The Cyborg Manifesto

This week in class we discussed Donna Haraway's Cyborg Manifesto. According to Haraway, "A  cyborg is a cybernetic organism, a hybrid of machine and organism, a creature of social reality as well as a creature of fiction." In her piece of work, Haraway discusses many boundaries relating to the formation of the cyborg. Some of the most prominent ones were human/animal, organic/inorganic, organism/machine, physical/non-physical, etc. This whole idea of a cyborg led to an interesting class discussion. Wexler asked us if we would knowingly date a cyborg. Surprisingly, a lot of the class said yes. Considering how much we rely on technology in our everyday lives though, this sort of response should not necessarily come as a surprise. A concern was whether or not the cyborg had freedom of choice. Many in our class said that if the cyborg was programmed to fall in love with them, as opposed to having the freedom to choose their lover, they would not date the cyborg. The discussion then led to a questioning of what truly defines whether something is human or not. People have all sorts of views on this matter. Many will say that in order for anything to be considered "human," they must be able to reproduce. This is a tricky topic to tackle, considering all the options that fertility clinics have to offer. Ultimately, Donna Haraway's cyborg is a representation of "lived social and bodily realities in which people are not afraid of their joint kinship with animals and machines, not afraid of permanently partial identities and contradictory standpoints."