Ayaka's Critical Annotated Webliography

“Is a cyborg queer? Discuss critical thinking on the intersections between sexuality and technology.”

1.
Warwick, Kevin. "Wired 8.02: Cyborg 1.0." Editorial. Wired.com. Feb. 2000. Web. 13 Mar. 2011. .

This is an online article write by Kevin Warwick, a professor of cybernetics at the University of Reading in the UK . He think that he was born as a human accidentally, it was just a coincident, so he try to make himself become one with his computer. This project was started in august 1998, along with his team, he implanted a silicon chip into his arm so as to allow computer monitor him. After this, he push his experiment forward, he conduct a follow-up experiment with a new implant that will send signals back and forth between his nervous system and computer. In this article , he talks about how he conduct his experiment like what he use and what problem he face and what question was being raised .Through this experiment, he also found some medical breakthroughs like it can provider a way for the blind or deaf people to "see" or "hear”. Kevin Warwick raise a very good question for us to think about : “Will we evolve into a cyborg community? Linking people via chip implants to superintelligent machines seems a natural progression - creating, in effect, superhumans.”

2.

Sandoval, Chela. "New Science Cyborg Feminism and the Methodlogy of the Oppressed." The Cybercultures Reader. Web. 13 Mar. 2011. .

This is an essay written by Chela Sandoval, she begin this essay with an example of silicon valley and how cyborg affect the live hood of human workers. She also use Donna Haraway’s point of view to reinforce her own one. She also talks about cyborg feminism, what cyborg being considered and the cyborg theory. Most of this essay is analyzing Haraway’s wok, it can make you to understand the readings more and get a better concept of what is cyborg which also help on doing the research essay. She also introduce a word “semio-technology” which mean when it comes to self knowledge, semio-technology was being required as the linkage between meaning and bodies. She also point out that cyborg feminism need to find means of understanding of objectification in the world which means to decoding and transcoding plus translation and criticism are all necessary, beside. cyborg feminism cannot be fixed in certain location in a reified body. She also argued that cyborg skill necessary foe developing a feminism for the twentieth century and identify it as the methodology of the oppressed.

3.

Poster, Mark. "High-tech Frnakenstein, or Heidegger Meets Stelarc." The Cyborg Experiments: the Extensions of the Body in the Media Age. Web. 13 Mar. 2011. .

This is an essay written by Mark poster, he mainly focus on the concept of body. He believe that human have body, and body are located in one place or another, they have sexuality , various characteristics of height, health, skin color and so forth. But now a days this belief is in doubt. The mean of body was altered by medical transplants or even bio-engineering. He persuade reader to rethink the question of technology in context of globally networked computing and most of all , in relation to he post-human body or cyborg. He also said the question of technology is not about what will happen because of it but about modern humanity’s way of being. Technology is fundamental of modern culture, but now it also shake n the foundation of what is human being. Mark poster also present his opinion of the question concerning technology in terms of five theses, the first one is culture is invisible to its members, second is that one can dispel this invisibility by studying ancient greek philosophy, the third is return to Greece is taken as a discovery of the truth, the fourth is the philosopher’s transcendentalism still affords an understanding of technology as culture, the last one is that understanding flawed to different technoculture and different modes of revealing.

4.
Gillett, G. "Cyborgs and Moral Identity -- Gillett 32 (2): 79 -- Journal of Medical Ethics." Journal of Medical Ethics - BMJ Journals. Web. 14 Mar. 2011. .

This is an article posted in a medical journal. This article use a medical perspective to illustrate the cyborg ethic problem. With more and more use of Neuroscience and technological medicine, many people become partly human and partly machine, in this case, the line between human and machine become blur which bring along many ethic issue. He used 5 medical case study to bring out the ethic issue of cyborg, Head Injury and neurorehabilitation, Vision restoration through cybernetics, Extensive brain injury and replacement with micro networks, Anencephaly with brain simulation and Personality upgrade with micro networks. Each case study has its own concern on cyborg ethic. He said with the development of technology, more and more moral concern even though a cybernetic brain will appear, but at the same time, cyborg was playing an important part in a human individual’s adaptation to their environment and, presumably, influencing that person’s thoughts and feelings about the world to some extent. The article is more concerned where a non-human mode of relationship and reaction or response to others may affect a person at a very deep and pervasive level. A part from discussing cyborg, this article also bring about what is a human soul which is a complex and integrated whole emergent from a set of biological and psychological functions that characterize a creature of a given type.

5.

Miyake, Esperanza. My, Is That Cyborg a Little Bit Queer? Web. 14 Mar. 2011. .

This article focus on critically assess the importance, of Donna Haraway’s work and queer theory in sociological, ideological, political and ontological way. She point out that the cyborg is a matter of fiction and lived

experience that changes what counts as women’s experience in the late twentieth century. She also rise a very good question to the readers“How can we put the body---so fleshy, physical and warm---into such an abstract and metallically cool world?”which can stimulate the reader to think. She believe that through internet and words, we can put ourselves into the cyber world, our body is power, and so the word that comes from it. She also use some novel or movie as a case study to illustrate the cyborg concept. Beside, she brings out a term called queer cyborg, which is a cyborg who wants to remain free, who hates being embodied into anything and who are running away from ethnic, class, gendered or sexual body. After Miyake Esperanza brings out the cyborg issue , she started to ask can there be a world without gender and the boundary between human and animal.