I am the cyborg

Alex LevySeptember 25, 2013

Hayles –What does it mean to be postuman?

• “First, the posthuman view privileges informational pattern over material instantiation, so that embodiment in a biological substrate is seen as an accident of history rather than an inevitability of life.”

• “The posthuman view considers consciousness, regarded as the seat of human identity in the Western tradition long before Descartes thought he was a mind thinking, as an epiphenomenon, as an evolutionary upstart trying to claim that it is the whole show when in actuality it is only a minor slideshow.”

• “The posthuman view thinks of the body as the original prosthesis we all learn to manipulate, so that extending or replacing the body with other prostheses becomes a continuation of a process that began before we were born.”

• “The posthuman view configures human being so that it can be seamlessly articulated with intelligent machines. In the posthuman, there are no essential differences or absolute demarcations between bodily existence and computer simulation, cybernetic mechanism and biological organism, robot technology and human goals.”

Feldenkrais – What is a person? What is the body?

• “A person is made of three entities: the nervous system, which is the core; the body – skeleton, viscera and muscles – which is the envelope of the core; and the environment, which is space, gravitation, and society. These three aspects, each with its material support and its activity, together give a working picture of a human being.”

We seek constant connection

• Through the internet, with smart-phones, and soon “eye-phones”

Futurama 2010

3013? More like 2013

Okay, Glass…

Augments the “nervous system,” the Feldenkrais “core” entity

Google Glass 2013

This is the dream:

The human body, freely moving, unencumbered

We can start here:

and go here:

to arrive here:

Augments the “body,” the second Feldenkrais entity

A convenient jet-pack accessible to all

The Jetsons, 1962

Telepresencestart here:

go here:

end here:

Augments our connection with “society,” the third Feldenkrais entity

or possibly here:

Idiocracy 2006

Summary

• Hayles: technology is an extension of our body• Feldenkrais: eliminate tension in the body• Our use of technology could enable us to

extend our presence to accomplish great things or we could depend too much on it and limit ourselves