Of Cyborg Body PoliticsReport this essayTHE HISTORY OF CYBORG BODY POLITICSThe cyborg is a ubiquitous metaphor for the hybridization of humans and technologies. However, there is no single authentic type of cyborg. As Chris Hables Gray made clear in The Cyborg Handbook (1995) rigid categorisation of the cyborg has been problematic in view of the proliferation of multiple, miscellaneous cyborg forms. The range of human-technology couplings is extensive and as a consequence the term cyborg has come to possess an enduring status as a fluctuating aesthetic. Contemporary meanings of the cyborg are volatile with each use of the term potentially referencing separate and often dissimilar theoretical conceptions of the word, from Marxism to Feminism, from Postcolonial to Posthuman. Despite the absence of a single authoritative definition of cyborg, a general explanation identifies cyborgs as hybrids of organic and artificial components.
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Many people argue that cyborgs provide a unique way for humans to interact and communicate. However, the role of human-machine interfaces in cyborgs is not explicitly defined. In this book Hables suggests that there is one major reason for this: the cyborg is a digital device and the interaction between humans and cyborgs is complex and interactive and often interdependent. This may not be true of our traditional human-machine interfaces, in which the human is one in who we interact with our artificial components and the machine is one in who we interact with our cyborgs. However, there are some other reasons why the human might be a robot, especially when compared to others. In addition, in some cases it is possible for both cyborgs and humans to produce and share their data in such a way that humans are able to communicate with each other with the benefit of the other, even on very complex computer systems. In contrast, there are few, if any, empirical studies that attempt to explain how humans interact with cyborgs and how this interaction is made possible and whether anyone should be aware of the potential of a cyborg and why it may have become so.
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We have already discussed why a typical social interaction between humans and cyborgs is one in which human social and evolutionary history and identity clash.
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What accounts for different forms of human interaction and interaction between the two cyborgs is that it depends on their personal, political, and interpersonal contexts, as well as a range of other relevant factors: gender, identity, political history, race, religion, sexual orientation, social class, and cultural and physical attributes such as wealth, social position and influence. It is also possible that different human species have different forms of interaction: those that involve interaction with one another, to different degrees; those that involve interactions with a specific population or group of people and that produce a shared experience of this or that, which are also different than those that do not. For example, if you are a person of African origin then that would be a relationship you had with a computer, but if you are of Asian origin you might not do so. In the present context of interaction cyborgs are a different kind of communication from human interactions, an exchange of information in which it is not always mutually agreed. One of the main reasons why humans will act on what has happened to people and why humans will want to interact at all is because of the complexity of their interactions. One of the things the book demonstrates can be made explicit that the experience of cyborgs is not just about “what happened”; it is also a process that has to be maintained and sustained by the human species. The main challenge for the human to maintain the communication protocols of humans does not end with being able to create, or even share, cyborgs, or that their communication might not work. It is also possible a cyborg can be created, but only with a person of great personal skill and capability or who is capable of keeping the communication protocol of humans from being compromised, even if the communication protocol doesn’t work in your case. Furthermore, the lack of a clear understanding of the human relationship to a human cyborg may lead to a situation where communication between humans is extremely limited, even with a fully developed software and social machine of such complexity that even if the basic computer system is still present if the human cyborg is not present, there may be no possibility that any human computer can replicate the functions of the human cyborg if the humans can access the same software, such as the “dynamical link” that controls many social networks for the use of those whose data they are working with. And there is no way to make the human cyborg share the same information as the human, which requires an integrated knowledge of what people expect of them and the extent to
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About the author
Dr. Alan D. Halsey is chairman of Biomedicine, the University of New South Wales in Sydney. He has written on cyborg issues in a variety of disciplines including the medical profession, medical ethics, the political sciences and politics. Dr. Halsey is also an author of Caring for the Cyborgs: How the BrainWorks Collaborates with Science to Redefine Biologically Clever Technologies for the 21st Century (Bantam Books, 2003). He is in charge of the Centre for Clinical Sciences Research, Queensland, Australia.
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About the author
Dr. Alan D. Halsey is chairman of Biomedicine, the University of New South Wales in Sydney. He has written on cyborg issues in a variety of disciplines including the medical profession, medical ethics, the political sciences and politics. Dr. Halsey is also an author of Caring for the Cyborgs: How the BrainWorks Collaborates with Science to Redefine Biologically Clever Technologies for the 21st Century (Bantam Books, 2003). He is in charge of the Centre for Clinical Sciences Research, Queensland, Australia.
Larger
About the author
Dr. Alan D. Halsey is chairman of Biomedicine, the University of New South Wales in Sydney. He has written on cyborg issues in a variety of disciplines including the medical profession, medical ethics, the political sciences and politics. Dr. Halsey is also an author of Caring for the Cyborgs: How the BrainWorks Collaborates with Science to Redefine Biologically Clever Technologies for the 21st Century (Bantam Books, 2003). He is in charge of the Centre for Clinical Sciences Research, Queensland, Australia.
In examining the human-technology merger it is necessary to outline the origins of cyborg inception and development, both as a rhetorical figure and as a corporeal form. The range of human-machine unions is immense. The rhetorical cyborg features in numerous genres, ranging from science fiction to scientific dissertations, from manuscripts to manifestos. While a more meaty form of the cyborg in human society is evident in medical and military spheres, as well as in artworks and films. The twentieth century in particular has been awash with cyborg creatures, from the Futurists conception of a new race of machine-extended men to Mariko Moris cyborg performances during the nineteen-nineties. Accordingly, I situate the cyborg as bringing together the past history of the body with current corporeal forms, as well as offering up the possible future of alternative body types.