Haraways Cyborg Theory and Digital Communication Technologies

Recent technological evolution has instilled a dramatic alteration of systems of social interactions. Technological advances have resulted in the creation of more avenues for people to interact in the virtual world, limiting the physical communication that was characteristic of our lifestyle during the first half of the 20th century. The increased convergence of humans and technology continues to impact on the social identity of people in the context of communication. Specifically, digital technologies have revolutionized social settings in the contemporary human communication. The new communication phenomenon embodies, in part, the product of social imagination that seeks to address the aspirations of human beings. These new survival modes and human lifestyles have been referred in the philosophical circles as a cyborg. The description of a human as a cyborg is an analogy of the capabilities of the human mind to design machines that improve their external capabilities. The cyborg theory enables us to understand the significance of digital technologies in the contemporary social interactions. The paper will be organized as follows: An overview of the relevant aspects of Haraway theory, a critical analysis of the propositions of the theory, and analysis of Haraways theory from a digital communication perspective.

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Key Features of Haraways Ideology

A cyborg is a creature that occupies the space between a machine and an organism. According to Haraway (150-152), persons whose physical capabilities have been extended beyond normal limitations as a result of the new attributes of human-made machines can be termed as cyborgs. It is a hybrid product that results from several discourses, materials, and practices. The cyborg can simultaneously be animal and human, animal, human and machine or animal and machine. The representation of cyborgs is evidenced in the lack of boundaries between human and machines. These boundary limitations allow humans to engage in the exploration of external capabilities which enhance mans dependence on machines. The necessity of cyborg arises as humanity continues to exploit the potential of the mind to explore external alternatives for the survival of the human race. Humans are so dissatisfied with the current symbiotic relationship with the outer world that they are always tempted to elevate and update themselves through technology or genetic engineering .As such, continuous innovation must be pursued to ensure the symbiotic relationship between machines and human beings is sustainable.

Cyborgs and Trans-humanism

The drive to acquire new capacities of expanding social, geographical and mental boundaries of the human race has been as old as the existence of the human species (Knapton, May 28, 2015;Hughes 757-758) .As the earliest forms of humans began inhabiting the earth, they developed ways of dealing with adversities that afflicted them in their daily lives. For instance, they developed medicine to improve their health as well as enhanced their imaginations to develop wisdom as way living a life free of toil, conflict, and suffering (Hughes 757-758). However, Hughes notes that the period of Enlightenment molded the aspirations of humans, making them believe that human interactions with machines would resolve most problems in the world. Such realization led to the birth of trans-humanism school of thought. Transhumanists believe that the human myth of augmentation is not a new phenomenon to the human race. The belief holds that humans can engineer an evolution beyond their current physical and mental capabilities through science and technology (Hughes 757). As Haraway (152) alludes, machines were not in motion until man made the decision to engineer them into moving objects so as to achieve the dream of overcoming the physical and mental limitations. The Machines are mere caricatures of mans dream, yet they control so many activities involving humans.

Neo-imperialism as a form of domination has been one of the causalities of the cyborg revolution. Haraway (150) discusses the problems of arms race where countries continue to accumulate stockpiles of dangerous weapons as they seek to arm and protect themselves. According to Haraway, the situation of threats has been created by the fictitious environment that has been created by the cyborg. However, new capacities created by the cyborg have begun to alter the networks of the worlds geopolitics. The new realities of such changes inform the response of the Regan administration to seek an approval for heavy spending on the military as a containment policy against the Soviets (Haraway 150). It is a cyborg in the sense that the action is rooted in the new world of geopolitics created by new networks that seek to destroy the traditional order. Similarly, the Soviets were motivated by the drive for social and geographical expansion resulting from the cyborg trait boundary of enlargement.

The trans-humanism aspirations have enabled society to transform into higher social forms through intellect. The transformation has been accomplished on a platform that recognizes that human beings are not confined to their brains, bodies, divine or social order in unleashing their potential to create better things through reason and technology (Hughes 760).However, the changes realized as a result of such quest have been actualized through a long process of transfer of information from one generation to another.

Techniscism

Techniscism espouses an environment where technological advancements offer solutions to various issues that affect the human race. The premise envisages the use of technology to solve issues that have previously depended on natural actions to perpetuate the existence of humanity. Haraway (150) gives an extensive discussion of on the effect of technology on various aspects of human life. Modern medicine is one the areas that has demonstrated an infiltration of the cyborgs. Reproduction has been substituted by technological advancements as machines take the role of coupling as a means of generating animal species that perpetuate the existence of living things. Evidently, a biological process that followed a natural reproduction path is being substituted by technological experiments that deliver similar results of a natural process. Such developments indicate the cyborgs domination of the reproductive process yet is a creation of humans.

Post-humanism

As human continue to develop technologies and expand scientific knowledge, a considerable replacement of human roles by technological innovations has occurred. These innovations have so much replaced human effort that philosophers predict a time in history where human interventions to perpetuate the earth would be limited or unwanted as a result of the prevalence of artificial intelligence. The new phenomenon is advanced by the post-human school of thought. Interpretation of the world as an interaction between information and objects is a philosophical perspective that began taking root in the Second World War (Hayles 14).The mentioned period was characterized by an information boom that played a significant part in facilitating the war. Two decades after the war, the concept of cybernetics emerged as a philosophical discourse of a world controlled by intelligence. According to Hayles, the cybernetics era has compromised the body boundaries as the desire to erase bodily burdens through the process of transformation of the body onto a non-matter component. To this end, scholars have even made radical postulations of an information era where individuals can download brains onto computer systems (Hayles Chapter one).

Post-humanism implies the absence of humanity in its current form as a driver of life and its supporting mechanisms. According to LaGrandeur (July 28, 2014), posthumanism is the projected state of humans where the physical appearance of humans would not be relevant in the sense of their physical appearance; the focus of human significance will shift from outward appearances to patterns that reflect the power of information and intelligence. As such, humans will be so fused with machine technologies that the physical presence will be meaningless in so far as the sustainability of life and its forms are concerned. As Hayles (7-11) posts, human bodies will be become fashion accessories and differences between humans other species will be eliminated. In effect, the exception humans have enjoyed for centuries as the drivers of intelligence. This conclusion is reached from the premise that information will be the essence of intelligent systems and since such technological enhancements hold intelligence, then there will be little difference between humans and animals.

In regards to the post-humanist perspective, Haraway holds the view that humans will evolve alongside technology but reach a point of over reliance on artificial intelligence to perform various undertakings in regards to their survival. According to Haraway (150-151), humans are all fabricated forms of hybrid machines and organisms. Rather than advocate for an extinction of human beings in the post-human sense, Haraway theorizes that the future position of human intelligence will simply be the last phase of human evolution in so far as the symbiotic relationship with their creations is concerned. As such, it is the apex of possibilities that will be attained through digital technology, bioengineering, and genetic engineering as embodied in the desire to overcome boundaries. Wolfe (xv-xvi) extends the conversation of augmentation when he postulates that human perfectibility will co-evolve through external tools and mechanisms offered by technology, bioengineering, and genetic engineering. According to Wolfe, posthumanism cannot be viewed as a complete metamorphosis of humans into a different culture or age. Wolfe argues that whatever that will come after humans must have human links, and since the post-human scenario is based on a human narrative, the new culture or age must have human attributes.

Weaknesses of the Haraways Cyborg Theory

Haraway posts that machines and humans have become so intertwined that it has become difficult for one to be separated from the other(150).The machines depend on human ingenuity and humans depend on technology as a means of survival. Using the analogy of a cyborg, she considers that reduced gap between man and technology can be used as a motivation to the feminist movement to overcome the gender world and, therefore, enter into the post-gender world. She advocates for a breakaway from essentialism to utopian dream of a world free of gender. Such argument emphasizes on the erasure of gender identity as the genuine path for the liberation women from the shackles of dominance by the male gender. The inference that can be drawn from such position is that she tends to define women liberation from the perspective of men; achieving similar attributes as men instead of pursuing a path that guarantees equality based on the strength of their gender. This position even contradicts her posthumanism argument in the sense that humans will not extinct as a result of the development of artificial intelligence but acquire augmentation to achieve perfectibility. Besides, the cyborg is a product of the interaction between humans and technology in a manner that is complementary. For this reason, urging women to break boundaries should not be founded on the aspiration to abandon the gender identity.

Haraways proposition that the information has provided governments and other agents of capitalism with new tools to dominate the populace is contestable. It is accurate to post that digital tools have enabled government organs to control various aspects of governance such as maintenance of security. In Haraways observation, such too...