Blog#3: Corporate Settings Give Birth to Cyborgs That Want to be More Human Like

After Tuesday's class discussion about cyborgs, I couldn't stop thinking about the connection between cyborgs and corporate settings. I know that this particular concept is rather small compared to all of the other ideas we have been discussing about cyborgs. However without the connection amongst cyborgs and corporate settings, cyborgs would not exist in my opinion. It is these "corporate settings" that provide the financial means in order to create and maintain cyborgs. If it is corporate settings who put up the cash to support the idea of cyborg production, then aren't corporate settings the ones responsible for the creation of cyborgs. I know that scientist are the ones who physically build the cyborgs, but without the financial means to build them a scientist's role in creating cyborgs are just ideas down on paper. Now I don't mean to say that scientist's aren't important in creating cyborgs. However without the role of money to help aid in the creation of cyborgs, scientist's hands are pretty much tied.

With my new found curiosity about corporate settings funding cyborgs, I began surfing the net and looking for material that discussed this in detail. To my surprise I could hardly find any material on this subject matter. Instead I found several articles about how one day people want to become cyborgs. This one particular article that I found on CNN.com through Google.com entitled, "Why life as a cyborg is better," really caught my attention. This article goes right into context with the discussion that we have been having in class about what a cyborg is. The thing that really stuck out about this article is the comment made about the man this article is about Steve Mann. Mann is a person who has dreams of enhancing human capabilities with computer intelligence. In the article it states, "if it sounds a bit creepy, consider this: Mann became a cyborg so he could be more human ("Why life as a cyborg is better" 2)".

After reading this I thought to myself, "what". Why would someone want to become a cyborg in order to be more human? Isn't this statement contradicting itself? Then I recalled Chris Hables Gray comment that I read in his article "Cyborgology" about cyborgs as members of society. Gray states, "there are many actual cyborgs among us in society. Anyone with an artificial organ, limb or supplement (like a pacemaker), anyone programmed to resist disease (immunized) or drugged to think/behave/feel better (psychopharmacology) is technically a cyborg" (2). This is a true statement. Not only for the dreams of people like Steve Mann, but for the everyday common person like myself.

Whether I want to admit it or not, I am too a cyborg in society. Just this past week I took to different kinds of medication to ward off a cold to "feel" better. In Gray's language I am a cyborg. If this is the case then we have baby cyborgs being born into the world everyday on account of artificial insemination. As well as little children & adult cyborgs walking around who have been immunized. It is our desire to be unique, happy, & healthy individuals that causes us to take on cyborg like characteristics as Gray states. So should we then be calling ourselves "cyborg beings" instead of "human beings"?

Works Cited

Gray, Chris Hables. "Cyborgology". 2.

"Why life as a cyborg is better." CNN.com. 14 January 2004. The Associated Press. 15 Feb 2007 . 2.

Blog#2: "Commingled Bits"="Multimedia?"

Negroponte defines “multimedia” as a “commingled bit.” Now at first glance the phrase “commingled bit” seemed confusing to me. After sitting down and thinking about this, I finally got or think I got why Nergoponte defines “multimedia” as a “commingled bit.” The reason for it is because various forms of media become “mixed together” to create multimedia. For example, the multimedia that we come into contact with on a daily basis such as the news, computers, and music, are comprised of these “bits” of information that are needed to get across to the user.

Multimedia uses the components of video and audio technology to convey a message; whether that message is on a formal or informal level, multimedia is the medium that gets the message across to the user. This, in my opinion, the simplest way to explain what Mcluhan’s article The Medium Is the Message is all about. In McLuhan’s work he states, “this is merely to say that the personal, and social consequences of any medium—that is, of any extension of ourselves—result from the scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any new technology” (1). This is exactly the same thing that Negroponte is saying about multimedia, only it is stated in a bit more confusing context. Basically what I get out of Negroponte’s piece with the aiding of McLuhan’s work is this: multimedia is a result of our ability to combine various technologies and use it to further our understanding of the things around us either from the past, present, and the near future. Negroponte said what I am trying to say best when he stated, “it’s both about new content and about looking at old content in different ways” (63). In other worlds the introduction of new technology gives us something new to talk about, but it also gets us talking about or questioning rather the things around us.

The best example of multimedia in our society today I think is the news. News is an old form of media. The message behind news is the same as it has always been, to inform its audience. However, with the introduction of new technologies the way the news is delivered to the audience has tremendously changed. News in today’s world is comprised of several bits of information that are conveyed through audio and video technology. I mean not only can you look at the news on television, but you can look and read about it online, you can read it in the daily newspaper, and now you can even access the broadcast or read about the news from your cell phone. Now if this is not a good example of what multimedia is, I do not know what is. Just by looking at the multimedia one would know right off hand that the word “multi” means many, and media is all the things that refer to print, audio, and visual. The news industry has taken the “bits” of information of what Negroponte defines as multimedia and gets their message to inform across to the user in a variety of new ways.

Works Cited

McLuhan, Marshall. The Medium Is the Message. New Jersey: The MIT Press, 1964.1

Negroponte, Nicholas. Being Digital. New York: Vintage Books, 1995. 63.

Research Assignment#1: How Has New Media Benefited the Printed Book?

The thesis of my senior project paper does not center on the theory of new media, but rather the theory of literature. So it has been rather difficult for me to approach this assignment and relate it to my senior project paper. After talking with some of my fellow classmates and professors, the notation of how new media has transformed the book came into the conversation. So after sitting down and thinking about this, I have decided to look at the way that new media, with all of its features and world wide access, has benefited the book instead.

The introduction of new media in the world to day has had a major impact in the world today. One particular area in which new media is making its mark on is education. The educationally tools used to teach in today’s classrooms are more sophisticated than say when my parents were in school. However there is one form of media that has been around for years in the teaching curriculum that has helped students learn. This form of media is the book.

Books are a form of media known as old media; however with the introduction of new technologies in society today the book is being reinvented. This reinvention that books are undergoing is process where they are being turned into electronic books or e-books. E-books are printed books in the form of electronic format and made available to readers on the World Wide Web. E-books come loaded with features that traditional printed books does not have. For example all e-books come with a search box where a reader can type in the exact page number they want to view and the e-book takes them directly there. No longer does a reader have to flip through a book to get the page that they want to read. With e-books all you have to do is type in the page number, click the enter key and your there. Another feature of e-books that printed books does not contain, are links to click on in the text. These links in e-books are important information for the reader to either know or need to know. Sometimes these links are located in the book’s text and the book’s bibliography. No longer do readers have to spend hours upon hours doing research to figure out what they have just read. With e-books all the reader has to do is simply click on the links in the text and they are directed to a website that gives them further information on it. E-books are also available to view at all times. So no longer does a reader have to worry about a book they need being checked out. You also do not have to worry about carry heavy books around, because e-books do not weigh anything at all.

Now one would think with all the features that e-books have and the increase usage of them by today’s society would cause a decrease in the printed book industry; I however do not agree with this. All of the features and accessing availability that e-books have gives a reader the chance to look at a printed book in a whole different way. Readers get a chance to interact, in my opinion, with the book and in return enjoy that experience thus wanting to get there hands on the physical book itself. I feel that printed books are only benefiting from the world wide usage of e-books. Whenever an individual accesses an e-book online, it is just as if they were sitting down reading a traditional printed book. Have you ever been online reading an e-book and noticed on the left or right side of screen a link that says, “click here to purchase this book.” This particular feature of an e-book is benefiting the physical form of the book. When people read e-books online and really like them, they in turn purchase the physical printed books. Not only that e-books also contains link that say something like, “if you like this book you are reading, you will like to read or purchase these related books.” So e-books are basically helping push and/or generate the sell of printed books online alongside the printed books being sold in bookstores. Besides increasing the sell of the printed books e-books also increase the popularity of some well known authors, and some not so well known authors. This to me is major gain in the printed book industry.

Therefore, the introducing of new media, such as e-books, benefits printed books through its availability and features. E-books give readers a chance to experience the printed books in a new light. It is just like Negroponte says in his book Being Digital, “it’s both about new content and about looking at old content in different ways” (63). Even though e-books are in a different form than the traditional printed book, the content of both books are the same.

Works Cited

Negroponte, Nicholas. Being Digital. New York: Vintage Books, 1995. 63.