In 1985, Donna Haraway, a professor of feminist theory and technoscience at the European Graduate School in Switzerland, published an essay titled A Cyborg Manifesto in Socialist Review. She uses the metaphor of a cyborg in order to construct a postmodern feminism and the basic thread of her argument has to do with reconfiguring human ontology. In other words, she wants to reconsider what being human is scientifically, culturally and of course technologically. Haraway's cyborg is an attempt to break away from Oedipal narratives and Christian origin doctrines like Genesis. The concept of the cyborg is a rejection of rigid boundaries, notably those separating human from animal and human from machine. Hence her ideology of feminism not only focuses on the equality of sexes but also on the equality of kinds. Yes, finally Justice For All! For Harraway, a cyborg is a cybernetic organism, a hybrid of machine and organism, a creature of social reality as well as a creature of fiction since the prefix cyber is used to address human-technology mixtures in the abstract. Fictional cyborgs are portrayed as a synthesis of organic and synthetic parts and frequently pose the question of difference between human and machine as one concerned with morality, free will and empathy. They have always been represented as visibly mechanical or as almost indistinguishable from humans. On the other hand, the aesthetic philosopher and artist Paul Ziff defines machines as incapable of having feelings or consciousness in his essay The Feelings of Robots. He poses the question of whether we can attribute feelings to a machine and in so blurring the line between a human and a machine but this is the philosophical debate of the possible existence of Artificial Consciousness and beyond our topic. However it should be mentioned that one cannot know whether or not another person has a mind or heart. Therefore one cannot find a way of distinguishing men from the machines. As Haraway reminds us that 'We Are All Cyborgs' one needs only to look around, if not at him/herself and see that we are cyborgs whether we admit it or not, whether we like it or not. Since I'm sure that I'm not a natural-born or a human-made cyborg (Ha! My own narcissism and ad hominem self-righteousness shine through again!) I naturally looked around and unbelievable but true, I personally witnessed a cyborg at my home, on my PC!
Being So Close To Robert Goren Yet No Blush, No Blink! Celebrate The Ultimate Cyborg. A Human-Made Machine With No Emotions!
How About His Temp. Partner, Lynn Bishop?
Standing Shoulder To Shoulder, Almost Touching But She Still Keeps A Straight Face!
Btw You Are On Deadly Ground Bishop!
Let's Check Another One. Handcuff Game? With Robert Goren?
I Almost Forgot To Breath Here! What About Her?
Wow, She Is Cool! Ah, She Is Good! Oh, She Is Fake!
Whoops! Tears Of Joy! She Is Real! She Is 100 Percent Real!
