Cy-Turtle

Faster, stronger, BETTER.

2001: A Space Odyssey (redux)

I recently rewatched 2001: A Space Odyssey with a friend and I don't understand how this movie could have possibly gotten a G rating. I found the "murder" of the unstable computer HAL to be one of the most disturbing things I've seen in a long time.

When we finished the movie (particularly the ending sequence) my friend Jared asked very eloquently "what the hell did we just watch." I couldn't answer him but I figured the internet could tell us. So I found this site.

It's an interesting way of thinking about remediating a movie and a way distributing information in a very engaging format.

The Wisdom of the Chaperones

http://www.slate.com/id/2184487/?GT1=10935

New Scientist's Take on Automaton Warefare

If you are interested in the latest news on Skynet's development, read away.

WWI Visions of the Machine

From Wilfred Owen's "Soldier's Dream"

I dreamed kind Jesus fouled the big-gun gears;
And caused a permanent stoppage in all bolts;
And buckled with a smile Mausers and Colts;
and rusted every bayonnet with His tears;

And there were no more bombs, or ours or Theirs,
...
But God was vexed, and gave all power to Michael;
And when I woke he'd seen to our repairs.

Interesting Quote For The Cyborgs

"Science now performs miracles like the gods of old, creating life from blood cells, bacteria, or a spark of metal, but they are perfect creatures and in that way they couldn’t be less human. There are certain things machines cannot do: they cannot possess faith; they cannot commune with God; they cannot appreciate beauty; they cannot create art. If they ever learn these things, they won’t have to destroy us--they will be us."

Sarah Connor

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

Cyborg Cars

Notice the discussion of the "drive by wire" technologies (similar to the "fly by wire" technologies in Airbus planes I showed last night). There is also discussion of the fusion of organic and mechanical. Finally, notice how YouTube is one of the delivery platforms of choice for large multinational corporations.

Battery by B&S

This was a Stephen and Brandon project:

Agent Smith noted with disdain once that we, humans, are a cancer to the planet. We move from place to place consuming all the natural resources like locusts, and then move on to the next area to scourge. Although we can’t really argue with Agent Smith’s assertion, we think that he, and many of the machines like him, believes that this is a weakness on the part of humanity. However, we believe that this is one of our greatest characteristics. If it were not for our innate ability to adapt to our surroundings, not only physically but emotionally, we would have perished as surely as the sun’s last rise on earth all those years ago. Further, the machines were simultaneously forced to “move on” and adapt when we blotted out the sun and deprived them of power. Thus the Matrix was created to enslave humans (honestly though, who is serving whom? The machines wait on the humans in the Matrix hand-and-foot.). Agent Smith fails to see the connection—but machines pillage and adapt much like humans…with one notable exception. They consistently remain one step behind humanity. Still, even in this age of “artificial intelligence,” the intelligence remains just that, artificial. The machines, for all their achievements, are still capable of little more than mimicking and learning from human behavior. They can fool a person into thinking that they are human, like the Agent Smiths of the Matrix regularly do, but in the end, they are only capable of fooling a person. This is the action of liars and frauds: to depend on the deception of people. They are still not capable of being human. There is no doubt in my mind that human beings will eventually triumph over the machines—the irony is that we will almost certainly employ/enslave other machines in the process. We will emerge from the ashes again.

I think my battery just died...

Medium is the Message

Computer Brains
by Petra

Lyrics for Computer Brains
performed by Petra
Proverbs 23:7, 1 Peter 1:13, Philippians 4:8, 2 Corinthians 10:5
Words & Music by Bob Hartman

Everything that you do and see, one more event in your memory
Every bit takes another bite without control over wrong or right
You must screen every entry made, the consequences must be weighed
The only way to security is every thought in captivity
Computer Brains, put garbage in
Computer Brains, get garbage out
Computer Brains, programming you
Computer Brains, what can you do Break out
Are you a user or being used; has your memory been abused
Take random samples from your mind and analyze what you may find
You can clear all memory and be transformed when you find the key
Think on the things that will bring you peace, confusing data soon will cease

Bow Before the Machine

Cyborgs are cool; seriously, they are, but is making an academic system of thought based on science fiction really a good idea? Sciencetology did that with L. Ron Hubbard, and everyone thinks they're crazy. But this phenomena of cyborg culture/worship , not only in the terms Hathaway describes it, is really nothing new.

Humanity tends to project its dependence on tools it needs to survive into a kind of socio-symbiotic worship. The Egyptian gods are a good example of this. They are a combination of human and animal relative to the dominion of life each god was said to have. Not much has changed, as humanity becomes more dependent on technology and redefines its meta-narrative with the underpinnings of chance evolution rather than divine creation, its gods have changed shape. A new priestly class has risen trading sacred robes for white lab coats, but essentially filling the same function as their ancient counter parts, giving the people some overarching reason for existence. It’s no wonder that the idea of the cyborg is so attractive today. If humanity has replaced the divine with science and the technology that it spawns, then we as humans, craving divinity, naturally want to see ourselves in mechanical terms. We have reduced our humanity to informational code (DNA), as if all that we are is a preprogrammed mechanical construct, and in that definitive model, why would we not be compatible with our own information-based silicon creations?

Agree or not, Hathaway makes this point really clear in the manifesto when she says, “ Biology and evolutionary theory over the last two centuries have simultaneously produced modern organisms as objects of knowledge . . . within this framework, teaching modern Christian creationism should be fought as a form of child abuse” (517).

And we don’t stop with ourselves. If all that we see is information-based, than that information can be changed to fit our own ideals. As Brenda E Brasher points out:

"Technology's rapid progress in the late twentieth century in this regard is not accidental. Within the economic paradigm of late capitalism, Disney/America, Microsoft, IBM, Eli Lilly, SONY/Columbia, and a host of other techno-capitalists survive and thrive by hastening the cyborging process. To generate profits they offer us sounds better than life. They compose images more beautiful, more awesome than anything we can naturally see. They design and produce drugs that make us more social, thinner, happier, sexier, putatively more ourselves. Even "nature" is not natural anymore (i.e., changing and evolving in response to the biological balance of ecosystem paradigms). It, too, is being cyborged as techno-agriculturalists slowly configure the seed market to privilege hybrid plants that require farmers to purchase patented seeds each year. As a result, we who act and interact in the contemporary world are becoming 'borged.'"

Who knows how far the “borging” will go, but hesitancy and pessimism about the trends we’re seeing aren't bad. The fear representative in films like the Matrix, and all the way back to Frankenstein is not just the result of over-active imaginations, but clear warnings about considering consequences before crossing certain boundaries. Ancient people built idols and then feared those idols would turn their inanimate wrath against them. The pharaohs of old looked on their gods, and said, “hey I’m kind of like that, maybe I’m a god too”, and we would look at their reaction and say, “they were crazy”, but humans today are looking at machines and saying the same thing. How long before that kind of break with reality has dire consequences if it hasn’t already?

Notes: The Cyborg: Technological Socialization and Its Link to the Religious Function of Popular Culture

by Brenda E. Brasher

Brandon and I had such similar reactions to Hathaway; we just combined our posts here.

WE ARE CYBORG

oops... sorry about that last post! Apparently I hit a wrong button. Anyway, on with the blog. Until this assignment I really hadn't given much thought to "cyborgs" or anything related to the idea. I had always thought of it as something that science fiction fans "geeked" out about (specifically my brother). After reading the "A Cyborg Manifesto" I did and internet search and found that what can be considered a "cyborg" goes much further than just an imaginary human that was taken over by the "borgs" and assimilated into thier army (I find it unforuntate that I remember that much from Star trek). In fact, I found a broad definition that basically stated that any organism that has been changed by technology can be considered a "cyborg." That means all of you out there that have had your childhood vaccinations or flu shots could be considered a "cyborg" (or at least genetically engineered). Scary! Prehaps we have already have been assimilated and we are no longer in control of what we thought we were in control of.

Looking at more obvious "Cyborgs" in modern culture, the story of the "Blade Runner," there are simliarities to thier current struggles and those of women in the past, specifically in sports. For those of you who don't know, the "Blade runner" is a South African Man who had both legs removed from the knee down when he was a child. He recently wanted to try out for the olympics, but was told that he had an unfair advantage because of his limbs. SO having no legs is apparently an advantage when running. However, this isn't that all that different from when women first tried to compete in major sporting events; the first woman to ever enter the Boston Marathon was told that it would affect her chances of having children and that she would never get a hudband because who would ever marry a woman who wore sweats? Maybe men are just afraid of being beaten by women and the disabled? In the case of the "Blade runner," I think we should celebrate! Science and technology has managed to reduce the limitations imposed on people with diablilities! Why should they be hindered? I say let the man run! If we are all cyborgs already then there is no excuse to exclude one who has been altered a little more noticeably by technology than the rest of us.

Matrix Manifesto

We have been living in a state of war against the machines ever sense we can remember. Both sides have suffered greatly in this war, and it is time to end it. We propose a tactical strike against the machines utilizing EMP charges to forcibly disengage the matrix. Unfortunately, this will result in the death of all humans plugged into the matrix, but realistically, they would not be able to survive with the limited power and food sources left available on the planet. So, killing them would be the humane thing to do under the circumstances. Our captains have spoken in a joint meeting and this is the conscientious.

Once we disengage the machines, they will die from lack of power. We will disassemble them and use them as parts to improve our world. We could improve our ships, our food, and our way of life. Once we regain enough electrical support we could build heat lamps to support plant life resulting in better air, more oxygen, and even weather. We understand the ethical ramifications of our actions. We do believe however that our act will preserve the greater humanity that exists outside of virtual reality.

So, prepare to fight for our humanity and the end of suffering and the end of the war against the machines. The time has come and we must embrace it rather than waiting silently for a pasty faced Christ figure to save us. It is time to decide—are you with us in ending the war and building a new society or are you for war and suffering and entrusting your future to fate. Our future lies in your hands.

By Kathryn, Katie, Paula, and Jennie

Cyborgs in Japanese Pop Culture

Because Doc opened up this can of worms with his link to the Manga Bible and because I’m something of the resident expert on the subject, I thought I’d pull together some thoughts and images about cyborg representation in Japanese manga and animation. For all intents and purposes it all started with this god man, Osamu Tezuka-sensei and his character of Michi from the manga Metropolis first published in 1949. Though Michi was considered a "humanoid" or a robot in human form, Mitchi originated in a batch of protein cells and had the interesting ability to change gender, something that seems very organic and "cyborg" indeed.

Cyborg 009, a team of humans experimented on and given technological enhancements, in 1963 was the first of the team (or sentai) genre of anime and kaiju (monster) programs that is still popular in Japan to this day.

Cyborg or cyborg-ish imagery is an important element to Japanese pop culture and the importance and power of cyborg themes from manga and anime don't seem to be lost on American film companies. James Cameron is currently in pre-production for a film called Battle Angel based on the widely popular Battle Angel Alita (or Gunnm). Interestingly enough the world that Alita inhabits is a cyborg world where the under city of refuse contains the "have-nots" who are entirely cybernetic save for their brains and the "haves" from the beautiful floating city of Tiphanes whose brains have all been secretly removed and replaced with computer processor chips. Alita's cyborg body is continually sexualized and in fact it is this sexualization that plays no small roll in her continued existence as a "female." It isn't until very far into the story when a copy of Alita's memories (computer chip) in used in a male body that the idea of the gender/sex divided is brought to the fore. Through there seems to be a suggestion that though the body might be male the mind is still heterosexual-female identified.

I could continue on and on for pages on this stuff if you'd like me to and I maybe will if someone gives me good cause to. Needless to say there is not shortage of cyborg imagery in anime and manga. The universe of the popular Full Metal Alchemist contains automail that seems to run a a type of magic and steampunk imagination rather than any sort of technology and Lain, with characters designed by ABe, a techno-thriller about the dystopian world within "The Wired," while not strictly cyborg certain incorporates a fair share of cyborg-ish (and not coincidentally lesbian-ish) imagry.

ABe's more recent work, Texhnolyze, focuses on more direct cyborg imagry and follows through dystopia through to the absolute end, the complete destruction of all humanity. Texhnolyze is also interesting in that it tends to be the male body that is sexualized and fetishized. Somewhat of a break from the female centric model and interesting because the target demographic for this super violent anime was clearly young men.

I could spend as long writing about the cyborgs in Ghost in the Shell as all others combined so I'll try to be brief. The main character is Major Makoto Kusanagi and I can think of very few other "female cyborg" characters that so consciously embody the principles of Haraway's manifesto, the best possible literal representation of Haraway's cyborg metaphor. The self-agency and self-identification she constantly asserts pushes her body up against the very technology that defines and her female-ness. Her human nature comes out in ways that display the creative integration of electronic and physical existences she incorporates into her identity everyday. The world of Ghost in the Shell is conscientiously cyborg, and both Shriow Masamune (original creator) and Mamoru Oishii (movie director) visions clearly incorporate Haraway's work. Batou (a cyborg man) and his beloved Bassett Hound is more then a representation of Oishii's obsession with the dogs, it connects to Haraway's important work on the human/animal connection. Even Haraway herself is represented in the second Ghost in the Shell movie and a cyborg coroner named Dr. Haraway (pictured right).

I was also going to include a bit of analysis on a character from Gundam 00 that I'm currently keeping my eye on, but that might have to be another post at some other time.

Additionally, I thought I'd share this with you guys. You can find all of the movie cut up into bits on youtube if you'd like. It's a Korean movie (not Japanese and therefore not very relevant to this post) called I'm a Cyborg, but that's Okay, and it has some really interesting images and suggestions about what it means to be "cyborg."

The Prevalence of the Cyborg

I would say the most obvious way the cyborg has become prevalent in our daily lives is the way technology has blurred the division between public and private. Donna Haraway explains this division by using Richard Gordon’s term “homework economy” (526). Part of the homework economy is subjecting workers “to time arrangements on and off the paid job that make a mockery of a limited work day” (526).

Traditionally, there have been public or work and private spheres that rarely crossed. People went to their jobs, did them, and came home where they generally didn’t have to worry about work until they got up the next morning to go back. Today, those lines are blurred as technology enables us to send and receive emails, text messages, and phone calls, look things up on the Internet, etc. from virtually anywhere at any time. People are often compelled to work from home resulting in little down time, but they also feel compelled to take care of personal things at work. Both sides create a need for new expectations and etiquette. Another consequence is that our dependence on our tools to get through the day gives us a heightened sense of connection to our tools (533).

Haraway mentions that paraplegics and other severely handicapped people often have the most intense experiences of hybridization with their communication devices which reminds me of a speaker we had in a college class I took called students with special needs where we learned about recognizing students who may have special needs as well as finding accommodations for students with verified special needs. One of our speakers worked with finding technology to help her patients live fairly regular lives with as much independence as possible. She showed us a Gateway tablet pc and thought we would be amazed by the technology and its ability to help those with special needs. She didn’t realize that every person in the class had their own Gateway tablet pc because Mayville State was the first tablet pc campus in the country. We all relied on our computers to do assignments, access class materials, keep in touch with friends and family, entertain ourselves, etc. The notion that only the disabled experience hybridization with communication devices has shifted to reveal that our dependence on communication and technology, which blurs the public and private spheres, has made cyborgs out of everyone as machines become the prosthetic devices of the abled and disabled and become a familiar part of our friendly selves (533).

The simple cyborgs

I had never really heard of a "cyborg" until I read Donna Haraway's "A Cyborg Manifesto", and evidently neither had my computer, which kept underlining the term as a misspelled word. However, after reading the document I have come to realize that I have been familiar with cyborgs for some time now; I just didn't know there was a specific term for them. 

There are many places in the text (both in the introduction and the actual document) where lines stand out as offering a definition of a cyborg. A cyborg is: 

• "a cybernetic organism, a hybrid of machine and organism, a creature of social reality as well as a creature of fiction" (516)
  
• "our ontology; it gives us our politics...In the traditions of 'Western' science and politics--the tradition of racist, male-dominated capitalism; the tradition of the appropriation of nature as resource for the productions of culture; the tradition of reproduction of the self from the reflections of the other" (516)
  
• "resolutely committed to partiality, irony, intimacy, and perversity. It is oppositional, utopian, and completely without innocence" (517)
  
• "a kind of disassembled and reassembled, post-modern collective and personal self. This is what the self feminist must code" (524)
  
• "the people who refuse to disappear on cue, no matter how many times a 'Western' commentator remarks on the sad passing of another primitive, another organic group done in by 'Western' technology, by writing" (532)
  

With these diverse clues about the definition of a cyborg as well as the three different types of boundaries transgressed by cyborgs (human/animal; animal-human/machine; physical/non-physical) it quickly became apparent to me that cyborgs are all around us in our culture. One specific example of where I personally have seen them ties into Haraway's discussion of the role of cyborgs in medicine. I found this angle to be especially familiar: while at UTC last semester, I had a professor who (due to recent knee surgery) had become very interested in body rhetorics and what happens to a writer when they are not "whole" or "organic" any longer whether due to a cadaver or a machine. 

While the information about cyborgs available through Haraway suggests that they can suggest that cyborgs be complicated machines built by humans, I found it refreshing to see the simple ways that cyborgs are already in our society. 

Mashup!

Ancient Media.

Old Media.

New Media.

Thanks, Stephen

“What is the Matrix? Control. The Matrix is a computer-generated dream world built to keep us under control in order to change a human being into this.”

The machines are getting ready . . .

Here's an interesting invention in anticipation of next week's Matrix viewing:

US and Canadian scientists have developed a new way to harvest energy from human movements. The new innovation is capable of developing a model that can produce energy to power a mobile phone for 30 minutes from just one minute of walking. So that means that you can now charge your mobile phone with just few minutes of walking.

The newly invented device generates power by a process known as generative braking. With the help of series of gears and changes in it, electricity is generated.

The

device weighs 1.6kg and is capable of producing 5 watts of electricity from a slow walk. However scientists have also discovered that the device produces 13 watts energy from walking, which is enough to power a mobile phone for 30 minutes from just a minute’s walk.

However, to generate such an amount of energy the generator has to be constantly switched on, which is quite an effort on the part of the one wearing it.

If such concept models will be made available for the common men, people will surely be able to save more energy and can go greener. And think about it, such walking will make people exercise too!

Techshout.com

Twitterpation

Twittervision's mashup a the twitter application on what looks like Google Earth is totally fascinating.

Interesting Professorial Mix-Off

This Wednesday, our New Media class watched Kansas State Professor Wesch's YouTube hit The Machine is Us/ing Us. Mr. Marino, an English Teacher at the University of Southern California created a quick mashup critique of Professor Wesch's second (and more controversial) video.

You got served.