Author: laradegheidy

A Cyborg Manifesto – by Donna Haraway

Donna Haraway builds connections between human, machines, and animals stating that cyborgs are hybrids combining machines (science fiction/technologies) and organisms (social reality). She suggests the idea or thought that cyborgs are one’s ontology. Haraway believes that the boundaries between science fiction and social reality is an optical illusion. She conceives of cyborgs as realities (“post-modern collective and personal self”) and uses myths of the cyborg to argue that cyborgs construct a new form of consciousness or responsibility and political activism. Also, she describes how machines are becoming disturbing as they are ‘lively’, and suggests that answering who cyborgs will be will depend on that it’s in a post gender world and that understanding this will be simply for ‘survival’. Furthermore, Haraway states how science and technology are sources of transforming the “structure of the world” and sources of power in technologically mediated societies and that she suggests shifting the perception allows people to look for meanings. Moreover, she explains that machines are everywhere by mentioning that “Modern states, multinational corporations, military power, welfare state apparatuses, Satellite systems, political processes fabrication of our imaginations, labor-control systems, medical constructions of our bodies, commercial pornography, the international division of labor, and religious evangelism depend intimately upon electronics” (Haraway), which makes the boundary between physical and non-physical according to Haraway indefinite or vague. She also affirms a connection between human and animals and that there’s an uncertainty of distinctions between humans, animals, and machines.

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Heartless

Imagine yourself being in love with a robot but without your knowledge? just imagine that for a second, imagine talking for days and hours to someone who is heartless and with no emotions. As funny as it would be, but it would be very heart breaking, because the energy and time you have spent pulling your heart out for someone who you thought was a normal human being and you love, is just a robot. This is one major difference between us, and people don’t take care or don’t acknowledge the fact that they are heartless. They can act as normal human beings anywhere and anytime but us humans wouldn’t know, and we would be the ones who look like fools.

Thank God for Life Supporters

Have you ever wondered how great of an invention life supporter is? It is actually one of the most amazing inventions created, not only does it save lives, but it comforts families and everyone around. Think about how many people’s lives got saved because of this invention, maybe not every single person who got put on one got saved but at least they lived for a little longer. Imagine how blessed the people who got saved are, imagine how blessed their families are and how thankful they feel. Imagine how terrified they were while someone close to them nearly dying. Imagine how lost they were, maybe the only thought they had on mind was “Is this doctor coming to me with good or bad news” “Is she/he dead?”, but most importantly imagine how they those people felt when doctors removed the life support and the patient was perfectly fine and better than before because of this machine. I have never lived this situation personally but I actually appreciate such invention and would like to thank the creator on behalf of anyone who went through this process and lived! Life can sometimes actually depend on a machine… along with God’s will of course.

Me & Technology

I believe I have a strong relationship with my phone as it is a very important part of my daily routine. Being without my phone is one of the hardest & most uncomfortable feeling, as I believe my phone is a very huge part of my life, in terms of nearly everything. One thing I do as soon as I wake up is that I open my phone, even before getting out of bed, I check Instagram, WhatsApp, Twitter and sometimes Facebook, this usually lasts for about 20 minutes if not more. The most intimate platform in my opinion to me is Instagram. Instagram is the only application that I can’t pass a day without scrolling through the feed and checking people’s stories and my views if I posted any story. I check Instagram almost 20 times a day if not more, even if I’ll be looking at the same things again. When I checked my phone usage writing this, I found that WhatsApp is about 8%, Facebook 10%, Twitter 15% and then that Instagram is 40%. There is a massive gap between the usage of all applications on my phone and the usage of Instagram. I am aware that the time I spend on my phone is more than the amount I spend being socially active with people, but it’s just something that is hard to change. Instagram to me can be a way where I can see what everyone is doing and what people are up to and also a form of entertainment, yet I actually can’t describe a certain reason why I open it. Instagram is always available because it’s on my phone and my phone is something, I couldn’t leave the house without. I will give you a real life example of something that has happened with me before, my phone was getting fixed and it had to take a week or 10 days in order to be fixed and I had two options, one was that I had to live without a phone till my phone would get fixed, or I would get another old phone but it wouldn’t have an updated version of Instagram so to me it would be a useless option. I thought I can deal with the two options but none of these options worked for me. Every day I used to take my mother’s phone to check Instagram literally not one day passed without opening this platform. 

Droids

Imagine all people have droids in their home helping them in everything in their daily life. Try to picture a whole generation of droids that will be more life than ever, ready to take on all work, work that is too dangerous, work that is unpleasant for human beings. Many people see that robots may replace humans in the future. There’s advantages and disadvantages for everything especially when it is true that robots have more advantages that humans in many aspects. Robots can be very useful in companies to increase costs, where they can perform jobs nonstop. It all depends on the program in the robot’s software, they can learn any task quickly. It is well-known that people say Egyptians are lazy so, picture them having droids in their daily life. Droids are smarter, faster, and stronger. People will stop thinking and creating anything if there’s a robot that can do anything for them. It can cause a disaster if they actually took over humanity since robots can’t think and invent new things as humans. Robots cannot adopt to new conditions and that’s what makes them far away from humanity. What makes robots close and similar to humans is the fact they were made by humans. It all comes back to humans and their creations. Droids are made to help humans not to replace them as robots are machine that need of human development.

Robot Teachers

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Imagining if teachers were robots may seem like it would make life a lot easier since there are many advantages to it, but there are many disadvantages as well. Purchasing a robot would concern a lot of money since robots are very expensive, but on the other hand, robots do not get paid a salary, since they do not need the money. Robots would also be very interesting as they can teach young students some technological skills, as many children nowadays face the issue of not knowing how to use technology for academic reasons. Moreover, having robots as teachers would be very time efficient, as robots are programmed to do a certain job without changing a bit of it. Although robots may see very efficient and successful, but the fact that they do not have feelings may come in the way. For example, if a student had an emergency, the robot would not make any excuses for him no matter what the cause would be; the student would just drop down in his grades for something he could have talked through with is teacher, and been excused for. Robots would also not be very inspiring to students, which relates to the fact that they get programmed for a certain job, which is just giving the students all the knowledge they have without looking for ways to inspire and motivate them. Therefore, the idea of robot teachers may be very risky financially and academically.

Cybernetics according to Paul Pangaro

Cybernetics is not AI, Bio-mechatronics, nor Robotics! Watch this very interesting talk by Paul Pangaro about cybernetics; its cycle, foundations, and future.  There’re also interesting examples of creations causing “conversations” between humans and machines and machines with other machines. 
P.s.: Cybernetics is more about purpose and feedback.