Difference between revisions of "1 Introduction"

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Hi Amber! It had been a second since we talked and I figured I'd drop you a line. I've been roaming the east coast (best friend's wedding and grandma's 100th birthday! wooo!) and working temp positions until I find something good. I saw the change of publication date and Intro on the website, it looks exciting! Also, the pictures are quite stunning, excellent job with the illustrator!
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For the introduction, I've been brainstorming points to address:
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What brought you to this subject?
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    -black hole story is a great start
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Why the format?
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    -your grade school dictionary story is also quite good and gives a relatable narrative voice
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    -maybe something on form following content: came from a wiki, small synaptic snapshots that weave together a rizomic sketch of possbile futures?
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What is Cyborg Anthropology?
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    -already have this somewhat covered
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Why this discipline needs to exist?
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    -need to make a strong case for this, can harvest some of the material from the piece I wrote
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    -talk about need for interdisciplinary scholarship and coming together to think about big issues
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Objective Analysis?
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    -biases that we have coming into this, biases we are trying to avoid. Many people write about the future and technology, how does our analysis differ?
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What this book hopes to accomplish?
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How to take elements from this book and apply them?
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Is there a normative program underlying this book?
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      -Are there ideals we are trying to express through these concepts (technological becoming and ecological awareness? Sanity and cognitive expansion? idealism with a dose of pragmatism?)
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A nod to all the thinkers that inspired this endevour, perhaps a reading list of the best books and authors in this field
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A note on how this book will not remain static and updates may be found on the wiki.
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The introduction is our chance to really express the project as a whole and where we are coming from.
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One of my favorite quotes on addressing techno-futurism (from Keith Ansell-Pearson, The Transhuman Condition : A Report on Machines, Technics, and Evolution (New York: Routledge, 1997). p.1) says we need to  “question, problematize, overturn, revalue, announce, renounce, advocate, interrogate, affirm, deny, celebrate, critique” technology and it's role in our future.
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My other favorite quote is from Hayles' How We Became Posthuman, p. 5: If my nightmare is a culture inhabited by posthumans who regard their bodies as fashion accessories rather than the ground of being, my dream is a version of the posthuman that embraces the possibilities of information technologies without being seduced by fantasies of unlimited power and disembodied immortality, that recognizes and celebrates finitude as a condition of human being, and that understands human life is embedded in a material world of great complexity, one on which we depend on for our continued survival.
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Figured these might me inspiring/helpful for formulating a general vision to be expressed in the introduction, although I realize our visions may not always be the same :-).
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Also, on a more personal note: you have probably figured this out by now, but I work best with external direction for work. It is a fatal flaw that I work on everyday, and need to overcome to really do all the wonderful things I want to do in this world, but I still have alot of work in this area. This being said, if you delegate some specific tasks to me it is much easier for me to have direction and stay motivated. It has really been fun working with you, and I'm really excited to get this book off the ground and work on many more exciting projects.
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All my Best,
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Andrew
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<blockquote>"To live in the world of creation – to get into it and stay in it – to frequent it and haunt it – to think intensely and fruitfully – to woo combinations and inspirations into being by a depth and continuity of attention and meditation – this is the only thing.” - Henry James </blockquote>  
 
<blockquote>"To live in the world of creation – to get into it and stay in it – to frequent it and haunt it – to think intensely and fruitfully – to woo combinations and inspirations into being by a depth and continuity of attention and meditation – this is the only thing.” - Henry James </blockquote>  
  

Revision as of 21:42, 7 June 2011


"To live in the world of creation – to get into it and stay in it – to frequent it and haunt it – to think intensely and fruitfully – to woo combinations and inspirations into being by a depth and continuity of attention and meditation – this is the only thing.” - Henry James

Beginnings

Anthropology, from the Greek “anthopos” (human being), is the study of humanity. A host of disciplines and sub-disciplines have arisen to study technology: STS, Philosophy of Science, History of Science, Communications, Sociology of technology, etc. This section will compare Cyborg Anthropology to these disciplines to show where Cyborg Anthropology departs.

Diachronic analysis

Technology has always been implicated in the question of what it means to be human, but since WWII and the proliferation of informatic disciplines this question has gained whole new dimensions and horizons. Technology is radically changing the way we interact--faster than any other point in history. Traditionally, the central unit of analysis in anthropology is the ethnography, a synchronic snapshot of how a culture functions as a whole (often with some recourse to the notion of the "structure" of a culture, a metaphor that is steeped in connotations of unchanging stability). In this sense anthropology often leaves the diachronic analysis to historians, and instead tries to understand how the culture functions as a whole. Cyborg Anthropology seems different in this respect. Because technology and interface are changing so fast, cyborg anthropology is much more likely to note the changes over time in culture and use this diachronic analysis to understand the ramifications of our cybernetic condition. The rhizome (a cybernetic, feedback-looping, adaptive, descentralized network) is the metaphor that replaces static structure. Insofar as Cyborg Anthropology is studying phenomena that have very little cultural precedence, it seems to be inextricably tied to diachronic analysis and theories of interface r/evolution.

Why an anthropology of cyborgs?

The object of study for Cyborg Anthropology is the cyborg. Originally coined in a paper about space exploration, the term “cyborg” is short for cybernetic organism. A cyborg is traditionally defined as a system with both organic and inorganic parts. In one sense, the use of any tool that functions as an extension of one's abilities qualifies one as a cyborg, but cyborgs are more narrowly understood to have actual, physical technological extensions/prostheses. Thus in the narrowest sense, examples of cyborgs would include people with pacemakers, insulin pumps, and bionic limbs. In the broadest sense, all of our interaction with technology could qualify as a cyborg (since the border of a cyborg system has no inherent limits, the universe could qualify as a cyborg). The narrowest sense of cyborg does not let us grasp the steadily expanding field for the practice of cyborg anthropology or investigate the surprising synergies of the human-non-human splices, while the broadest conception runs the risk of being so broad that the discipline cannot be defined.Thus Cyborg Anthropology studies humankind and its relations with the technological systems it has built, specifically modern technological systems that have reflexively shaped notions of what it means to be humans.

Differences between digital anthropology and cyborg anthopology

Digital Anthropology is more concerned with how digital advances is changing how anthropologists do ethnography. Also, cyborg anthropology looks at disciplines like Genetics and Nanotechnology, which are not strictly "digital". Cybernetics/informatics covers the range of cyborg advances better than the label "digital".

Cybernetics

Another way to think about the object of study of Cyborg Anthropology is through the discipline of Cybernetics. Cybernetics, was originally the study of control, communication, and information, but it has mutated into a host of other disciplines that fall under the general label of Informatics. Informatics include the disciplines of Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, bionics, Nanotechnology, Genetics, Artificial Life, Cognitive Science, Neuroscience, and the variety of sub-disciplines within these larger fields. These disciplines' commonalities are 1. their historical link with Cybernetics 2. their implicit metaphor of man as machine, machine as organism, and everything as information. Cyborg Anthropology is particularly concerned with advances in the informatic disciplines and their implications for culture and humanity.

A Dictionary of Cyborg Anthropology

This book is meant as an overview of concepts related to the study of cyborg anthropology. It is a definition of a universe of ideas and new developments, concepts and ways of thinking in a quickly morphing world. This is not a book of methods, but a book of ideas.

Best, Amber Case


Thanks to Andrew Warner for help with this introduction.