Contextual Essay

Over the course of this semester, I have read, highlighted, circled and noted a tonne of information on cyborgs, technology, societal thoughts, pop culture and prosthesis. As a result of this ten week journey I have managed to produce a body of work which is made with a hope of sharing some much needed positivism in our dark and gloomy world.

My main research aim was to discuss technological prosthesis in order normalise the concept of the cyborg in mainstream societal thought. The podcast delves into the negative associations society has around technological advancements, particularly the relationship between humanity and machines. I describe the role of popular culture by using interviews and surveys I conducted myself. This process went really well, the only thing that could have been improved was the amount of responses I received. I do acknowledge that twenty responses is not a lot in the grand…

For the last several weeks, I have immersed myself into the art of live tweeting. Throughout my university degree, I have never once been asked to do this. It was refreshing to have a subject with no pre-conceived knowledge of what the tasks would involve. To live tweet, we watched an array of science fiction films applying the theories and concepts discussed in lectures. Through that foundation we extended those ideas by collaborating with other members of the class, discussing thoughts and opinions whilst also proposing questions for others to answer. It was a way to engage the audience with the content and introduce a new and exciting way in achieving class collaboration and discussion. Therefore, this blog post will be a curation of tweets, both my own and others, in a week by week layout to demonstrate my overall experience of the live tweeting process.

Week One: – Mamoru…

“Pamela Anderson has more prosthetic in her body than I do. Nobody calls her disabled”. Aimee Mullins (2009, TED TALKS, YOUTUBE)

In relation to my first blog post, I focused on the fears and apprehensions society faces in relation to the MANBOT. I discussed my personal woes around this half-human, half-robot reality. More importantly, I realized there is a major stigma in society against technological prosthesis. The assumption many people conclude, is that machine and man cannot intertwine without the loss of humanity. The perception comes from ingrained fears of the other, something so different it is deemed to be threatening. This is exacerbated by different media representations in films, movies, books and comics. As a result there is a current societal skepticism towards technological advancement. In reality, technology is constantly changing and further enhancing human capabilities: with individuals becoming dependent on technological support to regain function…

“Creating a neural lace is the thing that really matters for humanity to achieve symbiosis with machines” – Elon Musk

In 2017, Telsa’s Founder Elon Musk claimed humans must become cyborgs if they are to stay relevant in a future dominated by artificial intelligence. Let’s take a moment to process this statement. Allow this claim to sink into every crevice of your brain as it starts eating away at the minds logic and reason. You begin to fear the machine as you imagine it wiping out humanity. Perhaps your lucky enough to escape this phase of assured annihilation and appreciate the powerful impact technological advancements can have on society. This integration of machine and man suggests a total reshaping of society and introduces a world where artificial and organic merge into one.

My initial reaction to Musk’s words,  was one of pure fear. This embedded fear that grew within me originated from some heavily overthinking of fictional film…