Katherine Hayles, in “Toward Embodied Virtuality” touches virtuality, an uncomfortable subject, to some extent, that is slowly becoming the normality. She addresses how human beings have evolved with technology to become the posthumans. Exploring the idea of how information can circulate without the need of an actual body, the construction and popularity of cyborgs is also growing. Even though the connection with technology and humans is increasing, I do not believe one day we will become a society full of cyborgs who are unrecognizable from a human being, or as she calls us, posthumans.
A perfect example to support this idea is the limitations that cyborgs have, because they are in fact a representation of only the information stored in them, just like Hayles address it on her paper, “An artifact materially expresses the concept it embodies” (15). Ash for example, in the episode “Be Right Back” from Black Mirror did not know what to do when Martha asked him to hit her, or to jump over the cliff. In Stepford Wives, when Joanna was trying to talk to Bobbie’s cyborg, her speech did not make much sense. And it got worsened when Joanna cut her with the knife. As the viewer can see, none of these cyborgs responded how humans should’ve. They were limited to the amount of information and wires inside of them.
Even Hayles accepts the fact that cyborgs are not perfect and that they will break down eventually. She says, in an artifact a “glitch has to be fixed, a material exhibits unexpected properties, an emergent behavior surfaces- any of these challenges can give rise to a new concept, which results in another generation of artifact, which leads to the development of still other concepts” (15). Yes, cyborgs can be reevaluated and improved, but they will always need a human being with reasoning and human intelligence to fix them, just like in R.U.R, for example. The cyborgs took over, but they could not reproduce themselves without human help. Or just like in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. The androids were taking over, but who was the master mind behind them? The Rosen Association, which was basically one person, Mr. Rosen, who was indeed a human. We are indeed, immersed in virtuality, we are posthumans handling cyborgs.
It is true though and I completely agree with Hayles, that we are characterized by a seamless connection between humans and intelligent machines. That information itself has become primary and its material form secondary. “Technical artifacts help to make an information theoretic view a part of everyday life. From ATMs to the Internet, from the morphing programs used in Terminator II to the sophisticated visualization programs used to guide microsurgeries, information is increasingly perceived as interpenetrating material forms” (19). As I see it, Siri works either on my iPhone or on my Mac. The information and processes she handles goes beyond the type of hardware “she” is being used through.
As stated earlier, we are living in a world full of technology, were any simple task is completed with turning on and off a simple apparatus, artifact or so called cyborg. I agree with Hayles in the sense that we are becoming one with technology, we are extending our bodies and minds with the help of other artifacts that are not human, but we remain humans. We are living in a world were we are creating intelligent machines, but machines who still need humans to get them fixed, to keep them moving, to keep improving them. Authors from books and shows basically suggest that without humans there are no cyborgs.
References:
Hayles, Katherine. How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics. The University of Chicago Press. 1999.