‘Ontological hygiene’ is a phrase whose definition has long eluded me. Though Graham talked about many times throughout her work, the concept has never fully made sense to me. However, this week, I think I’ve finally got a firm grasp on it, thanks to a reading of Thomas Browne’s Religio Medici.
There is a theory that I have studied in multiple philosophy classes about the idea that computers are actually alive. Computers never truly stop running even when they are unplugged. Software acts as a gene structure for the computer constantly replicating itself to produce different programs and an operating system. This software or “genes” of the computer produces different behaviors depending on the program it affects. In a sense, computers evolve like every other organism on the planet, but in their own way. Continue reading
Never Let Go is definitely my favorite reading so far in the class and I have found it interesting how it parallels with many of Graham’s theories. Graham argues that human nature is culturally defined and that we invent ourselves as well as our understanding of ourselves. Kathy and her friends put this theory into action with trying to create an identity or place in the society they live in. I also saw the artwork created by the donors as a cultural definition of human nature. Continue reading
Although like Dr. Seaman noted that we are familiar with the use of words to convey a particular meaning based on the current issues in society, I also found that this part of Graham’s first chapter to be extremely interesting. Continue reading
While reading and engaging with the texts assigned for this week, I find myself questioning a lot of the post-humanist rhetoric concerning the striving for the immortal, infallible human body and mind. Within the last two semesters, I’ve started learning about and exploring the area of disability studies, especially within feminist disability studies, and some of the concepts of post-humanism discussed throughout Elaine L. Graham’s Representations of the post/human and Langdon Winner’s article “Are Humans Obsolete?” are, I believe, greatly at odds with the goals and advances of feminist disability studies activism. Continue reading
In Representations of the Post/Human, Elaine L. Graham explains her use of the term “post/human” instead of simply “post-human” on page 11: “…I hope to suggest a questioning both of inevitability of a successor species…” Is it truly unavoidable that there will be a successor species? This is the question I’d like to explore in this post. Continue reading
After reading “Are Humans Obsolete?” and “Learning to Be Me” on the blog today, I read the introduction to Graham’s Representations of the Post/Human. Although the introduction did explore many different aspects of the works that we read for today, it also mentioned during the “Re-Enchantment” sub-heading more about the human agent in creating technology. Continue reading