WEEK 10: GAMES AND AVATAR IN THE INFORMATION AGE

Machines have now works like hands and also legs to human being. Nevertheless, Games and avatar creates such a virtual world that mimics reality, we are able to create a new life, a new identity, and communicate in a virtual world of cyberspace. As a consumer to technological products, I feel that we rely on technology to increase our limitation and to improve our imperfections. I feel that our dependent on technologies has made us more valuable. I have always been seeing myself as human without any doubt that I am otherwise.The purpose of writing this journal is that I want to investigate that whether our over dependent on technologies has made us a cyborg. Does the modern era where we live in have transform human into a hybrid of machine and human? 

Norbert Weiner in his book titled Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine stated that a cybernetic organism (cyborg) is a biological creature, generally a human being whose functioning has been enhanced through integration of mechanical, electrical, computational, or otherwise artificial, components. (weiner, 1965)

Andy Clark stated that 'human beings have always been  natural-born cyborgs, that is they always collaborated and merged with non-biological props and aids in order to find better environments for thinking". (Clark, 2003).

In order to investigate the true nature of ourselves, whether we are fully human or a hybrid of human and machines, I think the answer lies in the man who had started this ongoing debate. He was Rene Descartes, the father of modern philosophy. He introduced the mind/body dualism where he justified that mind and body are two separate entities. The distinction between mind and body enables a further idea of a body being a machine.

He also provides a solution to find certainties. His first meditation of philosophy began with his introduction of the method of doubt. In the book titled Rene Descartes : Meditation on the First Philosophy, Descartes quoted “some years ago I was struck by the large number of falsehood that I had accepted as true in my childhood, and by highly doubtful nature of the whole edifice that I had subsequently based on them”. (Cottingham, 1986).

Doubt is our only solution of finding the truth. In order to find our true nature,  we have to doubt our human nature by seeing an opposite side of our inhuman, to see the contradicting point of view of Andy Clark whether we really are the natural born cyborgs.Our over consumption of technologies might be the reason that we are not fully human. we uses shoes in everyday to help us walk, we uses avatar and games to pleasure ourselves upon the technologies that help us to escape the imperfect live of reality. We use transportation to reach our destination. Social media help us communicate in a virtual world.

Avatar and games allow us to communicate in a virtual world, to create another version of our lives , we communicate, meeting people is possible through the game above called the second life. Over dependent on technologies has gone beyond reality, it has now transferred into virtual world. This shows how imperfect we are as a human being. The mindless machines has now helping us to increase our limitation, doesn't it make us a hybrid of human and machine( cyborg) where our lives is enhanced with technologies.This might seems not a strong enough reason to justify my claims that we are cyborgian in nature as we uses technologies externally but I will show  how human uses internal technologies.

I want to use the film “inspector gadget” as it has influenced me to know that human are cyborgian in nature due to our over dependent on technologies. Movies like inspector gadget has a purpose to open our eyes that we are not fully human. 

In this scene, Inspector John Brown is just an ordinary police officer but the accident that has left his body damaged made it clear that human “body” is in fact machine. His imperfect damaged body is replaced by advanced technologies to make him half human, and half machine. His body is replaced with the enhancement of machines in order to safe his live.  There are metals and wires everyday in his body. Thus, making him a cyborg. This situation of inspector gadget is highly impossible in real life. But when I think about it, there are some situations where this is possible but not to certain extend like the one in inspector gadget. But there are in fact some cases that made it possible for internal machines to be inserted in  human bodies, and become a part of them.

These are the pictures of an artificial heart machine, a new machine created to help heart patients improve their health condition. This shows that human uses machine internally as it is inserted in their bodies. Doesn’t this shows that there are humans whose bodies are half metal and half biological human. The patient's biological bodies is enhanced by technologies. There are machines in human bodies, functioning to help them continue living. Our consumption of technologies either internally or externally made us a cyborg. Internal and external use of technologies has enhanced our biological nature, which fit the definition of cyborg above. What can we do without technologies? Can our imperfect body works without the help of technologies. I am sure that we cannot, even to feed ourselves we need machines as well. To cook we need pan, to eat we need bowl and to drink we need a cup.

In conclusion, Descartes has purposed the idea of a machine as well as giving us a solution in the method of doubt to help us find certainties. He was right that there is a need to doubt in order to find certainties. In today’s modern era, technologies has been a part of our lives both externally and internally to help us in our everyday lives. We are blinded by our false knowledge that we are fully human. Only by having doubt we are able to acquire the truth about our true nature in the middle of our constant use of technologies. Philosophy has given human beings the ability to improve their intellectuality by proposing the idea of a machine as well as the solution to the consequences of our dependent on it.

References:  

Clark, Andy.(2003). Natural-born cyborgs : mind, technology and future of human intelligence. Oxford University Press. Oxford.

Cottingham, John.(1986). Rene Descartes: Meditation on the first philosophy. The Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge. Cambridge.

Weiner, Norbert. (1948). Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine. John Wiley & Sons Inc. New York