Hayles – Page 2 – ENG 281.05 Fall 16

Embodied Virtuality

Embodied virtuality is the idea that the mind and body are separated. Katherine Hayles went into further detail discussing this topic in her essay titled “Toward Embodied Virtuality”. The author described how there are many factors, that can separate the mind and the body. Individuals should put this concept into consideration, so that they can avoid the negative effects. One of the negative results are; becoming a Posthuman. There are two examples in which the media represents this concept. One being an episode from a television series Black Mirror. The second example is a film titled Stepford Wives. These two films represent how the mind and body can be separated, and be used for harm rather than good.

The first example is the Black Mirror series. Here is a clear description of the episode. A couple has decided to move into a home together. The character Ash, has died (it is not told to the audience how he has died). The woman names Martha becomes depressed. In the episode she later realizes that she is pregnant. Unable to cope with the loss of her lover Martha decides to sign up for a program that create a virtual embodiment of Ash. How this works is every text message, email, social media that Ash has used has been saved. The computer program then uses the recent words that Ash has used to talk to Martha. Martha then becomes obsessed with this technology. With her baby on the way Martha wants her boyfriend to be there, so she takes the next step, and orders a robot version of Ash. The robot not only looks like Ash, but has studied every word/phrase Ash has ever said/written. Ash best represents the concept of what it means to be Posthuman. From Katherine Hayles essay she described what a Posthuman is “It is important to recognize that the construction of the posthuman does not require the subject to be a literal cyborg. Whether or not interventions have been made on the body, new models of subjectivity emerging from such fields as cognitive science and artificial life imply that even a biologically unaltered Homo sapiens counts as posthuman.” This concept applies to Ash, since before he died, he was always glued to his technology. Examples include: In the car, when Martha was getting coffee. Or on the couch when he was on twitter. In a way his phone was a part of him, he could not go a day without out it. This makes him posthuman, how he needs access to technology at all times. Since he was always on his phone, this allowed an opportunity for humans to create a computer version of Ash. This is also what the author Katherine Hayles worries, that technology will be used for the wrong purposes. Now-a-days everyone can be considered a posthuman. Children, teens, adults always have their phones on them at all times, and this is considered “normal”. In a way we all are cyborgs because we need this technology to survive. The argument to this is, could be: Are these programs that create a robot version of an individual be all bad? Some individuals, are unable to move on with their lives when someone has died. Some go to extreme measures such as suicide, because they are unable to cope with their loss. Would it be a bad thing if an individual who had just lost a family member, wanted to have one last conversation with them?

The second example is the film Stepford Wives. This film is about a group of men who have total control of a small town. In result, the wives plan to start their own clubs, and businesses. Suddenly one-by-one all of them decided its best that they do the housework instead. The wives even look, and sound different. The main character Joanna Eberhart tries to find a reason to why all these women have suddenly change. The more Joanna investigates the more she realized that the women have not only changed their appearances, but also their hobbies. An example could be; one of the women who was excellent in tennis, had suddenly given up. Claiming that her priority is to make sure, her husband is pleased. Towards the end of the film Joanna finds out that, the husbands have killed all of the wives, and replace them with robots. These robots look, and sound just like the wives. However, there is a clear distinguishing between the wives, and cyborgs personality. Katherine Hayles mentioned in her essay,“Human essence is freedom from the wills of others, the posthuman is ‘post’ not because it is necessarily unfree but because there is no priori way to identify a self-will that can be clearly distinguished from an other-will.” My interpretation of this is that, we as humans have our own-will, but there could be other people, or elements such as faith that destroy that freedom. This applies to Stepford wives, because the husband’s took their wives freedom. The wives can no longer play tennis, paint, bake, or take photographs, because the husbands to that away from.

In conclusion, both films show how embodied virtuality could be applied, in reality. In my opinion, both films do display wonderful examples, of dualism. I however would never agree on the fact that we should record everyone’s social media in order to “recreate” them. Even though this could help someone cope with the loss of a loved one, I believe that things that are natural should stay natural. This phrase also refers to Stepford Wives, how robots who look exactly like humans should never be created. The mind and body are separate, and shouldn’t be tainted by science.

Embodied Virtuality vs. Fiction

In Katherine Hayles article “Towards Embodies Virtuality”, Hayles discusses the topic of dualism, or the separation of the body and mind. She believes that this shift in perspective comes from the creation of intelligent machines and the possibility of a population of cyborgs. In the episode of Black Mirror and in the film Stepford Wives, the idea of embodied virtuality is portrayed through the cyborg wives and through Ash, showing the disconnect of the mind and the body through the idea of disembodiment.

The definition of embodiment is “a tangible or visible form of an idea, quality, or feeling.” In Hayles article, she describes information “as a (disembodied) entity that can flow between carbon-based organic components and silicon-based electronic components to make protein and silicon operate as a Single system” (Hayles 2). This concept of embodiment, or rather disembodiment can be found in the episode of Black Mirror titles “Be Right Back.” When the main character Ash dies, his girlfriend Martha uses an online chatroom that uses the information found on Ash’s social media and emails to type like he would. This information about Ash helps to display the separation of mind and body, by showing how a majority of a man’s thoughts can still exist without a body for them to reside in. Things like his opinions, his voice, strange terms that Ash has used are analyzed and used by this program to recreate a person’s mind. And he can be carried everywhere with Martha. He is on her phone for when she is hiking, at the doctor, and driving. And when she is at home, he is on her computer. The information found online is a disembodied object, after his body has died, parts of his mind can be recreated and formed into a new machine. This information becomes a “single system” when Martha decides to buy a cyborg version of Ash to put this information into. The cyborg looks exactly like Ash, talks like Ash, and can evolve to act like him using the information from the internet and Martha. This cyborg is the perfect representation of dualism, showing that how the information put into the machine is a separate entity from the machine itself.

This concept of disembodied information can also be seen in the film Stepford Wives. The film is based around a town whose men replace their wives with cyborgs that looks and acts as a stereotypical house wife would. This idea of disembodied information can be seen through the wives and their behavior. Once a wife has been replaced with a cyborg, they act the same as the rest of the other women. For example, they only talk about cleaning, spend all their time in the kitchen, dress the same, and only try to please their husbands. The cyborgs have all been programmed to act like a housewife, and nothing like themselves. The mind and body are separated in this process. While the body may look the same as the original house wife, the mind is completely altered, wiped clean of any of their previous personality and replaced with one that the men find suitable.

The idea that the mind and body are separate is a concept that can be found throughout fiction. Dualism helps to show how cyborgs and human are different, and the future for humans if cyborgs become part of the population.

Embodied Virtuality

In “Toward Embodied Virtuality” Katherine Hayles discusses her shifting perspective on dualism – the separation of body and mind. Hayles attributes this shift to the growing realization that we are creating intelligent machines and may someday become a population of cyborgs. Using this text as a framework, describe how the character Ash in the “Be Right Back” episode of Black Mirror, as well as the women in Stepford Wives, represent an embodied virtuality. Consider the gendered implications of these fictional portrayals.

As an extension activity if you have additional time, compare these two representations to the characters RUR and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.

Requirements:

Include a strong thesis statement that expresses your opinion and outlines your argument.
Use at least 2 quotes from the text in correct MLA format as evidence that support your opinion. (HINT: avoid floating quotes, and explain each quote in your own words)
Organize your points thematically and logically.
Use transitions that connect your ideas.
Give specific examples and avoid generalizations.
Use academic language and grammatically correct sentences.

Post this to the site using category “blog” and tag “Hayles” and “Virtuality” before class time on Thursday.

Embodied Virtuality

In “Towards Embodied Virtuality,” Hayles discusses how the body and mind are separate entities of a being. Though this concept can be somewhat hard to believe or even process, as technology evolves, we see more and more that this idea is true. Hayles talks more about this when she says, “Identified with the rational mind, the liberal subject possessed a body but was not usually represented as being a body,” (Hayles 4). In this quote, she talks about how virtuality takes no shape or form, like the human mind, which is only housed by one’s body. But who the person is or what makes them truly unique are their thoughts and ideas, which are stored in their mind. In both “Be Right Back” of Black Mirrors and Stepford Wives, we see this idea of our minds and our bodies are free and separate as technology begins to evolve in two very different ways.

In “Be Right Back”, we are introduced to the characters Ash and Martha, a married couple who is moving to a home in the country. The very next day, while running errands as Martha works, we discover that Ash is dead. What is unique about this episode is that there is a type of technology that exists that will take all of the things Ash ever posted online and whatever information that Martha gives it to “recreate” Ash’s mind, including the way he thinks and the way he speaks. “Marvin Minsky precisely expressed this dream when, in a recent lecture, he suggested it will soon be possible to extract human memories from the brain and import them, intact and unchanged, to computer disks,” (Hayles 15). This example shows us that the mind and body can be separated, because someone’s mind or at least their “virtual mind” is still intact long after they are gone. For example, those who have passed on, but may have had Facebook long enough to develop an online identity, can be remembered through their posts and pictures, much like Ash was. The things they have said and done are still there. What the creators of the episode were doing was showing us that we are never truly gone as we still exist in the virtual world. Also, in the episode, VR Ash didn’t exactly need a body to communicate with Martha, though she chose to have kind of a filler body for this disembodied technological representation of her husband. This being or recreation of a being was still able to function just on information alone, the information that it was fed by Martha and by all of Ash’s social accounts. We, as a society, are so invested in technology and social media that we have created virtual versions of ourselves.

The movie, Stepford Wives, takes the other side of separation between mind and body. In this movie, we are introduced to Joanna Eberhart and her family as they prepare for their move to a small, quiet community, where the Men’s Association Club is the elite group of the town. There is something off about the women of the town, which Joanna, and later another woman named Bobby, notice, how submissive and one-sided theses women are. The men of the town have somehow figured how to separate the minds of these women from their bodies, implanting only what is necessary for their behavior into robot versions of themselves. Unlike Ash in the Black Mirror episode we watched, these women aren’t kept whole. Only the parts that were seen as fit for their “new” bodies were kept. Like the female characters portrayed in RUR and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, these women are only seen as objects, to be controlled and to carry out wishes or demands, at their own freewill of course, but still guided to do these things, whereas Ash was functioning almost as well as any human male, only relying on his “administrator” for confirmation here and there.

Hayles Definition Assignment

Some of the theory we will read in this course contains very technical, specific terminology that must be defined in order to understand the content. To develop a base for our reading and discussion, we will define terms used in How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics by Katherine Hayles in order to create a crowdsourced index to reference through the semester. Each of you will be assigned one of the following terms. For this assignment you should define this term based on your reading of Hayles and outside information you gather and determine to be relevant in this context. Please provide hyperlinked citations to any outside information you quote, paraphrase, or summarize.

Write your definition separately in your journal. Then, edit this post and add your definition in the designated area before class time on 11/1. Remember to click publish.

***Please do not edit any entry but the one you were assigned!

Autopoietic	The dictionary defines autopoietic as “the property of a living system that allows it to maintain and renew itself by regulating its composition and conserving its boundaries.” After reading How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics I have concluded that the definition of autopoietic, according to Hayles, is a system that is self made and is directly correlated to ones environment. Hayles states that “In the autopoietic view, no information crosses the boundary separating the system from its environment. We do not see a world “out there” that exists apart from us. Rather, we see only what our systemic organization allows us to see. The environment merely triggers changes determined by the system’s own structural properties” (17-18) . I interpreted this as the system is our way of life and we aren’t effected by the things that happen out side of our environment but only by the things that directly relate to our environments. For example, the Syrian refugee crisis is something in the world “out there” and that information does not affect our systems because our environment is not directly related.
Celluar Automata	According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, cellular automata are composed of cells or atoms that are defined as, “discrete, abstract computational systems that have proved useful both as general models of complexity and as more specific representations of non-linear dynamics in a variety of scientific fields.” Similarly, in the book, How We Become Posthuman, by Katherine Hayles, cellular automata are defined as, “elementary units that can occupy two states: on or off. Although the jury is still out on the cellular automata model, it may indeed prove to be a robust way to understand reality” (11). Both of these definitions explain cellular automata as having the capability to recreate/model certain complex systems by being “implemented in physical structures” (Stanford Encyclopedia). It is also said, in Hayles book, that the theories that are embedded within the cellular automata, “encourage a comparable fantasy – that because we are essentially information, we can do away with the body” (12). In my opinion this is stating that the human body could potentially be eliminated with this model because we are technically information ourselves, so there is no use for the body itself; “information is given the dominant position and materiality runs a distant second” (12). Overall, the information within us and of which creates us, overrules the body. Therefore, although this word is difficult to understand, this is what I have concluded based upon the text by Hayles and the definition provided by the Stanford Encyclopedia.
Cybernetics	The dictionary definition of cybernetics is the scientific study of how people, animals, and machines control and communicate information. Based on chapter 1 of How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics, my definition is the study of the communication and processing of information in humans and machines. Hayles discusses that “cybernetics signaled that three powerful actors-information, control, and communication-were now operating jointly to bring about an unprecedented synthesis of the organic and the mechanical” (8). Cybernetics looks at how information, control and communication work together simultaneously in humans and machines and how they are similar. The chapter also goes in depth in the history of cybernetics and how it has changed in waves, seen in figure 1 on page 16. Cybernetics is the main concept and most of what is discussed in the chapter falls under this concept.
Cyborg	A cyborg is, simply put, a hybrid of human and machine, with technological modifications made to the human to make them superior. Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines a cyborg as (1) “a person whose body contains mechanical or electrical devices and whose abilities are greater than the abilities of normal humans” or (2) “a bionic human”. In the context of How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics, the cyborg is the definition of posthumanism, it being the next step of human evolution with assistance from the use of technologies. The author mentions in the text how Hans Moravec can replicate human emotion, making it “that machines can, for all practical purposes, become human beings. You are the cyborg, and the cyborg is you.” (Hayles xii)
Embodiment	According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, Embodiment is defined as “Someone or something that is a perfect representative or example of a quality, idea, etc”. In her book, “How We Became Posthuman”, Hayles uses this term to describe how there is no exact or ideal form information; the form that information now takes is more flexible (Hayles 2). She describes information as a pattern rather than tied to a particular concrete idea. This in turn allows information to be free from the materialistic world (Hayles 13). In summary, Hayles claims that there is no embodiment or exact/ideal form of information; this allows information to be free and not restrained or constricted by society.
Epistemology	Epistemology is defined in the dictionary as branch of philosophy that investigates the origin, nature, methods, and limits of Human knowledge. In regards to Katherine Hayles’ “How we became Post human,” I believe that it elaborates on this definition. Hayles’ piece investigates the boundaries in which humans have crossed to now be labeled as post human. She gives way to the ideology that we as humans have always been networked and connected through others and that we are always connected to cyborgism in one way or another. Epistemology in this article can be defined as the level of understanding one has of the extent of human limitations and knowledge among other things.
Feedback Loop	Definition provided by http://lexicon.ft.com/: Used in economics to refer to as a situation where part of the output of situations is used for a new input. An example of positive feedback loop is success feeds success. In Chapter 1 pg. 9 Feedback Loop was described as “The idea of the feedback loop implies that the subject are up for grabs, since feedback loops can flow only within the subject but also between the subject and the environment.” My interpretation of this is Feedback Loop is similar to a cycle, and the output will be the same from start to finish. It is the process that can change. A website that gave a better explanation was www.think.org. The example the website provided was, “For example, the work output of a population can increase the goods and services available to that population, which can increase the average life expectancy, which can increase the population, which can increase the work output still more, and the loop starts all over again. ” How I connected this definition to the essay, How we Became Posthuman by N. Katherine Hayles was on pg. 12 the author mentions “Focus on how information lost its body. If my nightmare is a culture inhabited by posthumans who regard their bodies as fashion accessory rather than the ground of being, my dream……embrace the possibilities of information technologies without being seduced with fantasies.” I viewed this as a negative feedback loop. Since the information that enters out mind is the output, but the process (what we do with info) is what can make the Feedback Loop positive or negative. In the essay the author explains how other influences disrupts the process of that information.
Homeostasis	My definition of Homeostasis is the status of something that stays the same and doesn’t fluctuate. According to Dictionary.com homeostasis is ” the tendency of a system, especially the physiological system of higher animals, to maintain internal stability, owing to the coordinated response of its parts to any situation or stimulus that would tend to disturb its normal condition or function.” I couldn’t find where Hayles defines homeostasis but in the prologue she talks about homosexuality. I think Hayles maybe reffering to Society staying the same about their opinion on homosexuality.
Ontology	In my own words, a sound definition for “ontology” would be to describe it as such: The study/theory of existence and being. Basically, ontology is the fancy word for the study of what you ponder when having an existential crisis. Merriam-Webster defines ontology as “a particular theory about the nature of being or the kinds of things that have existence.” While Katherine Hayles doesn’t outright mention ontology in the first chapter of How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics, she touches upon this study of existence by tying it back to the posthuman, claiming, “In the posthuman, there are no essential differences or absolute demarcations between bodily existence and computer simulation, cybernetic mechanism and biological organism, robot teleology and human goals” (3). Hayles also explores the statement that says, “The human essence is freedom from the wills of others” (3). She then uses the word “ontological” itself on page 24 when speaking of Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, saying, “[Dick] understands that cybernetics radically destabilizes the ontological foundations of what counts as human.” Ontology, then, is a questioning of existence, exploring the possibilities about what it means to simply “be.”
Posthumanism	The dictionary definition of Posthumanism is:”The idea that humanity can be transformed, transcended, or eliminated either by technological advances or the evolutionary process; artistic, scientific, or philosophical practice which reflects this belief.” (oxford dictionary). This definition is very much the same as the one that Hayles gives in, How We Become Posthuman. Hayles defines posthumanism as the view that consciousness is “the seat” of human identity. Meaning as long as the organism contains conscious thought it is human. We create posthumans because the body is the “original prosthesis” that should be configured to be integrated with “intelligent machines” to create the posthuman subject. Posthumanism is the belief in a “amalgam”, a mixture or blend of human and machine to create superior man or being. Dictionary definition Is the view of information over biological matter which considers consciousness as the base of human life, and recognizes the body as a prothesis that subjects learn to manipulate and continue to change by adding other prothesis to it, called an amalgam. Most importantly and the base of this view, is that the body is seen as intended to be combined with intelligent machines. This view also gets rid of the desire of possession, the need for embodiment to be considered human and the meaning of freedom.
Reflexivity	Reflexivity is an thing being changed and adapting because it is reacting to stimuli. In How We Become Posthuman, it is described as “the movement whereby that which has been used to generate a system is made, through a changed perspective, to become part of the system it generates” (8). What I take from this definition is that a certain object/thing is learning to adapt because of stimuli it receives, and becomes a better version of itself.
Seriation	The definition of Seriation from Dictionary.com is “the arrangement of a collection of artifacts into a chronological sequence.” The author used the example of lamps that to described how their use and properties changed over time. Beginning with candle wicks to lamps becoming electronic with lightbulbs. Normally used as a chart, seriation is like a timeline of an artifact and how it changed over time.
Skeuomorphs	Hayles defines a skeuomorph as “a design feature that is no longer functional in itself but refers back to a feature that was functional at an earlier time” (Posthuman 24). She uses the dashboard of her Toyota Camry saying that it is covered in vinyl mold to simulate stiching but that simulated stitching is actually fabric from an older model just with a different look. Skeuomophism is a big part of our evolution of technology because it has modernized things and made them more resourceful. Dictionary Definition: An object or feature that imitates the design of a similar artifact made from another material.
Teleology	The study of evidences of design in nature. An example of teleology would be if one describes things in terms of their apparent purpose, or goal. On page 3, Hayes describes teleology only in terms of their sense of purpose: “In the post human, there are no essential differences or absolute demarcations between bodily existence and computer simulation, cybernetic mechanism and biological organism, robot teleology and human goals” (Hayes 3).
Virtuality	Hayles gives virtuality the “strategic definition” of “the cultural perception that material objects are interpenetrated by information patterns.” Essentially, she is saying that it’s the idea that information affects the way material objects function. This is confirmed when she gives the example of the computer being programmed to play ping-pong. She describes it as a cultural perception to demonstrate what a widespread and generally accepted idea this is.