CRITICAL ANNOTATED WEBLIOGRAPHY
by Kristel Chung
[Student #1039 0371]
(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.
Donna Haraway had asked “Why should our bodies end at the skin?” Could we go beyond the skin? First, we must understand: what is the skin, and its importance to us?
The skin is the largest organ of our human body. It serves as a protection layer that separates the harmful matter from the outside and our inner organs. The skin also helps maintaining health, and plays the part of a sensory organ (Paliescheskey, 2007). Without the skin, we would not have known the pain, and thus we would not know how to withdraw from the source of pain, such as fire, which could cause us danger. The skin is a complicated organ. It could be largely dividable into three layers: epidermis, dermis, and subcutaneous fat layers. These layers are closely related to one another that they work simultaneously and support each other in function (Paliescheskey, 2007). One of the skin’s functions is to regulate the body temperature (Paliescheskey, 2007). Jablonski (in Kirchweger, 2001) pointed out that about 4.5 million and 2 million years ago, the ancestors of humans moved from the shadowy rain forest onto the East African savanna, where they were much exposed to the sun. In order to the cope with the heat that the sun caused, their body had transformed. Instead of the fury coat of the chimpanzees, the hair has receded, and was taken over by the skin. The advantages of the skin over the fur are that the skin is easier to dry, the skin also evaporates sweat better than fur (Kirchweger, 2001). With an organ as complicated as the skin, it is hardly imaginable that human could recreate something like that and apply it into cyber-technology.
Other than physically, the skin also serves a more cultural and political function: it distinguish people into different races. Hochschild and Weaver (2007) have used the example of the United States as it is a multi-ethic nation. It is explained that nowadays, the United States has been dealing with different issues, including the discrimination caused by the difference in skin color. The color of one’s skin functions as to distinguish “us” from “them”, telling different racial identities apart. The difference in skill color has also caused the differences in political opportunities in the United States (Hochschild & Weaver, 2007). Hochschild and Weaver (2007) had stated that “among Union soldiers in the Civil War, lighter-skinned Blacks held more skilled occupations and higher military ranks than their darker counterparts”. Even a slight difference in skin color could suggest the different background of an individual, for example, his/her ancestry. In the older times, one’s skin color could tell his/her social status. Those who work in the physical labor field tended to have darker skin, while the wealthier ones tended to have lighter skin color. Hence, the term “blue blood” to describe the nobilities of their skin so light that one could see their veins beneath the skin.
The skin is something we come in contact everyday, and yet we think so little about it. The skin is the outermost shell of a human body. If one skin’s is removed, would you still consider the person as human? What if replacing the known skin color with other bizzare combinations? How about a skin that sparkles like the vampire characters that Stephanie Meyers has created in her fictions? Or is a green-colored skin alien human?
In this 21st century, one term is heard more and more often: Cyborg. What is “cyborg”? Kosta Grammatis (in Hsu, 2010) explained that a “cyborg” is “your grandma with a hearing aid, her replacement hip, and anyone who runs around with one of those Bluetooth in-ear headsets”. It is a human with an aid of some modern technology. As Marshall McLuhan have expressed, technology could be a mere extension of the human body. Chislenko (1999) has suggested a term “fyborg”, where he explained that a human that is internally mixed with technology, as simple as drugs, could be called “cyborgs”; while humans with external extension is a “fyborg”, such as a policeman with the bulletproof vest. So a cyborg is still confined to a biological human body. With a cell phone, one is suddenly equipped with the power to communicate with another person who is miles away; or while wearing the bulletproof vest, one becomes invincible and is immune to the attacks of guns [in which it is restricted to where the vest covers only]. However, Spencer (in Hsu, 2010) has also pointed out that the definition of “cyborg” is still dependable on the popular culture. There has not been an absolute definition on this term so far. For example, The Terminator is on the cyborg list in the American Museum of Natural History’s new brain exhibition. The Terminator is originally a robot, but it was made with a human appearance.
In the new millennium, humans have come to make parts that could supplement a human organ. Now, scientists are attempting to create an entire vessel that is consist of computer system and wires, replacing all biological parts with technologically created parts, a robot with human outlook. How to make a robot look like human? The key is its skin. As was discussed earlier, the skin determines one’s ethic, and hence forms one’s identity. Chislenko (1999) explained that in his mother language, which is Russian, there is not a word for “identity” since humans are not used to change their identities. However, identity has become very flexible nowadays and one could be anyone, anything, at any space. One who is an American female in reality could become a Japanese male in a forum, or an Egyptian cat on an online game. The skin helps us to tell the difference between “us” and “them”, between humans and not humans. But what if on the virtual world, when one becomes a cat, is one still a human? Are we confined to our skin? Or could we go beyond the boundaries of the skin? These questions shall be left unanswered as it is still strongly debate; and “cyborg” is still something controversy. Like how the television was used to be coined as “Pandora’s Box” when it was first invented, or how we hated the cameras, fearing it would replace the paintings. Cyborg is merely another new invention in which we shall now face.
REFERENCES:
1) Chislenko, A. (1999). Technology as extension of human functional architecture. Retrieved from http://www.lucifer.com/~sasha/articles/techuman.html
Written in the late 20th century, this article discusses about the positive and negative aspect that the postmodern technology brings about, and questions the possibility of the concept of “cyborg”. Chislenko exemplifies with human implants and points out that “human body does not have clean internal interfaces that would allow easy physical combinations with technology”, however he does not banned the idea of “cyborg”.
2) Hochschild, J. L., & Weaver, V. M. (2007). Policies of racial classification and the politics of racial inequality. Retrieved from http://scholar.harvard.edu/jlhochschild/publications/policies-racial-classification-and-politics-racial-inequality
In this essay, Hochschild and Weaver look into the various possibilities that could cause racial discrimination mainly in the United States. It pointed out skin color is one of the major reasons. Skin color of different ethnic is of course of one of the major aspects of causing racial discrimination, but the variation of the skin lightness/darkness within the same ethic could also cause racial inequality.
3) Hsu, J. (2010, Dec 08). The future is here: Cyborgs walk among us. LiveScience. Retrieved from http://www.livescience.com/10317-future-cyborgs-walk.html
This article begins with an introduction of Robert Spence, the one-eyed filmmaker who later request replacing his eye with a LED light that made him resembles a lot like Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character in “The Terminator”. The article continues with defining the word “cyborg” in different context.
4) Kirchweger, G. (2001). The biology of skin color: black and white. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/07/3/text_pop/l_073_04.html
The content revolves around Nina Jablonski, who is the chairman of the anthropology department at the California Academy of Science, and introduce her field of work while explaining her hardship in getting the public’s acknowledgment in the importance of skin and its function towards the human body. Jablonski is one of the earliest who pointed out that the different of skin color is regional.
5) Paliescheskey, M. (2007, April 05). Understanding skin, its roles and functions. Helum: Physiology. Retrieved from http://www.helium.com/items/256724-understanding-skin-its-roles-and-functions
This essay explains the human skin in an academic biologically term, and tells us the importance of skin. The complex structure of the skin, which seem to function independently on different levels, is actually interrelated and each layer assist each other. The complexity of the human skin is perhaps somewhat challenging to the scientists who wish to replicate the human skin onto the cyborg.
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