ART 106 Reading 1
Chapter 1 starts off by introducing us to the idea of cyborgs and how they came into being as an idea. The founding of the term by Manfred Clynes and Nathan Kline are discussed as well as what they believed a cyborg looked like and what characteristics it has. The idea is introduced that we as humans are becoming more and more integrated into technology and becoming reliant on the benefits that it gives us as a species. The chapter discusses self regulating systems and other connections humans have to the technology that they introduce into the world. These comparisons lead to the idea that we as a civilization are more cyborg than we ever thought and that the scifi interpretation is just a part of what it means to be part of an interconnected system.
1. The Klines and Clines definition of a cyborg is more closely related to what we would consider cyborgs when looking at the media and movies. These cyborgs are part man and part machine. They use cybernetic augmentations to make themselves see better, run faster, and complete tasks that would be impossible for an average human. Clark on the other hand presents the cyborg in which a human interacts with technology and is integrated into a system. He considers all of humanity kind of like a cyborg as one of the main reasons that we are the most successful species on this planet.
2. One example of a self-regulating system is how when our bodies get hot we begin to sweat, and how when it cools down we begin to shiver. Both of these actions happen to the effect that we can maintain our body temperature so that we can stay alive. Another example of a self-regulating system is the refill system on a household toilet in which the toilet refills the bowl up to a certain height when water is used up in the system.
3. A popular type of human hybrid throughout literature and the media is the idea of a half human half monster. Half fish like mermaids, or a minotaur are examples where human bodies are being integrated into non human systems.
Chapter 2 continues the idea that we are reliant on these systems to function and illustrates some of the beneficial technologies that we use on a regular basis. The author also discusses opaque versus transparent technologies and some of the benefits and drawbacks of each of these. These different technologies are explained in how depending on the task at hand one or the other would be extremely beneficial to completing a specific thing. The author also discusses some of the more complicated interactions between technology and humans including how we have perceived time over human history. The example compared how time used to be as simple as observing when the sky became bright or dim to how we have cheap mechanical watches that can tell us the time to exact seconds and control our every day. How we call upon this information is also questioned when the author explains that when someone asks if you know a word and you say yes if it is actually true. Do you have that information in your mind actively being thought about or are you able to retrieve that information either from somewhere in your memory or from a dictionary somewhere in your house.
1. In the reading Opaque technology is described as something that requires active participation and skilled use in order to operate as opposed to transparent technology that is so well communicated that anyone would be able to pick it up and use it competently.
2. An example of a technology that could benefit from being more transparent is the control of financial assets. There are far too many organizations and systems in place that will cheat you out of your money because you simply do not understand what is happening to it. An example of a technology that could be more opaque is being able to drive a car. Someone should have to go through more training and become more familiar with driving before they are given a 3000 lb piece of steel hurtling at 70 mph.
3. The watch and dictionary example does make sense to a degree for me as I understand how our reliance on something like timepieces dictating our every moment has changed with advancing technology. The example of the dictionary being a source of information that could be called upon seemed more intriguing to me due to the idea that you could say that you know a piece of information but in fact you only know how to reasonably call upon that information. I'm not sure if i would consider that knowing a piece of information or not considering we do that with information in our mind, as we are not actively thinking of the definition of words at any given time.