Cyborg?
I have just read the text by Shields (2006). The content about cyborgs was interesting. He seems to questioning the human representation of the cyborg, preferring “a virus, a ‘mote’ or ‘crumb’”. The mote and the crumb do not make sense to me, but I am quite taken with re-forming the cyborg as a virus. It seems, at first glance, to be fairly appropriate as a virus and the cyborg contain many corresponding characteristics:
mutation
latching on
can be all encompassing
they spread
they require hosts
However, the image of the word ‘virus’ carries many negative connotations, too:
requires a cure
can be terminal
disease and dis-ease
it is a coloniser
it can take over
I can see all of these characteristics in the cyborg, too, but to re-name it a virus may pander to the darker perspective that is already ‘out there’. Also, in some ways, the analogy with a virus does not, as far as I am concerned, fit. A virus is blind, whereas for me, the cyborg and the thinking that it encourages, is all seeing, like Argos (the mythical creature with many eyes, not the ubiquitous store with many catalogues…). The cyborg can lead us into thinking in such a way that we become more vigilant tothe multi-faceted nature of our surroundings and ourselves. It leads us into a kaleidoscope of subjectivities and dancing objectivities. So, not a virus, then, but possibly a spider: eight-eyed and weaving and woven by its own web.
Spider
Sarah
I meant to comment at the time, and still intend to draw down from your blog (Before it disappears? Does the emergence of a ‘Final Summary’ mark the impermanence of any multivocal posthuman cyborg identity? I still prefer to place my trust in the archaic printed page to ensure an impact on posterity…) what wisdom makes sense to me. By way of a stopgap observation here’s a direct link to my poem on the woven nature of essay creation:
http://markbcassidy.blogspot.com/2009/10/begin-with-line.html
Have just looked up Argos (on Wikipaedia … don’t tell anyone) – a Greek myth I was previously unaware of. Good stuff, filed for future reference.
Maybe more later, M
lol a number of the remarks bloggers post certainly are a bit spacey, every so often i wonder whether these people realistically go through the pieces and threads before giving a comment or whether they only gloss over the article title and write the first idea that pops inside their mind. anyway, it is actually helpful to read smart commentary from time to time in contrast to the same, old opinion which i usually notice on the internet.