UFIE95-20-3 Information Systems and Society
Week 9: Agents, agency and Cyborgs

Home

Summary

Continuing on the theme of computer encroachment into fields of human affairs, this week we want to consider some of the effects on the independence of the human in terms of the body and the person. We will look at the digital augmentation of the body and the question of whether a digital presence implies a loss of importance of the body. This departure is welcomed by Haraway but regretted by Lyotard.

Key terms and concepts

Sample question

In what sense do phenomena such as the panoptican, cyborgs and artificial intelligence augment our needs, and in what sense to they pose a threat to humanity?

Reading

Bell, G and Gray, J, 2001, Digital immortality

Norman, D, 2001, Cyborgs

Further Reading

Stuart Sim, 2001, Lyotard and the Inhuman Icon Books

George Myerson, 2000, Donna Haraway and GM Foods Icon Books

Hubert L. Dreyfus, 2001, On the Internet (Thinking in Action), Routledge Books

Find out more

The cybermen from the Guardian.

Steve Mann

Bristol Wearable Computing

Pics Worth a Thousand Protests, Wired report about how activists have deployed wearable technologies to redress the balance between oppressor and oppressed

The cyborg manifesto by Donna Harraway

Captain Cyborg

Tutorial

Video - Digital Planet: Cybersouls

This week we will watch and discuss a video about the cyborg concept.

Are there any 'proper' boundaries between humanity and technology?

Rob Stephens