Qn: Do you agree that you are cyborgian in nature?
From the invention of I-Pod to Mac book and the recent I-Phone 4s, Steve Jobs and his staffs had identified that we are cyborgs who constantly want to own the latest technology available on market. According to CNN.com, more than 4 million units of I-Phone 4s has been sold in 5 days. Even though the reasons for the purchase of latest gadgets may vary, this does not deny the fact that we are heavily depended on it in as a mean to survive. According to Donna Haraway, we live in 'technoculture' whereby it is natural for us to develop a more advance technology in order to live in a better world (Mab, 2001). For examples, pace makers and artificial implants are useful in the medical field to help treat the patient.
Before we simply say that we are cyborgs, we have to ask ourselves: are we technoculture in nature? We often assume that we are becoming cyborgs because we live in a modern world where rely on technologies to live. This is true, of course, because the environment itself drives us to buy an I-phone, for example. But sometimes we are unaware that it might be due to marketing of the concept of the product itself that makes us want to believe that we should own it (constructive discontent) because advertisers have understood the cyborgian identity. For instance, Siri, the voice-activated application would attract potential customers to buy an I-phone 4s because it functions as personal assistant of its owner.
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| Siri application. cr: STSS |
All in all, I tend to agree with the statement, although i am initially reluctant to admit the fact that I am one of the millions or even billions existing cyborgs in this world. This brought back memories from a couple of years back when i couldn't live without technology due to my addiction towards a Korean boy-band. It was one of those days when I acted like a crazy fan-girl waiting 24/7 (not really though, i have a life too!) in front of my laptop for news and the release of their songs, praising and admiring them who oozes with smexiness who I once thought were on par with Brad Pitt as the most handsomest men on earth. Good ol' days!
References:
Gross, D. Snide, sassy Siri has plenty to say. Retreived from http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/18/tech/mobile/siri-answers-iphone-4s/index.html?&hpt=hp_c2
Kunzru, H. (2004). You are cyborg. Retrieved from http://www.cyberpunks.org/display/472/article/
Mab (2001). Cyborg consciousness. Retrieved fromhttp://www.wired.com/wired/archive/5.02/ffharaway_pr.html
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