technoculture314-09

Cyborgs: Man vs. Machine

I decided to post a blog about cyborgs, because all the researching really got me thinking, especially after reading Donna Haraway’s cyborg theory in her ‘Cyborg Manifesto’ (1991), where she states that technology and machines are becoming smarter all the time, and that humans are unaware of this, and thus in a way technology begins to control us. This worries me, because looking around me, I see people young and old, using technologies not only as a source of entertainment, but in a way they are relying on technology more then they rely on themselves. Whether they are kids using I-Pods, (including my four year old niece), or adults becoming so attached to computers, which these days they can literary carry in their own pockets, (Blackberry or I-Touch), people are allowing technologies to somehow dictate their own lives. I myself feel that technology has overpowered me, and that it has become the ‘master’ and I became the ‘slave’. With the notion of ‘Mundane Cyborgs’, technology has certainly became part of us, it's like an extension of ourselves, and in a way it reflects on who we are as individuals. There are many positive and negative ways of looking at technology and what it can do to us. On one hand, I personally feel that we have become so attached and so reliant on these machines, that we become weaker when not using them, and when using them we feel a sort of power or authority that seems to drive our everyday lives. Machines according to Haraway, are disturbingly lively, and I would have to agree with her on that matter, despite the fact that machines are made by Man, they somehow act smarter than us, or maybe it’s because we rely so much on them that we make ourselves believe that machines are smarter than our own brains. Haraway also claims that there are three crucial boundary breakdowns, and one of these which I believe is relevant is the idea of ‘organism /machine’. It is relevant because the human body has become very much technological when, for instance, using SNS sites such as Face Book, and I agree with Luke Goode as he mentioned in the ‘Cyborg and Techno-bodies’ lecture (3.08.09), on the idea that there is a certain unsettling or uncertainty feeling when one enters a virtual world. It seems to me that one doesn’t know what to expect when he or she enters a virtual world. When entering a virtual world myself, I feel that I instantly have a different kind of confidence, I feel more free, and I’m able to discuss certain topics which may be sensitive for many, (such as politics), to people that I do not even know. As in comparison to real world however, where I might not express myself as strongly as I would in the virtual world. This is one of the positive ways of looking at technology. Therefore, technology and new media can be used in a positive way, because not only does it give us a certain comfort, reliability or access the spaces where we only dream of, but it can also give people power and a sense of authority were they did not think that they are able to have. However, there are many dangers when it comes to using these man made machines, and it comes when the user (us) is becoming used. Thus, one must never let technology dictate or control his or her life.