I’m not quite sure what it is about the medieval texts we’ve been reading, but I, personally, find them so much easier to understand, which makes me in turn enjoy them a lot more.
The God/Human Hybrid
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Tag Archives: Graham
Science is Good!
In chapter 5 of Graham, there is a quote from Nelkin that says “social factors, such as social class, wealth or poverty, environment, lifestyle and diet are far more influential (than genes) in influencing morbidity and mortality rates, as successive surveys have shown.” I am curious as to how statistics like these are gathered and interpreted, and also how it is possible to know what it will be like if we do in fact make vast improvements in our understanding of genes through the Human Genome Project. To me, pushing the boundaries of science seems like a better long-term option for solving poverty and suffering than any alternatives. Continue reading
Is artistic intelligence actually intelligence?
Our discussion in class on Thursday sparked an interesting debate regarding “intelligence.” As a species we view intelligence as something that separates us from the animals, as humans. The ability to think and process information in an intelligent manner is what makes us humans. Often times, we only consider those who are meticulous, logical, rational, and mathematically-minded to be “intelligent” in our culture. Continue reading
Teaching Emotion
In Thursday’s discussion of Graham’s chapter “In Whose Image?” the possibility of a machine programmed with human emotion was a topic of interest. We arrived at the conclusion, even if a robot could respond emotionally in situations, the fact that the ability to do so was installed rather than inherent proved their inauthenticity. We also touched upon the idea that all human emotion is learned; people respond differently to circumstances depending on the social norms of the culture they were brought up in. Societies delineate exactly what sort of interactions are accepted, and then leave it up to the individual to choose his or her responses with those guidelines in mind. While I certainly think it would be difficult to relate to a man-made object, I’m starting to wonder whether the emotions we all so assuredly exhibit are as authentic as we think they are. Continue reading
What Is Normal Anyways?
In Graham’s chapter “In whose image?” she concentrates on how the Human Genome Project is attempting to unify the idea of a human. She argues that biology and genetic factors in particular are becoming the most important way in which to define the human. Continue reading
The Biology of a Human
On Tuesday we talked about monsters and sort of inhuman creatures that humanity has conjured up over the years. What I took away from Graham’s writing was that monsters are so terrifying because they represent a sort of breach in what are usually thought of as very specific boundaries between creatures. This carried in to our discussion about the clones in Never Let Me Go, who were seen as kind of monstrosities because they, though appearing human, are somehow just short of it. Their very existence terrifies ‘normals’ because they represent a kind of creature that has crossed that boundary between human and non-human. However, because they are so close to us in appearance and behavior (really exactly like us except they can’t reproduce), the normals of the Never Let Me Go world tried to make themselves feel better by treating the clones well until they were sent off to their death. Continue reading
Representation and World-Building
In Chapter 1, Elaine Graham discusses the impact of representation as an exercise in world-building: representations of objects actually have the effect of constituting those objects in the real world. Her example for this process is ‘Frankenstein Food,’ which is, essentially, genetically modified produce. However, the term ‘Frankenstein Food’ is one that treats/represents its subject in a different way than, say the term ‘Magic Fruit.’ ‘Frankenstein Food’ calls to mind all the troubling contextual baggage of the horrifying Frankenstein monster in Mary Shelley’s book of the same name. Using this term to describe and represent genetically modified produce relates the subject to the representing term, in this case, Frankenstein. Subsequently, we have a representation of the subject that casts it in a decidedly negative light. Continue reading
Freedom or Entrapment?
The connections between Elaine Graham’s introduction and Greg Egan’s fiction story “Learning to Be Me” really intrigued me. After reading both of these pieces I noticed that Egan’s story really echoed a lot of the sentiments that Graham spoke about in her book. Graham spent a good portion of the Introduction describes the various human responses and reactions to the ever increasing possibility human/machine race. Graham categorizes a few of the responses as “disenchantment, technocratic, transhumanism and re-enchantment” (Graham9). Continue reading
We Should Have Stayed Hunters and Gatherers
Graham’s introductory passage, which outlined various attitudes towards future technologies and ways of approaching the theme of the “post/human,” was enlightening not only because it discussed such a contemporary and applicable theme, but also because it showcased just how aware we are as a generation and a species of the shifting nature of our existence due to emerging technologies. While I always had some knowledge of the various positions taken on technology, I was mostly exposed to it in a more subtle form; Continue reading
If only I had a brain
Ever since reading the “You: The updated owner’s manual” on Tuesday, I’ve been intrigued by the idea of ‘self’ that William Saletan seemed so invested in. He noted that there is no distinction between an inherent you and I as we enter a world where transplants and grafts are commonplace. Graham builds on this by writing, “The contours of the human body are redrawn: they no longer end at the skin.” (Graham4). Both of these authors seem to argue that as technology advances, we are losing touch with our humanity. Essentially, for Graham and Saletan, bodily organs are what defines humans and is the only thing keeping us from being androids or some other half human being. Continue reading