Cyberpraxis blog Reality | Virtuality | Reflexivity | References
Rucker, Rudy
“What SF Writers Want”, in Transreal!
WCS Books: Colorado, USA, 1991
Morse, Margaret
“What do Cyborgs Eat?”, in Virtualities: Television, Media Art and Cyberculture
Indiana University Press: Indiana, USA, 1998
Cyberpraxis blog Reality | Virtuality | Reflexivity | References
Cyberpraxis blog Reality | Virtuality | Reflexivity | References
“Some theorists in future-oriented subcultures who have wholeheartedly embraced technology (or who, as critics, at least speak from its belly) have posed the union of machine and organism as the hybrid meld, the cyborg, a ‘human individual who has some of its vital bodily processes controlled by cybernetically operated devices’ . However satisfying such an imaginary blend might be, the actual status of the cyborg is murky as to whether it is a metaphor, a dreamlike fantasy, and/or a literal being; and its mode of fabrication and maintenance is, practically at least, problematic.”
[Margaret Morse:1998]
Why do “we” want to create Artificial Life (AL) or Artificial Intelligence (AI)?
Many theorists think we are extending the Humans are cyborgs analogy one step further, some feminists see it as playing God, or as men attempting to control reproduction in some way; albeit artificial reproduction. Others are not so much concerned with why as with how.
Humanity is said to have particular skills and computers others, so instead of trying to create life, which we are already able to do, in my opinion computers should be developed for use in tasks that humans are not as adept at.
Again, some see cyborgs as enhanced humans, a melding of human and technology which challenges traditional dualist thought, others see cyborgs in a more narrow way, not human and appendage/enhancement = cyborg, but human and the application of technology e.g. human and cart still = human (now with cart)
Cyberpraxis blog Reality | Virtuality | Reflexivity | References
Cyberpraxis blog Reality | Virtuality | Reflexivity | References
Margaret Morse assigns certain characteristics to virtuality.
For Morse, virtuality is more than a way of distinguishing between the “real” and the “not real”. Reality is fictional, and virtuality is an aspect of that fictionality.
Donna Haraway wrote a Manifesto for Cyborgs. Haraway challenges the distinction between human and machine, human and nature. By stating that we are all cyborgs ie. cybernetic organisms, she is saying that technology and nature are an inseparable part of self.
So just as some feminists see self as embodied, Haraway sees self also as a technosocial agent.
Deleuze and Guattari claim that Haraway is incorrect in saying that if “we” are on the margins of society, be it via class, ethnicity or gender, that we are cyborgs because we “dwell on a borderline”.
These two theorists say that they accept cyborg to mean “cybernetic organism” ie. breakdown or merging of human/machine boundaries (not class boundaries for example).
Cyberpraxis blog Reality | Virtuality | Reflexivity | References
…”the universe is not entirely objective. To a large extent, the way your world seems is conditioned by the way you feel about it. Rather than asking for a different world, one might equally well ask for a way to enjoy this world. For, after all, I think the driving force behind all of the SF travel-wishes is a desire to find a place/time/size/universe in which to be happy…whatever ‘happy’ means.”
[Rudy Rucker: 1991]
Cyberpraxis blog Reality | Virtuality | Reflexivity | References
If we assume a relativist worldview then an individual’s paradigm is unique.
Groups of individuals share beliefs about how reality is constructed and how it should be maintained or changed.
The dominant ideology shapes and reinforces the dominant paradigm. Currently (and rather simplistically) the dominant paradigm within Western culture appears to be a Modernist one, strongly influenced by Cartesian dualism.
To make our reality more real and understandable, illusion or “not real” is juxtaposed to it. For example, nature’s “naturalness” is clarified and reinforced by technology’s artificial or human-made construction.
Donna Haraway sees technology and nature as inseparable to self: the camera obscura does not apply any more. We are cyborgs.
Postmodernists try to breakdown such dualism, some say that there is no “real” and no “artificial”, only simulation and simulcra.
So, if we assume a postmodern positioning when discussing Virtual Reality, the Internet and adjacent technologies the real and the virtual are no longer juxtaposed or diametric opposites.
Instead, many postmodernists, like Margaret Morse, see the virtual as an aspect of reality. The real is seen as a construct of the dominant paradigm, contingent on both historical and social situation.
Reality is a fictionality that is created and reinforced by those in power, and reinforced even more by the people at large. Therefore reality is what is known as a hegemonic myth.
However, Norris disputes Baudrillard’s theory that there is no real, only simulation and simulcra.
He names hunger, poverty and homelessness as reality for many.
We do live in a Capitalist society where dualisms and class separation by such distinctions still apply: the haves and the have nots; rich and poor.
Even whether you are part of the “digital homeless” [Negroponte] can have a major impact on your standard of living and learning…
Cyberpraxis blog Reality | Virtuality | Reflexivity | References
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