Wheelchairs as Human

This week’s creative presentations presented a lot of really interesting topics regarding the post human. Ashley’s presentation on Tuesday brought up some thought provoking concepts about the idea of prosthetic limbs and wheelchairs. I was one If the main opponents tothe argument of the post human still being considered human. However, one of the people being interviewed in the video made a point about an improvement of the human is still human. Therefore, a handicapped person’s wheelchair would be considered humanbecause it is simply an extension of the person. This really changed my viewing of where the human nonhuman line should be drawn. Technology that is used to enhance the human can still be considered human even though its still mechanized technology. I always was quick to write off human enhancing technology as post human concepts but I was intrigued by the idethat mumaybe nonhuman technology could still be human. It makes sense to me that technology used to aid human brings in completing basic human actions would definiteł still be considered human. In that same way, prosthetic limbs would still be  also be considered human. Though that is more commonly accepted in today’s society. It occurred to me that if these prosthetic limbs can so obviously be categirized as human, why shouldn’t a wheelchair be the same way? Ashley’s presentation and video made these now obvious observations more relevant to me.

Summing it all up

Though we all chuckled a little when one of the interviewees in Taylor’s documentary said that we had evolved as humans because of our anti slavery stance and child labor laws. However, it got me thinking. It wasn’t too long ago when a slave was counted as 3/5of a person, and children were simply seen as mini adults. Our idea of a person, or at least a person that deserves rights, as it seemed to make quite a change since even the 19th century.

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response to Zombie Honeymoon & other thoughts/connections

So, in response to Julia’s presentation about the movie Zombie Honeymoon, it reminded a lot of what we have talked about in previous classes with the majority of the texts. The fact that love often gets mentioned, that a lot the texts have some kind of love story narrative, and that often the most human of characters are described as the characters who know how to love other people. Continue reading

The Biological Posthuman

I found Adam’s presentation to be really interesting and quite enlightening. I’ve always thought of the posthuman in a strictly human embodiment way. After watching Battlestar Galactica, that began to seem like the normal thought of the posthuman. Even Hayles and Graham seem to talk about the future of technology terms of the human body.

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The human desire to be in control

In the Creative Presentations this week, it was noticeable that whether humans are seeking physical enhancements, psychological improvements, or immortality, we always want to have control over the process. In Hannah’s wonderfully-altered version of The Game of Life (oh, apparently it’s just called “Life” in America. Interesting…), participants were invited to choose their posthumanist path. In a similar and even more explicit fashion, Zack’s homage to Dr. Frankenstein, as well as Your Own Posthuman, displayed the human proclivity for designing one’s own physical form. This was also clearly present in Smith’s eye-opening look into the superficial, appearance-obsessed side of technoscientific advances. Our species spends a lot of time focusing on its fallibilities, and Holly’s presentation showed the lengths some will go to to fight off our main flaw, namely mortality. Kurzweil and Grossman’s ardent attempts to stave off death illustrate once again how we crave to have control over our existence.

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