New Media and the Cyborg

"The concept of human is unthinkable without technology, but we act as if it is." 

(Shaw: 81, 2008) 

This debate is central to theorists Stelarc and Steiglers' idea of the human body as a vessel for technology. They argue that it is absurd to consider the concept of a natural body, and that we are as much a product of technology as technology is a product of us. Shaw uses 16th century physician William Harvey as a relevant illustration. He argues that Harveys' discovery of the circulatory system would not have been possible without the use of technology, and furthermore, that advancements from this discovery could equally not progress without development of said technology, thus making our understanding of the human body possible only through the tools we had available to analyse it. 

"Nothing is more material, physical, corporal than the exercise of power." (Foucault, 1980:57) In essence, it could be argued that this statement suggests that power of any kind reduces the body of the worker to a mere machine. Foucault uses the example of a well disciplined army to convey this. Each solider is like a cog and without all of the soldiers functioning properly, the military 'machine' would 'break down.' He also states how soldiers are literally governed by the "Technologies of war," wherein guns and vehicles control their success.  Marxist theory argues that capitalist industrialism similarly turns the worker into a passive, mechanical 'drone.'

In conclusion, there is a clear consensus that technology is what distinguishes us as being 'human.' In modern society it is hard to imagine life without our technology, for example, computers and mobile phones, let alone basic tools that we don't even view as technological any more, such as, a knife. Bringing us back to the opening statement, it would be a fair argument to suggest that without our ability to use tools and tech that we could simply have remained as a primitive species. It could be said that the more progress we make as a species, the more distant we will stray from our 'natural' roots, until we are one with the technology we have used to get there. 

Bibliography: 

Foucault, M (1980) Power/Knowledge | First American Edition  

Shaw, D (2008) Technoculture: The Key Concepts | Oxford Berg Press