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How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics
In this age of DNA computers and artificial intelligence, information is becoming disembodied even as the "bodies" that once carried it vanish into virtuality. While some marvel at these changes, envisioning consciousness downloaded into a computer or humans "beamed" Star Trek-style, others view them with horror, seeing monsters brooding in the machines. In How We Became P...more
Paperback, 364 pages
Published
February 15th 1999
by University Of Chicago Press
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Though I no longer agree with many of the points Hayles makes, no book has influenced my life and the way I understand the world more that this one.
Popular media in the last few decades have been fascinated with the idea of cyborgs: half-human, half-computer beings. Those who fear technology may cite one of their worst fears as the computer taking over the role and place of humans. This is why films like The Matrix or The Terminator have been so popular; the rise of technology has proven fertile ground for fears of its power. Hayles describes the post-human perspective through this book, which can be seen as a view of identity that is more...more
The strengths of this book come from its three guiding questions (or stories) on virtual reality: 1) how information lost its body, or how it became a separate entity from the material in which it's embedded, 2) how the cyborg was created and how it became a "technological artifact and cultural icon" after World War II, and 3) how the "historically constructed" idea of the human is influenced by a different construction called the posthuman. These are A+ questions.
Hayles' narrative pivots on the...more
Hayles' narrative pivots on the...more
Theory book on cybernetics. I found it particularly inspiring in thinking about myself as a disabled person. It's way cooler to be a cyborg than use the word disabled. And the ways that we depend on machinery to construct our humanity grows and grows every day. The freakishness of disability is minimized by the minute, as we all wrap ourselves in metal.
An amazingly diverse and far-reaching text that is nonetheless pretty readable. Hayles traces the history of cybernetic theory and shows how its concepts are reflected and experimented upon in sci if lit, thereby telling her three larger narratives of how information became immaterial, how the cyborg was constructed, and how we became posthuman. Some important points for me were are her emphasis on embodiment and her contention that posthumanism must continue to rely upon, rather than see itself...more
A staggering acheivement.
However,Hayles glazes over the disparity between between the richest and poorest societies on the planet. There has always been an uneven distribution of wealth, so uneven in fact that human society has divided itself into two separate worlds: the first and the third. The idea of the first world posthuman, adds another level of hierarchy to the already insurmountable one in place: not only are we now from two different worlds but two different levels of evolution. There...more
However,Hayles glazes over the disparity between between the richest and poorest societies on the planet. There has always been an uneven distribution of wealth, so uneven in fact that human society has divided itself into two separate worlds: the first and the third. The idea of the first world posthuman, adds another level of hierarchy to the already insurmountable one in place: not only are we now from two different worlds but two different levels of evolution. There...more
Hayles examines the cybernetics era from the 1940s until the late 1990s. Her project is to address how information "lost its body" because she wants to intervene in discourse suggesting that the body is so much "meat" for a separate Cartesian consciousness. She traces the historical development of cybernetic theory in scientific discourse, examines the rhetoric of sci-fi, and explicates a posthuman ethos that offers a both/and solution for people and things living in the information age.
While it...more
While it...more
A deep, probing investigation of what it means to be human. Drawing on an incredible range of material - from the natural sciences to literature to philosophy - Hayles displays a commanding knowledge of the discourses that shape our self-perception. As computer science and cybernetic research have produced new epistemological paradigms, Hayles constructs an eloquent argument to ground us in our humanity and convince us that our embodied presence should forever keep us from confusing the systems...more
Dec 12, 2007
laura
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
serious nerds, of the scientific, philosophic or literary persuasion.
Shelves:
philosophy,
fact
i read this book as a senior in college in preparation for my thesis, which was basically about issues of selfhood and agency in a deterministic universe. it was, at the time, one of the most difficult books i'd ever read and, correspondingly, one of the most satisfying. the language can be difficult-- it's a literary critic analyzing systems analysis, for goodness sake-- if you don't have a pretty firm grasp of academese, it will not be easy going. but having mined it, i not only learned just a...more
Professors of mine who knew what they were talking about have criticized N. Katherine Hayles for collecting a lot of ideas that already existed in one place and not saying much of anything new, but I like this book because it was my first exposure to a lot of ideas I'm very interested in: how we interact with technology and what that means for who we are.
the perfect coda to my late-summer incessant reading of octavia butler. i prize the freaky scholarly imagination it took to write this book
Oh dear codes!
A well-paced and clearly articulated assessment of what it means to be human, how difficult it is to distinguish us from machines, and how thinking about robots and cyborgs has ultimately changed how we think of ourselves...and vice-versa.
What impressed me the most was how adeptly Hayles combined discussions of a variety of fields into one cohesive and useful narrative.
What impressed me the most was how adeptly Hayles combined discussions of a variety of fields into one cohesive and useful narrative.
So far, Hayles' book is amazing--an amazing work of research and blend of cybernetics and literary criticism. That said, I think she is wrong (about how we became posthuman).
Hayles could also do without the pop references to Lacan--she should either take him seriously or not, but don't quote him like his texts are some lines from a Bob Dylan song.
Hayles could also do without the pop references to Lacan--she should either take him seriously or not, but don't quote him like his texts are some lines from a Bob Dylan song.
Fascinating. This book is very dense, but not overly difficult to read: merely time-consuming. The philosophical ideas it touts are very interesting.
Some excellent ideas, but the book itself is scattered, and at times self-contradictory. I'll highlight some of the most valuable concepts shortly.
Jun 18, 2009
Michael Economy
marked it as interesting
Recommended to Michael by:
nick's friend conrad :)
Shelves:
wishlist
i no longer have any capacity to remember names, phone numbers, or appointments. Looks pretty interesting.
nonfiction,philosophy,science,transhumanism,enhancement
Jan 26, 2009
Ashley
added it
holy academia, batman!
May 14, 2013
Aimo
marked it as to-read
May 14, 2013
Janet Jeudy
marked it as to-read
May 05, 2013
Inger
marked it as to-read
May 03, 2013
catherine
marked it as to-read
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“If my nightmare is a culture inhabited by posthumans who regard their bodies as fashion accessories rather than the ground of being, my dream is a version of the posthuman that embraces the possibilities of information technologies without being seduced by fantasies of unlimited power and disembodied immortality, that recognizes and celebrates finitude as a condition of human being, and that understands human life is embedded in a material world of great complexity, one on which we depend for our continued survival.”
—
3 people liked it
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Dec 13, 2007 06:33am