I wish to argue whether human nowadays is a cyborgian in nature. The reason why I want to study about this argument is because in my everyday life, I mostly rely on technology to make my life easier for example messaging using hand phone, accessing internet almost everyday with my laptop and make use of car to go to the university.
I use a documentary ‘Beyond Human: The Cyborg Revolution’ as my analysis. The link of the video can be found below:
The video documents the invention of cyborg in human community nowadays where scientist can repair a disable body part by inserting metals and so on into the human body to make it at a function. For example, a blind man can see again after the tiny chip is inserted in his retina, a man with a rechargeable cell heart can continue his life, a disable man’s leg is substituted by metals which then enable him to walk again, and etc. They are called cyborg because they are half human and half machines. They might do not want to be a cyborg because there are effects following the procedure. According to Haraway (1991), “There are several consequences to taking seriously the imagery of cyborgs as other than our enemies. Our bodies, ourselves; bodies are maps of power and identity. Cyborgs are no exception. A cyborg body is not innocent; it was not born in a garden; it does not seek unitary identity and so generate antagonistic dualisms without end (or until the world ends); it takes irony for granted.”- Haraway, 1991, page 180. The substitution of human body part can gives a greater to the cyborgian because it might liberate the human spirit, soul, conciousness, or will if choices, rational thought, and morality reduces to the flux of atoms or particles. (Muri, 2007, page 34) The machine in their body might remain forever even after they died. Thus, cyborgian can only live with their life like that since they have no much choice. This is mostly due to survival.As stated by Bell (2000), “…David Hess’ essay ‘on low-tech cyborgs’ argues persuasively that ‘almost everyone in urban societies could be seen as a low-tech cyborg, because they spend large part of the day connected to machines such as cars, telephones, computers, and, ofcourse, televisions’ – and he goes on to ask whether even ‘ a person watching a person watching TV might constitute a cyborg’ (Hess 1995: 373).” – Bell, 2000, page 6. In conclusion, I was considered as a cyborg since I spend large part of my day using machines to make my life easier. And it is true that human nowadays is cyborgian in nature since they have been using excessive technology including altering human into machines (in other word altering cyborgian identities).
References:
Bell, D. & Kennedy, B.M. 2000. The Cybercultures Reader. Retrieved from: http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=MKtr_svfY1kC&oi=fnd&pg=PA291&dq=cyborg&ots=9dzHkU37JD&sig=VF7AdAyjwpc1CkxP1qiuwQfbWhw#v=onepage&q=cyborg&f=false
Haraway, D. 1991. A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century," in Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature, pg. 149-181. Retrieved from: http://www.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/Haraway/CyborgManifesto.html
Muri, A. 2007. The Enlightment Cyborg: a history of communications and control in the human machine, 1660-1830. Retrieved from: http://books.google.com/books?id=oG21cTO7o2YC&printsec=frontcover&dq=cyborg&hl=en&ei=qLXUTKK3EI2GuQPS3PHtCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CEkQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=a%20man-machine&f=false
