June 20th, 2010
Based on a question I found in Hayles’ book originally posed by a professor (Gregory Bateson) to his graduate students, I queried “Is a blind man’s cane part of the man?” on my Facebook page. This launched one of the longer conversations I’ve had on FB, the culmination of which is worth repurposing into a post. As Socrates would see it, it was a rubbing together of minds through dialogue lead to a spark of illumination. So, here is an essay of my perspective on the matter formulated due to, and based on, that conversation with special thanks to Ronda W., Duglas K, Amanda B., Mark C., Lisa C-S, Cris B, Michael S., and Kim E.
This question stems from my reading this week of Hayles’ “How We Became Posthuman.” From my perception, the cane is part of the man. It is merely one example in the discussion that all tools are extensions of ourselves (a point I’ve touched on in last week’s blog posts on McLuhan and Hayles). The cane operates as part of the man’s body, it acts as an extension of his hand, being part of his working perception of the world (perception of the working world?). Read the rest of this entry »
June 18th, 2010
Hayles, N. K. (1999). How we became posthuman: Virtual bodies in cybernetics, literature, and informatics: University Of Chicago Press.
In chapter 2, Virtual Bodies and Flickering Signifiers, Hayles discusses virtual reality settings and models of signification. My research has nothing to do with virtual reality as we understand the term–a computer-simulated/generated environment into which one can travel and interact, such as with 2nd life or even more physically interactive where one dons special goggles and gloves and can actually move around within the environment. However, as Hayles notes, there is a certain virtual reality experience by just using the internet. Read the rest of this entry »
June 17th, 2010
Hayles, N. K. (1999). How we became posthuman: Virtual bodies in cybernetics, literature, and informatics: University Of Chicago Press.
Katherine Hayles puts forth this text on post humanism, which essentially discusses how information lost its body, that is, it is inspired by Hans Moravec’s prediction that one could in the future download an entire human conscious into a computer where it could exist and operate. Hayles breaks down “What is the posthuman?” into four defining factors (pgs 2-3). The posthuman view: Read the rest of this entry »