Question 2:
'The machine/organism relationships are obsolete, unncessary' writes Haraway. In what ways have our relations to machines been theorised?
1) Jarvilehto, Timo (2000) ‘Machines, Brains, and Consciousness’
http://www.edu.oulu.fi/homepage/tjarvile/mach.htm (accessed 10 March 2011)
This article mainly talks about whether machines have consciousness or not, and does the consciousness in the machines separate from the human beings? The auther, Jarvilehto said “the environment of the machine of a human environment as it is presented in language”. Machines also use language, which is considered as one of the consciousness, but only use language in connection with humans. For instant, a keyboard can produce a letter by typing every key, but it depends on the human makes any sense to type that letter. Thus, “every machine is an extension of human capabilities”.
The article also mentions consciousness cannot be located in the brain. Let’s take one example from the article, imagine a human start building device, he abstracts some of his own capabilities and exaggerates the help of technology in order to achieve the construction more sufficiently. However, we may simply forget the original history of its construction easily.
To sum up, the consciousness in the machines cannot be separated from the human beings. In the other words, no matter a machines or a human brain, never have consciousness of their own. They need to rely on each other due to achieve a better result. Thus, the boundary between human and machines is being blurred.
2) Stonehouse, Daivd (2003) ‘The cyborg evolution’
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/03/21/1047749931869.html (accessed 10 March 2011)
Become a cyborg is not a fantasy at all. Stephen Hawking, the Cambridge physicist, believes human need an upgrade. We cannot put human in the superior level at all. As he said, “… develop as quickly as possible technologies that make possible a direct connection between brain and computer…” It shows that cyborg evolution is inevitable.
In the article, there are three experiments. All are about connection between brain and machine. Like the first experiment, for example, a cybernetic professor at the University of Reading implanted an electrode in his wrist in order to read the electrical signals pulsing and provide a link between the machine and his nervous system. After nine days, the implant was taken out. However, he felt strange and missed it. This experiment showed that human’s brain has melded with the machine gradually. Besides, we may rely on the machines easily, and what’s more is, machine may conquer human if we do not become part of machines.
As the author said, “If you can’t beat them, join them.” Cyborg development must be progress. We will become inferior and follow the robots rule unless we become a cyborg instead. Therefore, human and machines cannot be separated any more, at least keep interaction with machines.
3) Hsu, Jeremy (2010) ‘The Future Is Here: Cyborgs Walk Among Us’
http://www.livescience.com/10317-future-cyborgs-walk.html (accessed 12 March 2011)
Haraway has said that “there is no fundamental, ontological separation in our knowledge of machine and organism, of technical and organic.” Nowadays high-tech culture has no ontology or non-ontology. Human and machines actually can be combined into one thing. From both formal discourse and daily practice, we know ourselves are cyborgs or so-called “hybrids”. This article matches Haraway’s discourse.
At the beginning of the article, what Hsu wants to mention is cyborgs have been around us for some time, despite ordinary people still think cyborgs are the only character in science fiction. In fact, almost all the people, including you and me, are cyborgs on nowadays, like human wearing glasses, using bicycle or pens. The definitions of cyborg are not only a being combines technology with human biology, but also extend to information technology, such as writing and math.
Besides, the article also emphasizes that “a cyborg is a human being who is augmented by technology.” We cannot refuse using technology as technology, or machine, has melded into our daily life or our body already. Therefore, it seems that there is no clear boundary between human and machines any more.
4) Richard, Barbrook (1996) ‘THE SACRED CYBORG’
http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/6/6063/2.html (accessed 12 March 2011)
Starting from the Cold War, two ideologies were sharply divided into liberal democracy and totalitarian socialism. However, because of the decades of struggling, people became unwilling to sacrifice themselves for the superpowers’ competition. People tried to combine religion and science together. In recent years, the developments of science are able to actualize the plots of science fictions. Science fiction is a thing that portrays the future of an illusion and desire. The article tries to discuss on the following fantasies: making babies without sex; being the master of slaves; achieving immortality; and turning into pure spirit.
Those fantasies seem only contain the problem of moral, but they precisely represent the symbiosis between human and technology. For instance, humans enjoy the benefits of machine slave labours without human bondage, but at the same time, they need to build and maintain the machines. “Technology is never simply a thing. It is also the crystallization of social relationships between people.” It shows that every person always search for better life. This always is the main reason of the cyborg development, but they cannot control the whole machine; at least they need to maintain them.
5) Warwick, Kevin (2000) ‘Cyborg 1.0 ’
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.02/warwick.html?pg=1&topic=&topic_set
(accessed 12 March 2011)
This is an introductory article of cyborg which talks about a cyborg of today on the status of human development and the future design direction. The article mentions a professor chiped implant into his body. Then concluded a database of “stimulus-response table”, which records the interactions between nervous system and radio. That means we can enter a radio to implant in order to record the brain’s reactions. Through these interactions, many preliminary experiments in different aspects and applications can be made.
During the experiment, the professor enjoyed an imperial treatment, like the door will open and the light will turn on automatically. It is because the implants connect signals and computer. Every devise can be controlled without movement or verbal order. This experiment proved that human can achieve any goal with the help of machines (actually the machines have become part of human already). In other words, “Cyborg community” will appear in the future, which means humans’ communication does not need verbal language any more. Every action can be controlled by though.
Although the human bodies almost constructed by machines, we should concern about that cyborg community also has negative effect, such as human will lose the language ability. As the author said, humans have to pay cost in order to get the technology progress.
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