A Manifesto For Cyborgs By Donna Haraway

185). Kathy has empathy with the animals, suggesting that “For all their busy, metallic features, there was something sweet and vulnerable about each of them” (Never, p. 185, 2005). The animals are thus represented as vulnerable figures of liminality, with their hybridity expressed in the fact that they are neither the archetypal image of a domestic pet, nor a robotic automaton, but an unsettling combination of the two. Ishiguro therefore fuses art and the bio-technic, with Kathy’s empathetic feelings towards Tommy’s creations suggesting that empathy should be applied as unreservedly to the inhuman. Therefore, Ishiguro uses the figures of the animals to indicate the paradoxically artificial nature of art, gesturing towards the limitations that we impose on creativity by associating art and empathy solely with the category of the ‘human.’ As H.G. Wells’ The Ireland of Doctor Moreau proposes, why is it acceptable to “burn out all the animal” (Wells, 1896, p. 59) – to subjugate the other, for the benefit of the human – but not to subject those we label human to the same treatment? As recent eco-criticism has charged, this appears to be related to the connection between scientific advancement and “the domination and expropriation of nature” (Birke, 1994, p. 134). In Ishiguro’s

Human history is marked by discovery and change, either challenging, or affirming our perceptions, confronting and changing our views as new light is shed on our perceptions of the world. Bryson’s ‘A short history of nearly everything’, Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ and Graeme Manson’s ‘Orphan Black’ all accept the potentially destructive implications of scientific or subjective discovery in process and result. As such, it affirms their transformative possibilities of discovery and gently oppose us if we are willing to lay aside our assumptions or our entrenched world views.

Abstract: The boundaries of what it means to be human is constantly shifting. As we enter the Posthuman age, the altered posthuman is becoming the new human. In Phillip K Dick’s novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? androids serve and live alongside humans in the post-war Earth. The indistinguishability of the new Nexus 6 model android and a human creates the context for the question- what does it mean to be human. This paper will analyze the connection between the posthuman and the human. With rapid advancements in technology, the human rapidly advances alongside it. This paper will also examine the novel’s main portrayal of the two opposing beings. To conclude, the paper will touch upon the differences that seem to separate the two and whether or not there truly are any.

Although not a human being, Data feels that he still has rights as a person and should be able to refuse. Towards the end of the episode, Data is being trialed and is questioned to show how robotic is he. William Riker removes Data’s arm and de-humanizes him by saying “Written by a man, its hardware built by a man. And now…and now a man will shut if off”. Data then lays limp—proving that he’s just a machine. This demonstration collides with philosophers like Descartes who mechanistic view believed that our bodies are machines without the mind in his sixth meditation. Hence, pointing out that a person can be perceived as a machine and a machine (android) can be seen as a person.

A Cyborg Manifesto is a ´blasphemous´ critique of feminism written by Haraway at a time when unfettered patriarchal capitalism was taking new forms enabled by emerged technological developments during the 1980s. She warns of “scary new networks” (Haraway 1990, p.203) that are emerging; new systems of domination that will replace traditional hegemonic structures of power. She foresees a´´system of world order analogous in its novelty and scope to that created by industrial capitalism,” (Ibid) that will emerge through technological progress. She terms these new systems ´´the informatics of domination´´(Ibid)

Vint focuses on the importance that animals play in Dick’s novel. Vint explains how the ethical concerns that are presented in Dick’s novel are better understood through the relationships with animals than with androids. Vint begins with explaining that the main theme of Dick’s novel is “what it means to be human”. Vint then proceeds to explain that androids are put in the position that animals are in reality. According to the article, animals are considered “less-than-human” and are exploited. Vint uses the terms “speciesism”, “carno-Phallogocentrism”, and “Cartesian” to define this type of treatment. Vint explains that the questions concerning this behavior are like the main theme of Dick’s novel, which consider ethics and “what it means to be human”.

The ramifications of humanity’s discoveries are profoundly influenced by the circumstances which involve a certain time and place. Discoveries are provocative and can either shackle or liberate, ultimately redefining perspectives and the truth. While humanity’s intrinsic nature challenges existing societal paradigms which creates a potential energy that propels discoveries. These ideas are exceptionally explored through Simon Nasht’s documentary, “Frank Hurley: The man who made history” and the short film; “Borrowed Time” directed by Andrew Coats.

First I will begin by discussing the social theorists whose work I will incorporate into the following essay. Michel Foucault, an icon in contemporary social theory, theorized mainly about discipline, power, and subjectivity. Pierre Bourdieu, also an icon in contemporary social theory, theorized about the interrelationship between structure and agency. Finally, Donna Haraway’s work in postmodern social theory, or more specifically her essay, A Cyborg Manifesto, will be analyzed in the following essay. To conclude, the works of Foucault, Bourdieu, and Haraway, are crucial to understanding and contextualizing how agency has decreased as a result of the increased consumption of post-modern technological gadgets.

Haraway seeks to create an “ironic political myth,” which would combine both post-modernism and socialist feminism. The central point of her myth would be a “cyborg,” which is a metaphor for new technologies as well as the post-modernist play of identity. The cyborgs blur boundaries between the status of men and women, human and machine, and individual and community. Haraway believes that many dualisms have been persistent in our western traditions. These dualisms are linked to a system of logic that isolates the “other.” The idea of a “theorized” body contributes to a better understanding of the post-modern debate on the female body being colonized by the media. Furthermore, when Haraway discusses the fact that we are “theorized,” her theory echoes Judith Butler’s “performance,” since we perform our gender as much as we theorize it in a male-dominant capitalist

The historian’s task is to understand the past; the human scientist, by contrast, is looking to change the future.” To what extent is this true in these areas of knowledge?

The World State’s totalitarian regime uses technology as a weapon to dehumanize society. In this dystopian society depicted by Huxley, humans are nothing more than well-oiled machines born from artificial birth, created in a test tube and developed in birthing bottles. By denying them the right of being born from natural reproduction these humans being are categorized to nothing more than another product assembled in an assembly line. As a result of being born from this process, the people within the society are easily replaceable and their contribution to society has no impact

Whilst Aldous Huxley was restricted by the same context and social constructions of other male speculative fiction writers of his time, he was highly conscious of the threat that technology could bring to a global community as a whole. Huxley was not only concerned about making women equal to men, but also deeply concerned with the impacts of technology on the quality of life for both genders, reasonably making Huxley a model of a feminist whose prognostications continue to correlate with feminists today.

In Emily Dickinson, “My Life had stood - A Loaded gun”, we as the reader see how a female protagonist stand’s up for herself in defense of the male antagonist. However, in two contrasting literary theory’s we see a difference of opinion. The first literary theory is by Sarah Ahmed and the theory is displayed in her writing called, Living a Feminist Life. Throughout her work she displays the importance for feminism in todays world and how one should separate themselves if necessary. The second work that we have is by Donna Haraway called A Cyborg Manifesto, the main idea throughout the work is contrasting with Ahmed in the importance for unification. The unification the Haraway uses is by explaining cyborgs and how humans would react with them, but more importantly how unification of humans and machines effects us. Throughout the essay Haraway and Ahmed’s theory’s will be explained and the differences shown.

The goal of adopting the cyborg figure is to lessen such power, in order to create a society in which those with partial or contradictory identities may embrace those identities proudly, without fear of policing or invisibility (295). One tactic recommended in this Manifesto, and later echoed in various Cyberfeminist works, is irony. Irony, according to Haraway, is so effective because it draws attention to pieces that do not fit neatly into a larger whole, as well as the “tensions” that arise from holding incompatible things together because “all are necessary and true (291).” In fact, it’s these tensions themselves, the consequences of hardships of living a hybrid life that become the focus of some later Cyberfeminist works, such as the struggle between the physical and the non-physical, or between the physical body and an online persona. What remains central, however, is Haraway’s insistence that such an examination of tension, or benefit, never become totalizing. One cannot “rely on ‘essential’ unity (295)” to define or understand something, especially something as complex as a board-crossing, boundary dissolving cyborg. That idea carries over to Cyberfeminist activism, ideology, and theory.

     The development of man’s intellectual ability and understanding of the world around him can be most readily seen in the continued development of science and technology. Whether it be new advancements in medicine and healthcare or improvements on missiles for the anti-terrorism war, science and technology breakthroughs reassure us that our culture is thriving and continuing to expand our horizons.