Media as a Cyborg Encounter

Steigler states that a human "invents himself in the technical by inventing the tool -  by becoming exteriorised techno-logically"(Steigler,1998)

This in other words means that the concept of human is unthinkable without technology but we act as if it is. It is as if humans, in a sense, need technology to be able to carry out daily functions, as it seems that the human path of evolution has been aided by the rise and dominance of continuing technological advances. 

Michael Foucault was also interested in the body as an object of knowledge, in particular, the "docile" body of that of a soldier. He likened a group of army soldiers to a well oiled machine, working in tandem with each other to carry out a task. (Foucault, 1991). In very much the same way that a machine would work, taking a car engine for example, one of the great combustion inventions of all time, and its pistons, working together to drive a vehicle forward. 

In this reading, it is also discussed how humans would be unable to do the tasks that a supercomputer would be able to do. An example given was the study of a human genome being the same as assembling 300'000 minute pieces of the Oxford dictionary. For a human to do this on their own it would be merely impossible, but I think it is unfair to dismiss a humans achievements because it was in fact, humans who had to build and process these first supercomputers around the 1980's that would be able to deal with such large tasks and the storing of such information. I wouldn't think that discrediting anybody's achievements of this nature would be fair due to that fact that humans did assemble computers first. 

Homo Sapiens distinguishes us as as being able to possess language and use complex tools(Shaw,2008,pg.88). Shaw goes on to state that we may have 'made' these machines but in a way, they 'made' us. In a sense this can be true, because we adapt to new computers and technologies and possibly, learn new skills from them, but it can never be taken away from the human race that we did in fact make these machines possible and develop them further for them to be available to use for all the human race. 



References - chapter 4 - Technobodies - D, Shaw, 2008, pages 82-101