technoculture314-09

Many discussions have taken place over whether we are in the midst of a post-human society. I would say that, yes, to some extent we are, we live in a technologically dependent world and as much as we’d like to deny it, the idea that humans are obsolete without technology has a degree of truth in it. Whether we embrace it or not, we should at least be aware of the consequences, the ability that technology has to manipulate our relationships, our sense of identity and the way we think. Haraway’s cyborg theory, suggests that the boundaries have been blurred and that human and machine are one in the same. This I get, my cellphone is my very best friend, I am never without it. It’s my MP3, internet, sometimes television and my mode of communication with the outside world all in one small device. The downside to it being attached to my right hand is that all my ‘human’ friends have noticed this and are somewhat affronted when I don’t reply to a text straight away and so in some sense, I guess, my attachment to my machine can either make or break my relationships with my biological others. What I found amazing was Stelarc’s extreme version of such human/machine relationships where he actually installed technology within himself so that people that sign into his website can ping electric signals to his body and control his movements. Lord help me before I become that obsessed with the possibilities of technology. Speaking of technological possibilities brings me to Steve Mann’s idea of ‘sousveillance’ which allows us mere civilians to turn the tables around and do our own surveillance of authoritative figures, sticking it to the man it would seem. But the idea that any one person can be watching you at any time freaks me out. This, combined with reading Kingsley’s ‘Opening Pandora’s Box’, has given rise to a sense of paranoia in me that I have never experienced before, I had no idea that we were so advanced, technology to me rested in my cellphone and that was as advanced as it got. Knowing there’s a possibility of Emotion sensors in airports makes me wonder where else they could be, this intrusion of privacy is unpleasant and unsettling. In my head, whether it’s the paranoia talking or not, technology has come so far that it’s only a matter of time before it begins to take over. Let’s go back to the good old days when a phone was a phone and airport walls were just that, walls.