Carman's Reflection

At the beginning of this course, I find that it is difficult to understand what is really a cyborg. After the Unit in this course had used a lot of issues to describe how human being become a cyborg in this digital age.

Through computers, human can do a lot of thing that could not be happened in the reality. They can use keyboard to "speak up" their opinion that they rarely raised in the reality. We have different identity and communities in the Internet world. Everyone who excess to the computer seems automatically become a cyborg.

I remember when I was in primary and secondary school, computer was not still common in every household. Due to the advance technology, I started to have computer lesson which require us to learn Microsoft office. At that time I still do not think it is important and close to me, why should I learn such stuff? I do not even owe a computer at home! And all the homework was hand-written.

Now I understand how computer is important to our daily life. Without it I could not access information from outside world; I could not contact my friends; I could not even do assignment! I depend on computer a lot in my entire college life. I cannot imagine what if I do not have a computer in home, could I still can submit the essay easily?

Computer is part of people's life. We seems cannot stop living without the digital devices, people are becoming cyborg. They use them to communicate to people, use them to do business, or use them to express themselves like typing their blog like what I am doing right now.

In this course I have also leart people also can form different identities while they are using the computer, they can be a student asking question on the forum, on the other hand they might be a cultural jammer to voice out their resistant towards their school.

The presentation that my group was the Online Communities. During the research I have learnt how new groups of people formed in the Internet world. Which made me realize the power of the Internet.

Ho Ka Man Carman
#10460031

Reflection on Cyborg

I found all of the concepts from this course like cyborg, artificial life, subjectivity and posthuman etc. are very new to me. However, after taking this course, I agree that human’s lives are actually experiencing Donna Haraway’s concept of cyborg. I think the most obvious example in our daily life is we are now living with technology and we cannot avoid not to use them because technology are everywhere: sometimes we chat with friends by using immediate communication software (MSN, Skype etc.); sometimes we write dairy by Blogs because we want our friends or other netizens to know our daily life; sometimes we share photos or music videos on social networking sites to friends, let them know what are our favorites- these fact/examples reflected that our lives are controlled by technology since we start to choose using it.

Therefore, as human beings, we are no longer to deny ourselves as cyborg by saying we do not embedded any chips into our bodies- because we are now act, live with technology! Look what I am using to share my opinion: Internet, a blog, a technology! I have to (you may say I am forced to) depend on Internet to express my feelings for what I have learnt and I have to depend on Internet to get my work done. It is no question that this act is experiencing being cyborg. However, some people may accuse that the development of technology force us to be cyborg. In my view, yes, it seems impossible to live without technology, it seems human are now be forced to use technology, but I think it is also our choice to use or to create or to invent technology, it is our decision to become a cyborg because technology did change our quality of life! Thus, it also explained why scientists are doing experiments on creating artificial Intelligence! Nevertheless, even we cannot escape from the technology and the power of cyborg, I think the most important thing for us, for human is: we have to remember the nature of being human.

Law Siu Ting, Mildred 10382777

Course Reflection by Mandy

This course gave me a lot of new experience on the field of technology. I have not used blog as a learning tool. It is interesting for me that blog can be a communication tool between tutor and classmates. I have used blog before, but it is for private use, like posting daily life on xanga and yahoo blog. Now we can share and discuss our ideas and essays to our classmates through blogger. Also, I think it is more user-friendly and has environmental protection because we do not need to hand in the paper work, but post it on the blog instead. Hope using blog as learning platform can be a trend on teaching purpose.

I always see the word “cyborg” in the course. At the beginning, I did not know what this word means so to ignore it. Later, through the reading, lecture notes and classmates’ presentation, I understand this word and want to know more and more. Until now, I think I am a cyborg. Although I do not have any prosthesis or chip, technology is part of my life actually. From wearing contact lenses, to using smart phone, to surfing Internet, all the technologies give us easy life and convenience. Can you imagine how can we live without technology?

Furthermore, I like this course because it makes me think more about the relationship between human and technology apart from cyborg. Such as how dose technology influence woman’s states and what is the trend of online community. These are good topics for us to discuss.

By Ma Oi Man, Mandy

Student No.: 10447219

Course Reflection

I really enjoyed the content of this unit. Throughout this semester, I have learnt a lot of concepts, all of these theories are related to the technology. Donna Haraway’s Cyborg theory, a new concept for me, it is very interesting. However, I can’t accept the fact that all of us are so deeply imbedded in technology. The idea of cyborg has been reinforced the whole semester. After studying this unit, do I now consider myself as a cyborg? Honestly, I regard myself as a cyborg because technology becomes an important part of my daily life. And I can’t imagine what will happen if one day all technology shut down and I can’t use mobile phone or computer. It must be terrible. Technology is so important for everyone. Even though I like the traditional communication method (face-to face communication), the online communication is so convenient and “attractive”. So, it is no doubt that I am a cyblog and I am so proud of that.

Use the blog as the learning tool is interesting. For me, I never having used a blog before, and this unit exposed me to a new tool for communication. The feeling is good. The blog did help us to understand more the course topics. It is a good platform for us to discuss the related topics, comment others’ work, develop and sharing some ideas. But sometimes I haven't felt comfortable when I am writing my opinion for all to see.

In regards to the unit in general, my feelings are positive. I do enjoy the course and it is interesting. However, the 50% weight of research essay is so difficult. It confused me so much. But I will try my best to work on it. XDDD


By KATHY WONG
Student Number:10348349

Reflective Blog Evaluation

I have never gotten use to using the Internet as a learning platform.

I consider using the computer / Internet for academic purpose very weird. The asynchronous aspect of the Internet added the time-lag between discussion and slow things down. Therefore, I personally prefer chatting on the phone than sending text message (SMS) for the same reason: that I can get the information I want quicker. Also, data on the Internet often struck me as unreliable and unstable. For instance, I could be finding someone else NOW to type this reflection for me while I sit and watch TV. You'll never know what people are actually doing behind the monitor.

Do I regard myself as a cyborg? I guess the answer is yes. I could not imagine my life without technology! How could I get to Admiralty without MTR? And doesn't MTR runs on a computer, too? I would also be blind without my eye-glasses!

In sum, I think this unit is rather controversy and debatable. Many of the discussions are open-ended and thus challenging. However, one point I would like to add is that why always talk about female submissive aspect? Isn't it by "studying" women only is also discriminating women, too? Why don't we study about men?

Kristel Chung
Student #: 1039 0371

Reflective evaluation of using the blog----Apple

Finding references on internet, discussing technologies development with technology(computer) and submitting assignment on a blog is a brand new way to experience the digital age. We are supposed to use this blog to build a small community that our members can share their ideas and news of progresses of technology and new issues. So that we can discuss all about these but I do not see we have done much. That leads me to think about what exactly technology has bring us as human. We said we are all cyborg because we make use of technology to breakthrough the binary boundaryies, that we, the identity of human blurr with the identity with meachines. However I believe how we make use of these technology define our identity. Take the blog as an example, if we do not make a good use of it, if we do not sense it help with our communications and connections with others, we simply use less.

Blogger is only a server that let users to post their ideas or thoughts or their lives to let other people know, but how we use it could make a lot of difference. For example, I found some blogs(which also use Blogger), lead people into discussion about feminism, film critics and taking pictures. These blogs are motivate by people who have great interest in it and they do put a lots of heart contributing to the blog. What I want to say is other creatures use techolongies but they do not like us, we use and improve them again and again until we are happy with it.

If using the defination from Hararway, we are all cyborgs, then I am a cyborg. My life are fill with technology that helps me to communicate, make my life easier and extend my life and my worldview. Being a cyborg is a fun thing to do, our world is just expand but our mind gets narrowed. Because we start to regard thing in one dimension, but before that we experience the world and our relationships in different angles. And thinking in just one dimension will narrow our improvement of our living. Therefore on the one hand I am glad I get to know technology and get to know to use it in a wise way, but on the other hand, I am losing the other senses I had before. For example, before I got I smart phone, I was using mobile phone that could not go on the internet, and so I was so found on novels. When I got the smart phone, I started to go on the interent and almost forgot novels I was reading, the imagination base on reading book has almost gone, I could not get back to the stage where I used to enjoy the world of imagination because I imagining text world in a very slow speed.

Apple

Tutorial Presentation--- Posthuman Conclusion

Hi everyone, we are Charlotte and Titus. Our presentation topic in this week is “Posthuman Conclusion”.

Under rapid development of advanced technology in recent decades, we are already lived in a digital age. Cyborgs, posthuman, as well as transhuman are therefore suggested by different scholars successively which change the traditional social discourses and give a new definition on the meaning of ‘human’.

In our presentation, we are going to divide it into 4 sections. First of all, a brief definition on the meaning of ‘cyborg’ and ‘posthuman’ will be given in order to find out their similarities and differences by analysis their starting points. And ontology will be discussed in the following. Since the human society is constructed and maintained by the biological determinism which emphasizes in naturalization and normalization of essential links between biological sex, sexuality, reproductive capacities, gendered subjectivity and hierarchical gender system. However, in the last decades, it was attacked by the appearance of cyborg. According to the “Cyborg Manifesto” of Donna Haraway, it suggested that the three boundaries: human/animal, organic/machine and physical/non-physical will be broken down by technology. Following this suggestion, human and machine are no longer in confronting position due to the blurring of boundaries which means we are in a position to embody the outside power, and also empower the outside body. And this causes the deconstruction of cultural imaginary on identification.

After the introduction on cyborg, we would discuss about the posthumanism. What does it means, and how does it influence to our life? Posthumanism is an ideology of technology which affirms the possibility and desirability of achieving a "posthuman future". According to Hayles, posthuman discourse asserts the liberalization of humanism; it separates the mind from the body and thus portrays the body as a "shell" or vehicle for the mind. Besides, it focus on the conscious of information technological advancements, which means the Information is seen as "disembodied", It cannot fundamentally replace the human body but can only be incorporated into it and human life practices.

Our embodiment in posthuman world is different than before. There is a blurring of boundaries between biology, culture and technology. Biology is not the opposite side to culture. As the ‘Thought’ is a much broader cognitive function depending for its specificities on the embodied form enacting it, we would see that the influence of technology. It helps to transform the liberal subject, regarded as the model of the human since the Enlightenment, into the posthuman.

Moreover, we would discuss about the ‘Turing Test’. Turing argued that machines can think. Machines can perform the thinking previously considered to be an exclusive capacity of the human mind. Also, he argues that representation of bodies can be mediated by technology, so the production of identity can be separated from human subject.

Despite the discussion of Posthumanism, there is a new form of humanism, the ‘Transhumanism’. It is an international intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally transforming the human condition. It points out that the developing technologies eliminate aging and greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities. It supposes that human beings may eventually be able to transform themselves into beings with greatly expanded abilities. It transformed the future humanity.

For its aims, it is about the science and technology for the purposes of reducing poverty, disease, disability, and malnutrition around the globe, transhumanism is distinctive in its particular focus on the applications of technologies to the improvement of human bodies at the individual level. It means every human is in control of their own evolution, the natural evolution would be replaced with deliberate change.

As we can see that there is a lot of imagination of Super Hero in comic and cartoon, when do these images of hero be existed? The setting of super hero is always related to the ideology of transhumanism. Human can be a ‘superman’, empowered and superior. They are strong and strengthen at every aspect. But we may question that: “is it the final goal of being a transhuman?”

Finally, we would have a discussion with our fellow classmates. There are four questions for them to think about:

(1) Do you think that the imagination of “Transhuman” will appear in the future?

(2) Do you agree that “Cyborg empowers individual, but also isolate us from the outside world?”

(3) Do the posthumanism/ transhumanism exaggerate the “Individualism”? Would it be problematic to the traditional social and cultural ideology?

(4) Is it possible to have “Post-animal”? If yes, what does “human” mean?