HARI KUNZRU: “…CYBORG:A QUINTESSENTIAL TECHNOLOGICAL BODY…
realities of (post) modern life happen to include a relationship between people
and technology so intimate that its no longer possible to tell where we end and
machines begin…being a CYBORG…ABOUT IDEA OF BODY AS HIGH-PERFORM-
ANCE MACHINE…world of tangled networks-part human,part machine;complex
hybrids of meat and metal that relegate old-fashioned concepts like NATURAL and
ARTIFICIAL to the archives. Those hybrid networks are CYBORGS, and they don’t
just surround us-they incorporate us. Networks also inside us…WE’RE CONSTRUCTING OURSELVES,just like we construct chip sets or political systems…
TO SURVIVE WE NEED TO GET UP TO SPEED ON COMPLEX REALITIES OF
TECHNOCULTURE…CYBORG: FUSION OF ANIMAL AND MACHINE-TRASHES
OPPOSITIONS BETWEEN NATURE AND CULTURE,SELF AND WORLD that
run through so much of our thought…BASIC ASSUMPTIONS SUDDENLY
COME INTO QUESTION,SUCH AS WHETHER ITS NATURAL TO HAVE A
SOCIETUS BASED ON VIOLENCE AND DOMINATION OF ONE GROUP
BY ANOTHER…being a CYBORG…about NETWORKS…body just a MEAT
COMPUTER RUNNING A COLLECTION OF INFO SYSTEMS THAT ADJUST
THEMSELVES IN RESPONSE TO EACH OTHER AND ENVIRONMENT. IF
WANT BETTER BODY,IMPROVE FEEDBACK MECHANISMS,OR PLUG IN
ANOTHER SYSTEM…”
ALEXANDER CHRISTENKO: “…envisioning future technological enhanced humans
as “CYBORGS”-creatures that’ll have human biological bodies as their legacy core,
but’ll hopefully have many important(and complex)biological parts directly
replaced with improved technological equivalents(and a variety of new ones
added…”
DONNA HARAWAY:”…CYBORG:cybernetic organism,hybrid of machine and
organism,creature of social reality as well as creature of fiction…our time,a mythic time,we are all chimeras,theorized and fabricated hybrids of machine and
organism…WE ARE CYBORGS…CYBORG BE OUR ONTOLOGY…
CYBORG:creature in a post-gender world…awful apocalyptic telos of West’s
escalating dominations of abstract individuation,an ultimate self untied at last
from all dependency,a man in space…resolutely committed to patiality,irony,
intimacy,and perversity…oppositional,utopian,completely without innocence…
not reverent,they don’t re-member cosmos…CYBORG APPEARS IN MYTH
PRECISELY WHERE BOUNDARY BETWEEN HUMAN AND ANIMAL TRANS-
GRESSED…POSTMODERNIST STRATEGIES LIKE CYBORG MYTH,SUBVERT
MYRIAD ORGANIC WHOLES…CYBORGS ARE ETHER QUINTESSENCE…
gender and race,or class consciousness an achievement forced on us by
terrible historica experience of contradictory social realities of patriarchy,
colonialism,and capitalism…
communications engineering/theories of text: CYBORG SEMIOLOGIES…
CYBORG: kind of disassembled and reassembled PostModern collective and
personal self…
COMMUNICATIONS TECH/BIOTECH: CRUCIAL TOOLS RECRAFTING OUR
BODIES…RECODE COMMUNICATION AND INTELLIGENCE TO SUBVERT
COMMAND AND CONTROL…INSIST ON NOISE AND ADVOCATE POLLUTION,
REJOICE IN ILLEGITIMATE FUSIONS OF ANIMAL AND MACHINE…LIMINAL
TRANSFORMATION…THIS IS A DREAM NOT OF A COMMON LANGUAGE,
BUT OF A POWERFUL INFIDEL HETEROGLOSSIA…I WOULD RATHER BE A
CYBORG THAN A GODDESS…WE’RE TALKING ABOUT WHOLE NEW FORMS
OF SUBJECTIVITY HERE. WE’RE TALKING SERIOUSLY MUTATED WORLDS
THAT NEVER EXISTED ON THIS PLANET BEFORE. AND ITS NOT JUST IDEAS.
ITS NEW FLESH…CYBORGS ARE INFO MACHINES. THEY’RE EMBEDDED WITH
CIRCULAR CAUSAL SYSTEMS, AUTONOMOUS CONTROL MECHANISMS,
INFO-PROCESSING-AUTOMATONS WITH BUILT-IN AUTONOMY…”
J.G.BALLARD: “…WHAT WILL FOLLOW IS THE PSYCHPATHOLOGY OF SEX
RELATIONSHIPS SO LUNAR AND ABSTRACT THAT PEOPLE WILL BECOME
MERE EXTENSIONS OF THE GEOMETRIES OF SITUATIONS. THIS WILL ALLOW
THE EXPLORATION WITHOUT ANY TRACE OF GUILT OF EVERY ASPECT OF
SEXUAL PSYCHOPATHOLOGY…”
W.S.BURROUGHS: “…I’m just a hidden agent from another planet and the trouble is,
I don’t know why they sent me! I’ve forgotten the goddam message,dearies!…
Exploration of/Interventions from Outer Space: Old Pop songs and THE TEMPEST
prominent carriers of THE DISEASE…villains are NOVA MOB organized as
CARNIVAL to bemuse/CONTROL rest of us…REMEDIES: Performance of Sex Acts
in conditions of Total Alertness such as flight/sense withdrawal by immersion in
water at blood temperatures with no sound or light/rewriting of life scripts and in
cases of extreme GRAVITY-TOTAL DESTRUCTION OF THE PLANET…Devising a
WRITING MACHINE that shifts 1/2 one text and 1/2 another text through a
PAGE FRAME ON CONVEYOR BELTS TO COMBAT NOVA MOB’S ACTIVITIES…
THE TICKET THAT EXPLODED LAUNCHES A DOUBLE ATTACK ON REALITY both
by presenting it as a HOST TO PARASITES FROM SOME MACROCOSM who
impose their will impercetibly on what we feel and do by putting it into compe-
tition with a WHOREHOUSE OF TAPES: ARTIFICIAL VISUAL/AURAL STIMULI that
affect a given organism more powerfully than the “REAL THING”…caught between
CONTROL OF EVIL WILLS/IMPINGEMENT OF PURELY MECHANICAL DEVICES
on its fancy uniqueness,WE FIND OUR REASON FOR BEING SLIPPING AWAY
FROM US…DEAD FINGERS TALK: COMPENDIOUS HANDBOOK TO WORLD:
CONTRADICTORY OBSESSIONS CONSTITUTE/DEPRIVE US OF REASON FOR
BEING…DEAD FINGERS TALK:REASSEMBLAGE OF ALREADY GIVEN TEXTS=
CAMPAIGN TO DECONSECRATE LANGUAGE ON LARGE SCALE…
THE TICKET THAT EXPLODED:IS APOCALYPTIC: concentrates on RESOLUTION
OF DILEMMA rather than DILEMMA ITSELF…one of the bearers of Burden blows
up GARDEN OF DELIGHTS…EXPOSITION OF THEORY OF SEX-WAR/NATURE
OF LIFE (SCRIPTSSOFT MACHINE) visit EVIL (NEO) CITY-experience FINAL WAR
(WW III?) only to have OLD DOC emerge to quiet the DISSATISFIED CUSTOMERS
OF OUR CROOKED CARNIVAL…”
we be NOW soarin’ at an unarticulatable lightspeed thru ZONES O’ CYBORMYZ-
TECHNO/BIOMECH MUTATION MANUAL NU MYTHOLOGIES…NOVA MOB
NOWadays be called NEW RIGHT HUMANITARIANS,FUNDAMENTALIST X-TIAN
REPUBLICANS NEW WORLD ORDER BUSH EMPIRE puked out by insidious ultra
ROBOPATHIC American hegemony…we be considered by them “TERRORISTS”…
as CYBORGS we be engaged in n’less than COUNTERPSYCHOCYBORNETICO
OPS…
DR.TIMOTHY LEARY: “…CYBERPUNK IS POP TECH…complex electronic equipment
in the hands of the people…POP ENGINEERING,IF THERE IS ANY AIM TO THE
CYBERPUNK MOVEMENT,IT IS TO EMPOWER INDIVIDUALS TO PACKAGE,
PROCESS,AND COMMUNICATE THEIR THOUGHTS ON SCREEN…”
BRUCE STERLING: “…suddenly a new alliance…evident; an integration of tech-
nology and…counterculture…AN UNHOLY ALLIANCE OF THE TECHNICAL WORLD
WITH THE UNDERGROUND WORLD OF POP CULTURE AND STREET LEVEL ANARCHY…THE HACKER AND THE ROCKER ARE…POP-CULTURE IDOLS…”
Dig? COMPUTERS like
original model for them:BIOCOMPUTER i.e. HUMAN MIND,a magnificent TOOL…
not t‘ say ROBOPATH CONTROL MACHINE
don‘ use them for insidious tasks ‘n’
atrocious crimes… even if one were t‘ resist
c’n’t avoid multi-colored hologram
which like a Black Hole absorbs one into
infinite Void o‘ its depths,phenomenal
lightspeed…howlin‘ notes rockin‘ Pan-
apocalypse Cafe in Zones beyond any
fantasy xistent beyond “Time”…manifesta-
tions o‘ total Robopathic Plague
more’n evident on Planet Terror,thus n’need t‘ explain,imperative
for each individual t‘ mutate,t‘ liquidate Robopathic CONTROL MACHINE societus,
if there be any future,any survival…
in these Zones o‘ infinite possibilities verily “THE WORLD IS WILD AT HEART AND
WEIRD ON TOP”…
America be a garbage dump where vultures ‘n‘ eagles scavenge ‘n‘ Ho’s wi’
attitudes sprawl on nasty Cadillacs displayin‘ their fine big ol‘ asses ‘n‘ thick
muscular thighs-we be talkin‘ LARGO DESOLATO,man…America be a n’end
fuckin‘ SMOG AREA…in Night wasteland becomes metamorphosed into an
insane demented Carnivale…we be bizarro mutants in these Zones…
WILLIAM O. DOUGLAS: “…interests of the CORPORATION STATE ARE TO
CONVERT ALL THE RICHES OF THE EARTH INTO DOLLARS. Its techniques,
fashioned mainly on Madison Avenue and followed in Washington,D.C.,
are to produce CLIMATES OF CONFORMITY THAT MAKE ANY COMPETING
IDEA PRACTICALLY UN-AMERICAN…mindless when it comes to criticism of
the system…PERPETUATION OF THE CORPORATION STATE AND ITS GLORI-
FICATION REPRESENT THE TRUE AMERICANISM…”
one c’n’t allow one’s BIOCOMPUTER (emotional/intellectual faculties) t‘ freeze ‘n‘ implode in confrontation wi‘ INFO OVERLOAD which be constant,unceasin’…
reaction by illusions o‘ escape in mysticism,super-religiosity( X-tianity,Judaism,
Islam,Buddhism,etc.),drugs,etc. be NOT an option,merely another submission
t‘ ROBOPATHIC CONTROL MACHINE societus…
J.L.MORENO: “…The fate of man threatens to become that of the dinosaur in
reverse. The dinosaur may have perished because he extended the power of
his organism in excess of its usefulness. MAN MAY PERISH BECAUSE OF REDUC-
ING THE POWER OF HIS ORGANISM BY FABRICATING ROBOTS IN EXCESS
OF HIS CONTROL…”
KAREL CAPEK: “…Rejected man and made the Robot. Robots are not people.
Mechanically they are more perfect than we are,they have an enormously
developed intelligence…people are becoming superfluous,unnecessary so to
speak. Man is really a survival…nature was offended at the manufacture of
the Robots…Nothing can be done…mankind will become extinct through lack of
fertility…it’s more convenient to get your work done by Robots…what’s going
to become of people?…”
S.F.CHRONICLE(1970) : “…The world’s political leaders…losing CONTROL of
their weapons-TO COMPUTERS…approaching day of DOCTOR STRANGELOVE-
STYLE WAR-war in which programmed machines…pull the nuclear trigger…
There is…growing dependence of (arms) systems on complex and rapid
COMPUTER-CONTROLLED response and consequent erosion of the CONTROL
of political leaders over final decisions…In the extreme…could lead to systems
which would be triggered…placing fate of the superpowers and the world
entirely in the hands of radars and other sensors,and of the COMPUTERS AND
TECHNICIANS WHICH CONTROL AND INTERPRET THEM…”
L.YABLONSKY: “…many creative people are often corrupted by the rewards of
the plastic society. They find a groove and freeze in it…many innovators-writers,
theorists,teachers,architects,artists-after an initially courageous and creative pro-
ductive life cop out and become ROBOPATHIC in their later creative attempts.
They find a successful mold,receive their rewards,and ritualistically stick to it for
the rest of their lives. They no longer put themselves “in harm’s way” by branch-
ing out or trying a new and different approach. THEIR FEARS AND LACK OF
COURAGE FREEZES THEM INTO STATIC,UNCREATIVE ROLES,WHERE THEY
LOCK INTO A ROBOPATHIC EXISTENCE…”
BRUNO BETTELHEIM : “…functioned as if by remote CONTROL,RUN BY MACHINES
OF HIS OWN POWERFULLY CREATIVE FANTASY. NOT ONLY DID HE HIMSELF
BELIEVE THAT HE WAS A MACHINE BUT,MORE REMARKABLY,HE CREATED THIS
IMPRESSION IN OTHERS. Even while he performed actions that are intrinsically human,they never appeared to be other than machine-started and executed…
WHEN THE MACHINE WAS NOT WORKING…HAD TO CONCENTRATE ON
RECOLLECTING HIS PRESENCE,FOR HE SEEMED NOT TO EXIST…A HUMAN
BODY THAT FUNCTIONS AS IF IT WERE A MACHINE AND A MACHINE THAT DUPLICATES HUMAN FUNCTIONS ARE EQUALLY FASCINATING AND FRIGHTENING…REMIND US THAT THE HUMAN BODY CAN OPERATE
WITHOUT A HUMAN SPIRIT,THAT BODY CAN EXIST WITHOUT SOUL…
CONVINCED THAT MACHINES WERE BETTER THAN PEOPLE…CREATED
THESE MACHINES TO RUN HIS BODY AND MIND BECAUSE IT WAS TOO
PAINFUL TO BE HUMAN…”
J.L.MORENO: “…THE WEAKEST POINT IN OUR PRESENT DAY UNIVERSE
IS THE INCAPACITY OF MAN TO MEET THE MACHINE,THE CULTURAL CONSERVE,OR THE ROBOT,OTHER THAN THROUGH SUBMISSION…
one may ask how it is possible that a machine-like device can become danger-
ous to man as a creator…man…using the same methods in the making of
cultural products…These METHODS…TO NEGLECT AND ABANDON THE
GENUINE AND OUTSTANDING CREATIVE PROCESS…conclusion we can
draw…of the position of MAN AS A BIOLOGICAL BEING…IS THAT THROWN
INTO AN INDUSTRIAL ENVIRONMENT HE DOES NOT STAND UP WELL IN
THE CONFLICT WITH THE MACHINE…SOLUTION OF THIS CONFLICT…NOT
TO SURRENDER TO THE MACHINE,NOT TO HALT ITS DEVELOPMENT,BUT TO MEET IT ON EVEN TERMS AND TO RESORT…TO RESOURCES WHICH ARE
INHERENT WITHIN HIS ORGANISM…A NEW GOAL,THE SURVIVAL OF A
FLEXIBLE,SPONTANEOUS PERSONALITY MAKE-UP,THE SURVIVAL OF THE
CREATOR…If a fraction of one-thousandth of the energy which mankind has
exerted in the conception and development of mechanical devices were to be
used for the improvement of our cultural capacity during the moment of creation itself,mankind would enter into a NEW AGE CULTURE,a type of culture which
would NOT HAVE TO DREAD ANY POSSIBLE INCREASE OF MACHINERY
NOR ROBOT RACES OF THE FUTURE. The escape would be made without
giving up anything that machine civilization has produced…
CONTROL OF THE ROBOT IS COMPLICATED…THE ROBOT IS MAN’S OWN
CREATION…ROBOT COMES FROM WITHIN HIS MIND,HE GAVE BIRTH TO
IT…RATIONAL AND IRRATIONAL FACTORS ARE MIXED…IN HIS RELATIONSHIP TO ROBOTS. IN THE EXCITEMENT OF CREATING THEM HE IS UNAWARE OF THE POISON WHICH THEY CARRY,THREATENING TO KILL THEIR OWN PARENT…
IN USING ROBOTS AND ZOOMATONS MAN UNLEASHES FORMS OF ENERGY
AND PERHAPS TOUCHES ON PROPERTIES WHICH FAR SURPASS HIS OWN
LITTLE WORLD AND WHICH BELONGS TO THE LARGER,UNEXPLORED AND
PERHAPS UNCONTROLLABLE UNIVERSE…MAY WELL FIND HIMSELF MORE
AND MORE IN THE POSITION OF…SORCERER’S APPRENTICE WHO COULD
UNLEASH THE ROBOTS BUT WHO COULD NOT STOP THEM…FORMULA,
WE NEVER HAD IT. WE HAVE TO LEARN THIS FORMULA…”
JOSE M.R. DELGADO: “…It is now possible to fit both animals and humans with
remote-controlled,micro-miniaturized,elrctronic stimulators WIRED DIRECTLY
INTO SELECTED AREAS OF THE BRAIN. These “STIMOCEIVERS” can then be
activated by radio signals which, in turn, may be COMPUTER-CONTROLLED BY
A PREDESIGNED PROGRAM. Cats,monkeys,or human beings can be induced
to flex a limb…to feel emotional excitements UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF
ELECTRICAL IMPULSES REACHING THE DEPTHS OF THEIR BRAINS through
waves puposefully sent by an investigator…ESB: ELECTRICAL STIMULATION OF
THE BRAIN…ESB COULD POSSIBLY BECOME A MASTER CONTROL OF HUMAN
BEHAVIOR BY MEANS OF MAN-MADE PLANS AND INSTRUMENTS…
ORGASMIC “PLEASURE CENTER” in the brain that makes animals and people
marvelously euphoric when stimulated…for no good reason…human subjects
have shown a fascination with prolonged stimulation of these portions of the
brain…look forward to day when results of this research be a “PSYCHOCIVILIZATION” adorned by a population happier,less destructive,
and BETTER BALANCED THAN PRESENT MAN…”(see: JOSE M.R. DELGADO:
“PHYSICAL CONTROL OF THE BRAIN:TOWARD A PSYCHOCIVILIZED SOCIETY”
HARPER & ROW ’69)
I.J. GOOD: “…UIM: ULTRA INTELLIGENT MACHINE-When we have the very
intelligent machine we can educate it in the THEORY OF MACHINE INTELLIGENCE.
IT WILL THEN DESIGN A MUCH BETTER MACHINE,EVEN IF IT NEEDS TO BE
CREATIVE TO DO SO. THIS PROCESS CAN BE REPEATED UNTIL WE HAVE AN
ULTRAINTELLIGENT MACHINE AND WE SHALL HAVE AN INTELLIGENCE
EXPLOSION…KNOWLEDGE…EXPANDING SO FAST THAT FRACTION OF IT
THAT ANY MAN CAN KNOW…TENDING RAPIDLY TO ZERO…UIM will enable
us to solve any practically soluble problem,and we shall perhaps achieve world
peace,elixir of life,PIECEMEAL CONVERSION OF PEOPLE INTO UIM’S,OR
CONVERSION OF WORLD’S POPULATION INTO A SINGLE UIM…”
JACQUES MONOD: “…man is alone in the universe’s unfeeling immensity,out
of which he emerged only by chance…chance ALONE is at the source of every
innovation,of all creation in the biosphere. Pure chance,absolutely free but blind,
at the very root of the stupendous edifice of evolution: this central concept of
modern biology is no longer a hypothesis among others,possible or at least
conceivable. It is today the SOLE hypothesis,the only one that squares with
observed and tested fact…”
T.ROSZAK: “…Molecular biology opens up the possibility of a nearly LIMIT-
LESS RANG OF GENETIC HYBRIDS,INCLUDING MAN-ANIMAL CHIMERAS…”
S.E. LURIA:(M.I.T.) “…in principle, Huxley’s made-to-order human being has
become feasible much sooner than he anticipated…WHEN DOES A ‘REPAIRED’
or “MANUFACTURED’ MAN STOP BEING A MAN (WHATEVER THAT MEANS)
AND BECOME A ROBOT,AN OBJECT,AN INDUSTRIAL PRODUCT?…”
LEON R. KASS: “…We are witnessing the erosion…of the idea of man as
something splendid opr divine,and its replacement with a view that sees man
no less than nature, as SIMPLY RAW MATERIAL FOR MANIPULATION AND
HOMOGENIZATION…”
obviously one could view such perspectives as motives for militant opposition
t’ the fantastic concepts they advocate,yet,on the other hand,one might jes
welcome them as foundation stones s’t’speak o’ buildin’ a 21st century mosque
o’ ecstasy/an altar for CYBORMYZTECHNO/BIOMECH MUTATION which one
craves…
ERIK DAVIS: “ TECHGNOSIS: THE SPIRITUAL CYBORG: If human history is the
story of a creature who molts from ape to angel…THEN SOMEWHERE ALONG THE
WAY IT SEEMS WE MUST BECOME MACHINES…modern West could be said to
have made a pact with machines…As MARSHALL McLUHAN noted…”WE ARE
ALL ROBOTS WHEN UNCRITICALLY INVOLVED WITH OUR TECHNOLOGIES…”…
there are far more technologies to get involved with,FAR MORE CYBERNETIC
LOOPS DEMANDING THAT WE PLUG IN AND TURN ON…WE FIND OURSELVES
TRAPPED ON A CYBORG SANDBANK…WE GLIPSE ANDROIDS IN THE…
MIRROR,THEIR EYES BLACK WITH NIHILISM-THE MEANINGLESS VOID…
PERHAPS THE IMAGE OF MAN AS A MACHINE HOLDS MORE PROMISE…
SEEKERS AIM THE PSYCHOSPIRITUAL QUEST THROUGH THE IMAGE OF
THE MACHINE…first step toward waking up is to recognize how zonked out
and automatic we already are…MACHINE THEN COMES TO SERVE AS AN
INTERACTIVE MIRROR,AN AMBIGUOUS OTHER…THIS IS THE PATH OF THE
SPIRITUAL CYBORG,A PATH WHOSE BUZZING CIRCUITS AND COMMAND
OVERRIDES REPRESENT BOTH THE PERILS AND PROMISE OF TECHGNOSIS…
culture critic MARK DERY shows in ESCAPE VELOCITY,one of CYBERCULTURE’S
defining dualisms is the opposition between “the dead,heavy flesh(‘MEAT’,in
COMPU-SLANG) and the ethreal body of information”-an opposition that is
“resolved” by the reduction of consciousness to pure mind. Combing through the
worldviews of obsessive programmers,HACKERS,and video game junkies,
DERY repeatedly came across the rather startling belief that”THE BODY IS A
VESTIGIAL APPENDAGE NO LONGER NEEDED BY…HOMO SAPIENS-HOMO
CYBER”…Perhaps the most zealous shock troops for this new brand of HOMO
CYBER are the brain-boosting TRANSHUMANISTS and CYBERLIBERTARIANS
known as the EXTROPIANS…spend a lot of time plotting out neo-Darwinian future
scenarios DOMINATED BY AI,NANOTECHNOLOGY,SMART DRUGS,WEIRD
PHYSICS,AND MASSIVE GOVERNMENT DEREGULATION…THEY RESURRECT PATTERNS OF IDENTITY AND DESIRE THAT RESEMBLE THE MOST TRANSCEN-
DENTAL MYSTICISMS…MAKES THEIR TECHGNOSTICISM MORE COMPELLING
THAN…FOUND IN DIGITAL WING OF THE NEW AGE…EXTROPIANS ARE
METICULOUSLY PLANNING FOR THE DAY WHEN TECH’LL FORM THE ULTIMATE
ESCAPE HATCH,AND MACHINES WILL FREE US FOREVER FROM THE CLUTCHES
OF THE EARTH,THE BODY,AND DEATH ITSELF…”
February 10, 2010
Categories: Uncategorized . . Author: Jamz . Comments: Leave a Comment
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