Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
There are signs, however, that the borders between theory in the social
sciences and the humanities and the advocacy of scientific zealots and
posthumanist social movements has begun to blur. Haraway's writings,
for example, are often cited not only as aids in thinking about the world
of cyborgs and posthumans but also as a justification for plowing ahead
in that direction as rapidly as possible. Thus, James Hughes's manifesto
for the radical modification of the human species, “Embracing Change
with All Four Arms: A Post-Humanist Defense of Genetic Engineering,”
cites Haraway as “the principal touchpoint for post-humanism.” From
now on, Hughes contends, true social progress depends on “faith in the
potential unlimited improvability of human nature and expansion of
human powers far more satisfying than a resignation to our current
limits.”
42
As the old millennium drew to a close, enthusiastic speculation about
cyborgs and their ways of living became a popular topic of discussion
among supposedly radical voices in the U.S. and European academy. A
five-hundred-page compendium of views of this kind,
The Cyborg Hand-
book
, edited by Chris Hables Gray with a foreword by Haraway,
explores the exhilarating joys and perils of living in a world mutually
constructed by modern technology and theoretical discourse—a world
in which cyborgs rapidly proliferate. Indeed, for some several writers in
the collection, describing oneself as a cyborg has finally become a badge
of honor. Chela Sandoval, for example, writes that “colonized peoples
of the Americas have already developed the cyborg skills required for
survival under techno-human conditions as a requisite for survival under
domination over the past three hundred years.”
43
At the topic's conclu-
sion, Gray and Steven Mentor look back on their colleagues' cyborg dis-
courses and find much to celebrate. “There is no choice between utopia
and dystopia, Good Terminator or Evil Terminator—they are both here.
We are learning to inhabit this constructed, ambiguous body (and
explore who constructs it). ...Perhaps, after all, we just need to learn
cyborg family values—good maintenance, technical expertise, pleasures
dispersed and multiple, community research and development, improved
communication.”
44
Cyborg family values?
45
Oh, good; something to look
forward to.
The vogue of posthumanism reflects a basic disagreement in modern
political philosophy about what radical, progressive thinking involves.
