From Dr. Moreau's Beast People to David Cronenberg's Brundlefly, Stanislaw Lem's robot constructors in the Cyberiad to Octavia Butler's human/alien constructs in the Xenogenesis trilogy, Posthuman ...Metamorphosis examines modern and postmodern stories of corporeal transformation through interlocking frames of posthumanism, narratology, and second-order systems theory. New media generate new metamorphs.New stories have emerged from cybernetic displacements of life, sensation, or intelligence from human beings to machines. But beyond the vogue for the cyborg and the cybernetic mash-up of the organic and the mechanical, Posthuman Metamorphosis develops neocybernetic systems theories illuminating alternative narratives that elicit autopoietic and symbiotic visions of the posthuman.Systems theory also transforms our modes of narrative cognition. Regarding narrative in the light of the autopoietic systems it brings into play, neocybernetics brings narrative theory into constructive relation with the systemic operations of observation, communication, and paradox.Posthuman Metamorphosis draws on Bruno Latour, Donna Haraway, Niklas Luhmann, Cary Wolfe, Mieke Bal, Katherine Hayles, Friedrich Kittler, and Lynn Margulis to read narratives of bodily metamorphosis as allegories of the contingencies of systems. Tracing the posthuman intuitions of both pre- and post-cybernetic metamorphs, it demonstrates the viability of second-order systems theories for narrative theory, media theory, cultural science studies, and literary criticism.
Abstract
Contemporary technological developments undermine the core pillars defining the human self, under the emergence of cyborgs and super-empowered individuals. The pre-determined boundaries ...between humans and machines may turn obsolete with the consolidation of the new hybrid humanity. This may foster an innovative approach to the traditional understanding of human ethics and the establishment of cyborg norms and regulations. In this article, the primordial nexus between cyborg ethics and the eugenics movement is further analyzed, hence as enhancing catalysators of mankind. Moreover, the article raises an ethical decision-making diagram, in which the normative cyborgs debate is framed in terms of positive and negative eugenic regimes. This analysis aims at providing a clearer understanding of cyborg-related ethical decision-making and the ways it magnifies eugenic features. As technological components become an inherent part of the human body, the international community should adhere to reshaping the notion of cyborg ethics and its ethical and regulatory implications.
Unlike classical artificial intelligence (AI), generative AI has the potential to transform scientists into intellectual cyborgs. Leveraging embodied cognition and extended mind theories can help us ...understand this scientific revolution. Despite ethical concerns, generative AI can enhance research efficiency and accessibility. However, this requires unprecedented proactive regulation and responsible development.
Artificial Life Belk, Russell; Humayun, Mariam; Gopaldas, Ahir
Journal of macromarketing,
06/2020, Letnik:
40, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
In this article, we explore how the history and myths about Artificial Life (AL) inform the pursuit and reception of contemporary AL technologies. First, we show that long before the contemporary ...fields of robotics and genomics, ancient civilizations attempted to create AL in the magical and religious pursuits of automata and alchemy. Next, we explore four persistent cultural myths surrounding AL—namely, those of Pygmalion, Golem, Frankenstein, and Metropolis. These myths offer several insights into why humanity is both fascinated with and fearful of AL. Thereafter, we distinguish contemporary approaches to AL, including biochemical or “wet” approaches (e.g., artificial organs), electromechanical or “hard” approaches (e.g., robot companions), and software-based or “soft” approaches (e.g., digital voice assistants). We also outline an emerging approach to AL that combines all three of the preceding approaches in pursuit of “transhumanism.” We then map out how the four historical myths surrounding AL shape modern society’s reception of the four contemporary AL pursuits. Doing so reveals the enduring human fears that must be addressed through careful development of ethical guidelines for public policy that ensure human safety, dignity, and morality. We end with two sets of questions for future research: one supportive of AL and one more skeptical and cautious.
Today, technological implants to increase innate human capabilities are already available on the market. Cyborgs, understood as healthy people who decide to integrate their bodies with insideable ...technology, are no longer science fiction, but fact. The cyborg market will be a huge new business with important consequences for both industry and society. More specifically, cyborg technologies are a unique product, with a potentially critical impact on the future of humanity. In light of the potential transformations involved in the creation of "superhuman" cyborgs, ethics must be a cornerstone of cyborg marketing decisions. Businesses need to take ethics into account, not only to ensure they behave ethically, as always, but also because ethics will be an important factor in buyers' decisions in the emerging cyborg market. This is because the decision to become a cyborg is determined, among many other factors, by ethical judgment. Our research focuses on how the dimensions of the Composite Multidimensional Ethics Scale (Composite MES) influence an individual's decision to become a cyborg. To test our hypotheses, we surveyed a total of 1563 higher-education students in seven different countries. The results of the survey show that ethical judgment will be a keystone in individual cyborgization. Specifically, ethical dimensions explained 48% of the intention to use cyborg technologies. The ethical analysis showed that not all MES dimensions have the same influence on the ethical judgment regarding this decision. Egoism was the most influential dimension, while contractualism was the least. These findings have important implications for both academia and business.
Abstract
This article explores police perspectives of sexual harassment on the London Underground. Drawing on 15 semi-structured interviews with the British Transport Police this article demonstrates ...how the police a) use their ‘situated knowledges’ to make sense of the dynamics of the London Underground and seek out offenders within the network, often without a report of harassment; and b) engage with technologies in order to (re)construct incidents of sexual harassment so that they can be investigated. The article argues that the BTP occupy a ‘soft cyborg ontology’, and claims the implications this has on epistemologies and methods of policing as significant. As well as permitting new insights into the procedures of policing sexual harassment on public transport, it contributes a critical perspective to the role of technology in police culture, practice and methods.
Este artículo brinda ejemplos de “ciborgs ficticios” en obras de literatura y cine de ciencia ficción y destaca algunos efectos psicológicos. También recupera testimonios de “ciborgs reales” del ...documental Cyborgs entre nosotros (Duran, 2017), y señala procesos de identificación y de idealización. Agrega notas sobre: - el desarrollo histórico de la tecnociencia, - cuestiones éticas en los avances tecnológicos. El recorrido termina con los conceptos de cuerpo, lazo social y discurso según el psicoanálisis y breves consideraciones sobre su ética.
This article weaves together autoethnographic accounts, feminist readings of technology, agency, and performance, and historical points of reference to address the current gender gap in urban cycling ...in the UK. Through the lens of everyday performance, I examine how females on bicycles are marked as both highly visible spectacles and invisible 'others'. In developing the feminist promise of the mechanically monstrous cyborg, I offer a new revolutionary figure of hope - the cycleborg - who puts her otherness to use. In doing so, she calls attention to the need re-think hegemonic attitudes towards mobility, agency, and environmentally conscious action. My argument for the performative and revolutionary potential of the cycleborg reconciles everyday gendered performance with environmental consciousness, and is analysed through two contemporary performances: Katie Mitchell's Atmen (2013) and Hanna Cormick's The Mermaid (2020). By examining the use of hybrid actors in these performances as tools for promoting social responsibility and radical statements about climate change, I propose, with a romantic, feminist, and fierce hope, that the cycleborg both offers a contemporary vehicle for environmental change and opens possibilities to claim a new kind of space in the world.
