1. Cyborgs are hybrid entities that are neither wholly technological nor completely organic,which means that the cyborgs has the potential not only to disrupt persistent dualisms [in language and thought]… but also to refashion our thinking’. (Balsamo). Drawing on current scholarly work, discuss ways in which the cyborgs is still a transgressive figure.
Introduction
Finding relevant and utilizing sources is an important step before writing an essay. Due to the restrictions of online sources are limited, therefore, I tried to find some journals to be the findings for supporting this assignment as the credibility of journals would be higher. And here are the five websites that I would like to use in the chosen essay.
Findings and Analysis of Sources
In Haraway’s essay “Haraway on our Cyborg Society”, she said that we are all a cyborg in this hi- tech society. In this society, the complex things become one, for example, biology and technology, man and machine. She said that "a creature of social reality as well as a creature of fiction. Social reality is lived social relations, our most important political construction, a world-changing fiction" (Haraway, p.149) [1] We can change our bodies by technology. Haraway states that to the online world, there are no restriction of construction of avatars, apparent shape shifting and the identity. And she thinks gendered naming of a person is an example of interpellation, which is a type of per formative utterance. Meanwhile, it can create the maleness or femaleness of the subject to identify. When someone changes identities, she (or he, or it) leaves part of herself behind, a fragment of her life to be resumed later. This asynchronous quality is also characteristic of contemporary cyborg existence. Some aspects of identity are short-lived, selves that exist only in certain restricted contexts.
According to Jonathan Marshall's article“The Online Body Breaks Out? Asence, Ghosts, Cyborgs, Gender, Polarity and Politics”, he described that “as online and offline blur, and are intimately involved, it is useful to begin by looking at some offline issues around bodies, in particular those around boundaries.” (Jonathan Marshall, 2004). [2] He claims that the boundary between home and work is blurred today. Due to the advanced technology, people can still work in their homes after working every day and everywhere as most of the people have their own computers, even the portable one. Therefore, there is a forever extension of working to people. It makes people always stick with then technology, and we seem like a cyborg. He also stated that “Western” cultures already have a set of “virtual body” constructions, which are complementary to our constructions of the “physical body”; those of the “soul”, the “mind”, and the “ghost”, all of which blend together due to their status of being “not-physical” bodies. The polarity between mind/body, generates the parallel of “virtual” or online for “spiritual”, and offline for physical.”(Jonathan Marshall) From the above description, Marshall indicated that people who are online that they become a virtual body at that period, their soul, mind and ghost would blend together being “non- physical” bodies. But when they offline, they back to the physical body. Thus, Marshall thinks that technology affect us a lot in the daily life, no matter in a good way or bad way.
According to the article "Cyborgization of Sport", it indicated that cyborgization of sport has come to the forefront of the national conscious in these few years. People concerned about many questions of this aspect. For example, if a football player uses prosthesis [3] to replace his human legs with some sort of upgrade which can help him to play better in the matches, then can he do it? Also, the article was showed that a surgery which called ‘Tommy John surgery’ is popular after Tommy John who is one of the America’s baseball players in MLB (Major League Baseball) and he is the first person to try this surgery. Due to many baseball players like Tommy John would also harmed their arms in their daily trainings and matches, and it claims that after having this surgery, those pitchers can throw harder than they ever were able to do before. Therefore, some of the baseball players also had this surgery. But how can the people define those who had the surgery of using prosthesis on their bodies? Are they become cyborgs? This article leaves us many rooms to think deeper by ourselves. The concern of prosthesis technology would come to us someday, but before that moment, we still need to follow the rules and to know that what is legal and illegal in sports today.
“Cyber Gender” is mainly focusing on the gender in cyberspace which was written by Jennifer Breen. It indicated that people in cyberspace can change their gender anytime as they pleased. According to Ted Kaiser's "The Internet Cyborg" [4], he states that “The new identity is formed from the relationship between the original identity and the internet. It is a cyborg identity, part machine, part human.”(Ted Kaiser, 1999) For example, if you become a member of an online game, though the Internet might not join you in a physical way, it also becomes a part of you as the identity you create on the Internet is an extension of yourself, on the other hand, you become an extension of that identity too. In cyberspace, you can control the identity that is created by you. Moreover, you can switch your gender for fun or even from any reasons to no reasons. In the real world, we cannot have a big change base on our sex, race, and age and so on, but in the virtual world, we can be anyone as we like. It is hard to separate you between the real world and the virtual world completely nowadays.
Chris Thorp’s article “How the concept of the cyborg has changed human self-perception” is leading us to think about many interesting questions about what does it mean to be human? When does a human lose their humanity? Thorp lets us know that the dualisms that currently define humanity are finally being challenged. In this article, Thorp base on the movie “Blade Runner” to explain what the differences between us and the replicants are. He described that the main differences are we have memory, emotion and thinking, but the replicants did not. Although cyborgs have influenced our understanding of self, they also informed our concepts of self and dualisms. He thinks that the cyborg concept is a useful tool to explore the questions of humanity.
Conclusion
Base on the above findings, it shows that most of the scholars also think that it is hardly to separate human and non- human completely as we all live in hi- tech society nowadays as we cannot live without the technology. Though there is a scholar claims that human is not the cyborg as we have human’s emotions and thinking. But for improving our life quality, the advanced technology is really important to us. Therefore, we can see that there is the link between us and the technology. That is the reason that it seems we all becomes a cyborg in these recent years.
Footnotes
[1] Haraway, Donna J. “Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature.” Routledge, 1991.
[2] Jonathan Marshallis, “Bachelard and the Alchemy of Ethnography”. University of Technology Sydney, 2004.
[3] Prosthesis, which means the legs or arms and so on to instead the people’s harmed limbs
[4] Ted Kaiser , “The Internet Cyborg”. http://articles.halfempty.com/media/99-04-11.htm (4 March 2009)
Bibliography
1. David Ellis, “Haraway on our Cyborg Society”, The Cyborg Self, Brown University. (Spring 2005) http://www.cyberartsweb.org/cpace/cyborg/ellis9.html (4 March 2008)
2. Jonathan Marshall, “The Online Body Breaks Out? Asence, Ghosts, Cyborgs, Gender, Polarity and Politics”, (1994-1998).
http://www.journal.fibreculture.org/issue3/issue3_marshall.html#1 (4 March 2008)
3. Eli Schulman, “Cyborgization of Sport”. “Cyborg DB: The World’s Largest Cyborg Database”, (2007). http://cyborgdb.org/schulman.htm (4 March 2008)
4. Jennifer Breen, “Cyber Gender”. “Cyborg DB: The World’s Largest Cyborg Database”, (2007). http://cyborgdb.org/breen.htm (5 March 2008)
Ted Kaiser , “The Internet Cyborg”. http://articles.halfempty.com/media/99-04-11.htm (4 March 2009)
5. Chris Thorp, “How the concept of the cyborg has changed human self-perception”, (2002). http://brmovie.com/Analysis/Concept_of_the_Cyborg.htm (5 March 2009)
Introduction
Finding relevant and utilizing sources is an important step before writing an essay. Due to the restrictions of online sources are limited, therefore, I tried to find some journals to be the findings for supporting this assignment as the credibility of journals would be higher. And here are the five websites that I would like to use in the chosen essay.
Findings and Analysis of Sources
In Haraway’s essay “Haraway on our Cyborg Society”, she said that we are all a cyborg in this hi- tech society. In this society, the complex things become one, for example, biology and technology, man and machine. She said that "a creature of social reality as well as a creature of fiction. Social reality is lived social relations, our most important political construction, a world-changing fiction" (Haraway, p.149) [1] We can change our bodies by technology. Haraway states that to the online world, there are no restriction of construction of avatars, apparent shape shifting and the identity. And she thinks gendered naming of a person is an example of interpellation, which is a type of per formative utterance. Meanwhile, it can create the maleness or femaleness of the subject to identify. When someone changes identities, she (or he, or it) leaves part of herself behind, a fragment of her life to be resumed later. This asynchronous quality is also characteristic of contemporary cyborg existence. Some aspects of identity are short-lived, selves that exist only in certain restricted contexts.
According to Jonathan Marshall's article“The Online Body Breaks Out? Asence, Ghosts, Cyborgs, Gender, Polarity and Politics”, he described that “as online and offline blur, and are intimately involved, it is useful to begin by looking at some offline issues around bodies, in particular those around boundaries.” (Jonathan Marshall, 2004). [2] He claims that the boundary between home and work is blurred today. Due to the advanced technology, people can still work in their homes after working every day and everywhere as most of the people have their own computers, even the portable one. Therefore, there is a forever extension of working to people. It makes people always stick with then technology, and we seem like a cyborg. He also stated that “Western” cultures already have a set of “virtual body” constructions, which are complementary to our constructions of the “physical body”; those of the “soul”, the “mind”, and the “ghost”, all of which blend together due to their status of being “not-physical” bodies. The polarity between mind/body, generates the parallel of “virtual” or online for “spiritual”, and offline for physical.”(Jonathan Marshall) From the above description, Marshall indicated that people who are online that they become a virtual body at that period, their soul, mind and ghost would blend together being “non- physical” bodies. But when they offline, they back to the physical body. Thus, Marshall thinks that technology affect us a lot in the daily life, no matter in a good way or bad way.
According to the article "Cyborgization of Sport", it indicated that cyborgization of sport has come to the forefront of the national conscious in these few years. People concerned about many questions of this aspect. For example, if a football player uses prosthesis [3] to replace his human legs with some sort of upgrade which can help him to play better in the matches, then can he do it? Also, the article was showed that a surgery which called ‘Tommy John surgery’ is popular after Tommy John who is one of the America’s baseball players in MLB (Major League Baseball) and he is the first person to try this surgery. Due to many baseball players like Tommy John would also harmed their arms in their daily trainings and matches, and it claims that after having this surgery, those pitchers can throw harder than they ever were able to do before. Therefore, some of the baseball players also had this surgery. But how can the people define those who had the surgery of using prosthesis on their bodies? Are they become cyborgs? This article leaves us many rooms to think deeper by ourselves. The concern of prosthesis technology would come to us someday, but before that moment, we still need to follow the rules and to know that what is legal and illegal in sports today.
“Cyber Gender” is mainly focusing on the gender in cyberspace which was written by Jennifer Breen. It indicated that people in cyberspace can change their gender anytime as they pleased. According to Ted Kaiser's "The Internet Cyborg" [4], he states that “The new identity is formed from the relationship between the original identity and the internet. It is a cyborg identity, part machine, part human.”(Ted Kaiser, 1999) For example, if you become a member of an online game, though the Internet might not join you in a physical way, it also becomes a part of you as the identity you create on the Internet is an extension of yourself, on the other hand, you become an extension of that identity too. In cyberspace, you can control the identity that is created by you. Moreover, you can switch your gender for fun or even from any reasons to no reasons. In the real world, we cannot have a big change base on our sex, race, and age and so on, but in the virtual world, we can be anyone as we like. It is hard to separate you between the real world and the virtual world completely nowadays.
Chris Thorp’s article “How the concept of the cyborg has changed human self-perception” is leading us to think about many interesting questions about what does it mean to be human? When does a human lose their humanity? Thorp lets us know that the dualisms that currently define humanity are finally being challenged. In this article, Thorp base on the movie “Blade Runner” to explain what the differences between us and the replicants are. He described that the main differences are we have memory, emotion and thinking, but the replicants did not. Although cyborgs have influenced our understanding of self, they also informed our concepts of self and dualisms. He thinks that the cyborg concept is a useful tool to explore the questions of humanity.
Conclusion
Base on the above findings, it shows that most of the scholars also think that it is hardly to separate human and non- human completely as we all live in hi- tech society nowadays as we cannot live without the technology. Though there is a scholar claims that human is not the cyborg as we have human’s emotions and thinking. But for improving our life quality, the advanced technology is really important to us. Therefore, we can see that there is the link between us and the technology. That is the reason that it seems we all becomes a cyborg in these recent years.
Footnotes
[1] Haraway, Donna J. “Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature.” Routledge, 1991.
[2] Jonathan Marshallis, “Bachelard and the Alchemy of Ethnography”. University of Technology Sydney, 2004.
[3] Prosthesis, which means the legs or arms and so on to instead the people’s harmed limbs
[4] Ted Kaiser , “The Internet Cyborg”. http://articles.halfempty.com/media/99-04-11.htm (4 March 2009)
Bibliography
1. David Ellis, “Haraway on our Cyborg Society”, The Cyborg Self, Brown University. (Spring 2005) http://www.cyberartsweb.org/cpace/cyborg/ellis9.html (4 March 2008)
2. Jonathan Marshall, “The Online Body Breaks Out? Asence, Ghosts, Cyborgs, Gender, Polarity and Politics”, (1994-1998).
http://www.journal.fibreculture.org/issue3/issue3_marshall.html#1 (4 March 2008)
3. Eli Schulman, “Cyborgization of Sport”. “Cyborg DB: The World’s Largest Cyborg Database”, (2007). http://cyborgdb.org/schulman.htm (4 March 2008)
4. Jennifer Breen, “Cyber Gender”. “Cyborg DB: The World’s Largest Cyborg Database”, (2007). http://cyborgdb.org/breen.htm (5 March 2008)
Ted Kaiser , “The Internet Cyborg”. http://articles.halfempty.com/media/99-04-11.htm (4 March 2009)
5. Chris Thorp, “How the concept of the cyborg has changed human self-perception”, (2002). http://brmovie.com/Analysis/Concept_of_the_Cyborg.htm (5 March 2009)
I am very appreciate that you have found a different examples to explain the term "cybrog" such as the athletics, avators, our life style etc. Let the readers can know how "cybrog" blur the boundaries from different aspects. Generally, all the sources are related to the essay question. But I think the last source writtten by Chris Thorp statement is comparatively weak. So, if you give further details from the article will be better. :)
ReplyDeleteGUTS UP! my friend :)