A Cyborg Manifesto creates the myth of cyborgs, or cybernetic humanoids, for the purpose of representing many socially divisive problems facing humanity. Haraway brings up a term that struck me as important, a cyborg is “a creature of social reality as well as a creature of fiction” (Haraway, 1). I believe this to be Haraway’s most important and simple explanation of her ideas that it would take a tremendous effort for humans to have real social awareness of other humans plights. Such plights as the fights against patriarchal and capitalistic traditions which hinder many other humans ability to prosper. The metaphorical ‘Cyborg’ serves Haraway as an all encompassed, socially aware, human. Haraway describes the cyborg as non-gendred, heavily in favor of collectivism and a united political system. As ideal as this cyborg would be, for the betterment of a united prospering human coalition, what would be the cyborg’s emotional investment in these social probelms? Would this cyborg be beyond human comprehension of what empathy means? As a metaphor, it is unnecessary to explain the reasoning behind it. But if it was translated to humans, wouldn’t the same questions arise?
StClair Blog post week 1
For this week’s response I have chosen Walter Ong’s Orality and Literacy for my blog post. At the beginning of his work, Ong mentions that sound and time have a special relationship with each other. He explains this by saying “Sound exists only when it is going out of existence. It is not simply perishable but essentially evanescent, and it is sensed as evanescent. When I pronounce the word “permance,” by the time i get to the “-nence,” the “perma-” is gone, and has to be gone”(Ong, 65). The word “evanescent” means “soon passing out of sight, memory, or existence”. Therefore in the context that Ong is talking about, he is saying that with every sound we hear, it will eventually go away. Sounds are not always permanent and go out of our existence or memory. Ong also mentions that one can not stop and hold sound. He writes “If I stop the movement of sound, I have nothing- only silence, no sound at all. All sensation takes place in time, but no other sensory field totally resists a holding action, stabilization, in quite this way”(Ong, 65). Here Ong is saying that unlike the other human sensations, sound is the one we cannot put a hold on. We just have to let it come and go as freely as it can be. Overall, sound is important but it is only a privilege.
