Difference between revisions of "A Cyborg Manifesto"

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===Definition===
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<blockquote>"The cyborg is a condensed image of both imagination and material reality, the two joined centres structuring any possibility of historical transformation".</blockquote>
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A Cyborg Manifesto was a keystone in the development of Cyborg Studies. It was originally written by [[Donna Haraway]] in 1986 and later published in 1991. There was much going on at that time, namely "Ronald Reagan's so-called "Star Wars" defense system. The C3I, command-control-communication-intelligence, was an $84 billion item in 1984's US defense budget" <ref>[Background Information on Haraway and her Manifesto. Background Information on Haraway and her Manifesto - Notes for a Cyborg Manifesto]</ref>.  
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"A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century" was a groundbreaking essay written by Donna Haraway in 1986. The essay explores the concept of the cyborg and it's ramifications for the future, and effectively inaugurating the academic study of cyborgs. The manifesto uses gender as its central example in explaining the power of the cyborg. Haraway attacks the "goddess feminism" movement ("an American attempt to reject things technological and return women to nature"<ref>[Background Information on Haraway and her Manifesto. Background Information on Haraway and her Manifesto - Notes for a Cyborg Manifesto]</ref>) and instead offers the model of the cybernetic woman: that of machine and human, a co-created techno-social assemblage with the capability of transcending the polarizing binary notions of gender. Technologies such as sex-change operations and virtual avatars undermine the traditional symbols by which we use to determine gender, thus destabilizing the binary by which we traditionally understand gender.
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In the essay Haraway makes a table of how different concepts will shift in our cyborg future:
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Representation                          Simulation
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Bourgeois novel, realism            Science fiction, postmodernism
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Organism                                  Biotic Component
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Depth, integrity                          Surface, boundary
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Heat                                        Noise
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Biology as clinical practice          Biology as inscription
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Physiology                                Communications engineering
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Small group                              Subsystem
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Perfection                                Optimization
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Eugenics                                  Population Control
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Decadence, Magic Mountain        Obsolescence, Future Shock
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Hygiene                                    Stress Management
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Microbiology, tuberculosis          Immunology, AIDS
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Organic division of labour          Ergonomics/cybernetics of labour
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Functional specialization            Modular construction
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Reproduction                            Replication
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Organic sex role specialization    Optimal genetic strategies
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Bioogical determinism                Evolutionary inertia, constraints
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Community ecology                  Ecosystem
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Racial chain of being                  Neo-imperialism, United Nations humanism
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Scientific management in home/factory Global factory/Electronic cottage
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Family/Market/Factory Women in the Integrated Circuit
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Family wage Comparable worth
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Public/Private Cyborg citizenship
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Nature/Culture fields of difference
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Co-operation Communicatins enhancemenet
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Freud Lacan
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Sex Genetic engineering
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labour Robotics
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Mind Artificial Intelligence
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Second World War Star Wars
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White Capitalist Patriarchy Informatics of Domination
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In order to understand where Haraway was coming from in writing the Cyborg Manifesto, one must understand that the "Goddess feminism" movement was on the table. The Goddess feminimism movement was "an American attempt to reject things technological and return women to nature".<ref>Ibid.</ref> "Haraway saw this movement...as reactionary rather than progressive", in the sense that it wouldn't push anything forward. The idea of a cyborg is a free-ing, unlimited figure in her essay, suggesting that women would not be unequal but hybrids in association with technology, and that it would allow them to
 
  
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If much of feminist studies deal with the concept of the body, then A Cyborg Manifesto proposes a new body, that of machine and human, a co-created technosocial assemblage with the capability of transcending the polarizing binary notions of gender. It is an empowering essay written from a scientific view. This aspect of the essay makes it very different from other feminist writing. Rather, it is cyborgian writing.
 
  
 
===Haraway's Definition of Cyborg===
 
===Haraway's Definition of Cyborg===
 
Haraway defines the cyborg in four different ways in her essay. "The first is as a "cybernetic organism." The second is as "a hybrid of machine and organism." The third is as "a creature of lived social reality", and the fourth is as a "creature of fiction." "<ref>[http://www.terrisenft.net/students/readings/manifesto.html Definition of a Cyborg - Notes for a Cyborg Manifesto]</ref>  
 
Haraway defines the cyborg in four different ways in her essay. "The first is as a "cybernetic organism." The second is as "a hybrid of machine and organism." The third is as "a creature of lived social reality", and the fourth is as a "creature of fiction." "<ref>[http://www.terrisenft.net/students/readings/manifesto.html Definition of a Cyborg - Notes for a Cyborg Manifesto]</ref>  
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===The Cyborg Experience===
 
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"Haraway argues that in philosophical terms, there is no real space between "lived social reality" and "fiction", because one category is constantly defining and refining the other. Haraway points out how feminists have deployed the notion of "women's experience" using it both as "fiction and a fact of the most crucial, political kind." In a similar way, Haraway argues, the cyborg will "change what counts as experience" for women in the late twentieth century".<ref>[http://www.terrisenft.net/students/readings/manifesto.html Cyborg changes what counts as experience - Notes for a Cyborg Manifesto]</ref>
 
  
 
===Cyborg Borders===
 
===Cyborg Borders===
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Haraway points out that "the border of the cyborg is an optical illusion", and that "the struggle to define and control the cyborg amounts to a border war, Haraway argues. Ironically enough, she adds, this war is fought a terrain that is largely an "optical illusion": the space between science fiction and today's fact. Anyone who believes cyborgs are things of the future is mistaken. Modern medicine is full of cyborgs already, Haraway points out, as is modern reproduction, manufacturing and modern warfare. In short, writes Haraway, "we are cyborgs", whether we know it or not, if only because it is the cyborg which "is our ontology, it gives us our politics".<ref>[http://www.terrisenft.net/students/readings/manifesto.html The border of the cyborg is an optical illusion. Notes on a Cyborg Manifesto.]</ref>
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Haraway points out that "the border of the cyborg is an optical illusion", and that "the struggle to define and control the cyborg amounts to a border war". Ironically enough, she adds, this war is fought a terrain that is largely an "optical illusion": the space between science fiction and today's fact. Anyone who believes cyborgs are things of the future is mistaken. Modern medicine is full of cyborgs already, as is modern reproduction, manufacturing and modern warfare. In short, "we are cyborgs", whether we know it or not, if only because it is the cyborg which "is our ontology, it gives us our politics".<ref>[http://www.terrisenft.net/students/readings/manifesto.html The border of the cyborg is an optical illusion. Notes on a Cyborg Manifesto.]</ref>
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===Quotes===
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<blockquote>"The cyborg is a condensed image of both imagination and material reality, the two joined centres structuring any possibility of historical transformation".</blockquote>
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===Related Reading===
 
===Related Reading===
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==References==
 
==References==
 
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[[Category:Articles]]
 
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[[Category:Cyborg Studies]]
 
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[[Category:Donna Haraway]]
 
  
 
[[Category:Book Pages]]
 
[[Category:Book Pages]]

Revision as of 23:38, 30 June 2011

"The cyborg is a condensed image of both imagination and material reality, the two joined centres structuring any possibility of historical transformation".


"A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century" was a groundbreaking essay written by Donna Haraway in 1986. The essay explores the concept of the cyborg and it's ramifications for the future, and effectively inaugurating the academic study of cyborgs. The manifesto uses gender as its central example in explaining the power of the cyborg. Haraway attacks the "goddess feminism" movement ("an American attempt to reject things technological and return women to nature"[1]) and instead offers the model of the cybernetic woman: that of machine and human, a co-created techno-social assemblage with the capability of transcending the polarizing binary notions of gender. Technologies such as sex-change operations and virtual avatars undermine the traditional symbols by which we use to determine gender, thus destabilizing the binary by which we traditionally understand gender.

In the essay Haraway makes a table of how different concepts will shift in our cyborg future:

Representation Simulation Bourgeois novel, realism Science fiction, postmodernism Organism Biotic Component Depth, integrity Surface, boundary Heat Noise Biology as clinical practice Biology as inscription Physiology Communications engineering Small group Subsystem Perfection Optimization Eugenics Population Control Decadence, Magic Mountain Obsolescence, Future Shock Hygiene Stress Management Microbiology, tuberculosis Immunology, AIDS Organic division of labour Ergonomics/cybernetics of labour Functional specialization Modular construction Reproduction Replication Organic sex role specialization Optimal genetic strategies Bioogical determinism Evolutionary inertia, constraints Community ecology Ecosystem Racial chain of being Neo-imperialism, United Nations humanism Scientific management in home/factory Global factory/Electronic cottage Family/Market/Factory Women in the Integrated Circuit Family wage Comparable worth Public/Private Cyborg citizenship Nature/Culture fields of difference Co-operation Communicatins enhancemenet Freud Lacan Sex Genetic engineering labour Robotics Mind Artificial Intelligence Second World War Star Wars White Capitalist Patriarchy Informatics of Domination



Haraway's Definition of Cyborg

Haraway defines the cyborg in four different ways in her essay. "The first is as a "cybernetic organism." The second is as "a hybrid of machine and organism." The third is as "a creature of lived social reality", and the fourth is as a "creature of fiction." "[2]

Cyborg Borders

Haraway points out that "the border of the cyborg is an optical illusion", and that "the struggle to define and control the cyborg amounts to a border war". Ironically enough, she adds, this war is fought a terrain that is largely an "optical illusion": the space between science fiction and today's fact. Anyone who believes cyborgs are things of the future is mistaken. Modern medicine is full of cyborgs already, as is modern reproduction, manufacturing and modern warfare. In short, "we are cyborgs", whether we know it or not, if only because it is the cyborg which "is our ontology, it gives us our politics".[3]

Related Reading

References

  1. ↑ [Background Information on Haraway and her Manifesto. Background Information on Haraway and her Manifesto - Notes for a Cyborg Manifesto]
  2. ↑ Definition of a Cyborg - Notes for a Cyborg Manifesto
  3. ↑ The border of the cyborg is an optical illusion. Notes on a Cyborg Manifesto.
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