Depending upon one's definition of a cyborg, forming a collective
cyborg identity or "ethnicity" that can easily be described is
difficult. Steve Mann has shown (in 2002) that his electronic
augmentations made traveling through airports nearly impossible and
even dangerous (http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/14/technology/at-airport-gate-a-cyborg-unplugged.html).
There appears to be limited tolerance or respect for someone who
doesn't fit the conventional categories of human travelers. Travel
security can be informative because it is an arena in which many kinds
of identity issues are cast in high relief. And the systems and
surveillance that regulate local and international travel continue to
be baseline markers for one's physicality and identity. Here is a
recent article on body scans in airports:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TRAVEL/05/18/airport.security.body.scans/index.html?eref=rss_topstories.
However, airport security also has problems with pacemakers,
artificial hips, and other kinds of increasingly routine implants.
Since people in all ethnic groups grow old, it might be that older
humans could be the _demographic_ rather than the "ethnicity" that
will most immediately come to define cyborgs and break the most
barriers for cyborgs as a group. See, "How seniors became cyborgs":
http://www.slate.com/id/2199787.
Maybe as this group enlarges we should be mindful of issues related to ageism.
Best,
Robert Thill
On 7/14/09, Murat Germen <muratgermen@sabanciuniv.edu> wrote:
> roger,
>
> though it may sound like it my aim was not to make political
> generalizations. i was trying to point to the fact that a super-human
> condition ("cyborg" condition can be considered one) is usually used to
> introduce superiority and there are a lot of sci-fi movies at which
> part-human, part-machine cyborgs fight against humans and their degree
> of cyborgness defines their power, invincibility and so on. at the end
> of most of these films saviors are either humans and/or "humane" cyborgs
> helping humans. so it seems most of us still value the desire that a
> humane part should stay even in a world prospectively dominated by
> cyborgs and i guess there is not nothing wrong about this. the example i
> gave was a specific, factual real-world case, not a clip from a biased
> movie and i was wishing that a mechanical add-on shall not be used to
> gain priority and/or superiority when i said "there is still hope for
> the basic human condition..."
>
> hybridity is something that i sincerely value very much. but i think it
> should first take place among individuals, nations, cultures in order to
> avoid opinionated puritanism and foster respect among each other.
> cyborgs are supposedly created by humans and if humans do not respect
> each other, i do not think we will have high possibility of finding
> "tabula rasa" cyborgs helping humanity bona fide. in an age at which
> even information is used for hegemony and tyranny, i cannot think of
> sublime cyborgs struggling with inequality. i hope i will be proven
> wrong soon so that we can enjoy a more peaceful and pleasant world...
>
> regards
> murat
>
> <<< +90 532 473 8970 (gsm mobile)
> <<< muratgermen@gmail.com
> <<< http://www.muratgermen.com
> <<< http://www.flickr.com/photos/muratgermen/
> <<< http://muratgermen.wordpress.com/
> <<< http://www.camgaleri.com/en/sanatci.aspx?id=27
>
>
> On 7/13/09 7:02 PM, roger malina wrote:
>> Murat
>>
>> yes both military technologies and computer game technologies
>> are driving much development related to cyborgs, the more interesting
>> work of course being in the serious games area
>>
>> i get uncomfortable with the political generalisations - how are artists
>> contributing to 'the basic human condition' by creating other ways of
>> imagining /perceiving/feeling using technological
>> apendages/extensions/hybridities ?
>>
>> i agree that the motivation that drives technologies=such as military
>> ones= determines
>> the direction that the technological development takes, but at the same
>> time i
>> am enough of an optimist to feel that artists through their work can
>> create recontextualisations
>> that then determine the cultural appropriations
>>
>> sundar sarukkai in his on line text on science and the ethics of
>> curiosity quotes an
>> eastern proverb that fits" "the nature of the task of the "ought' is
>> the other-directedness of the "is"
>>
>> artists projects are so grounded in the 'is' of being' that they i
>> think can redirect technologies
>> in ways that are life enhancing
>>
>> so again yasminers=it would be great to have more examples artists who are
>> creating work relevant to the cyborg issue in its cultural context.
>>
>> Joseph Ingoldsby directed us to
>> http://web.mit.edu/museum/exhibitions/robots.html
>> Robots and Beyond:
>> Exploring Artificial Intelligence at MIT
>>
>> where we see examples of artificial intelligence work
>> with robots
>>
>> one of the interesting areas it mentions is underwater robots
>>
>> http://seagrant.mit.edu/research/current_research.php?CAT=exp
>>
>> there is an interesting undersea robot that can image plankton
>> using holographic imaging
>>
>>
>> Incorporation of a compact digital holographic plankton camera into
>> gliders and drifters
>>
>> PI(s): Cabell Davis, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
>>
>> Project Summary: In this project, the researchers are developing a
>> compact, low-power,
>> holographic imaging system that can be used on gliders and drifters and
>> designing software/hardware solutions for on-board image processing
>> and automatic
>> identification of plankton from holograms. This research will allow
>> autonomous collection
>> of high-resolution spatio-temporal data on plankton size and taxonomic
>> composition-––
>> a fundamental need in the study of aquatic ecosystems. This type of
>> sampling will help
>> solve the problem of sparse taxonomic data in biological oceanography.
>>
>>
>> in order to control climate change to acceptable levels we need to
>> understand the oceans,
>> their processes and ecologies= we can imagine cyborgs that are humans
>> with connectivity
>> to flocks of data collection devices to give each of us better
>> awareness of the the environment
>> our senses dont allow us to connect to
>>
>> roger
>>
>>
>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>> From: Murat Germen<muratgermen@sabanciuniv.edu>
>> Date: Mon, Jul 13, 2009 at 1:16 AM
>> Subject: Re: [Yasmin_discussions] ETHNIC CYBORGS
>> To: YASMIN DISCUSSIONS<yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr>
>>
>>
>> hello all,
>>
>> the new military technologies and the type of soldiers it creates can
>> also be subject to this discussion maybe. i am not a militaristic
>> person at all but wars, it seems, constitute indispensable part of
>> human history unfortunately. as there are amazing gaps between the
>> ways people live, eat, consume and finally die; there is a similar
>> inequality in fighting conditions. with the support of special drugs
>> (like LSD in vietnam war and a lot of others in recent ones), special
>> vision gadgets, special garments, multiple body attachments, sci-fi
>> type rifles and very nasty / unfair bombs
>> interactive-multimedia-simulation-educated soldiers turn into cyborgs
>> i guess. and since they exist only in certain armies, they can be
>> considered ethnic cyborgs. the originally poor periphery people sort
>> of turn into legionnaire-avatars of certain cultures in order to make
>> a living and finally end up being temporary "kings" (à la warhol) to
>> the point of torturing locals in the context of a war-destroyed
>> "other" culture. but interestingly enough, these legionnaire-cyborgs
>> also fail at one point at the corps-à-corps combat and finally leave.
>> so maybe there is still hope for the basic human condition...
>>
>> regards to all
>> murat
>>
>> <<< +90 532 473 8970 (gsm mobile)
>> <<< muratgermen@gmail.com
>> <<< http://www.muratgermen.com
>> <<< http://www.flickr.com/photos/muratgermen/
>> <<< http://muratgermen.wordpress.com/
>> <<< http://www.camgaleri.com/en/sanatci.aspx?id=27
>>
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