How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics by N. Katherine

Hayles

Resistance Is Futile - Read This Book

The title of this scholarly yet remarkably accessible slice of contemporary

cultural history has a whiff of paradox about it: what can it mean, exactly, to say that we humans have become something other than human? The

answer, Katherine Hayles explains, lies not in ourselves but in our tools.

Ever since the invention of electronic computers five decades ago, these

powerful new machines have inspired a shift in how we define ourselves

both as individuals and as a species. Hayles tracks this shift across the

history of avant-garde computer theory, starting with Norbert Weiner and

other early cyberneticists, who were the first to systematically explore the

similarities between living and computing systems. Hayless study ends

with artificial-life specialists, many of whom no longer even bother to

distinguish between life forms and computers. Along the way she shows

these thinkers struggling to reconcile their traditional, Western notions of

human identity with the unsettling, cyborg directions in which their own

work seems to be leading humanity. This is more than just the story of a

geek elite, however. Hayles looks at cybernetically inspired science fiction

by the likes of Philip K. Dick, William Gibson, and Neal Stephenson to

show how the larger culture grapples with the same issues that dog the

technologists. She also draws lucidly on her own broad grasp of

contemporary philosophy both to contextualize those issues and to contend with them herself. The result is a fascinating introduction--and a

valuable addition--to one of the most important currents in recent

intellectual history. --Julian Dibbell

Personal Review: How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics by N. Katherine Hayles In this book of panoramic scope Hayles considers no less than the fate of

the human race. In a rich and detailed discussion ranging from the science

fiction of Greg Bear and Philip K. Dick to the science of Norbert Wiener's

cybernetics and Claude Shannon's information theory, Hayles traces the

changing conception of human consciousness and claims that a great

many of us are already posthuman. A posthuman is someone who has

been reconstructed in some sense, either physically or mentally, such that

he or she exceeds, or believes they can exceed, the boundaries of a human. About ten percent of Americans can be considered cyborgs in the

technical sense by virtue of having some kind of artificial implant - these

people would qualify as posthuman since they have compensated for

some limitation of their bodies through technological augmentation.

However, Hayles claims that to be posthuman no prosthesis is necessary,

simply the way in which we think about ourselves as conscious agents

needs to change. The advent of Shannon's information theory has led to

the modern convention of treating information as if it were entirely non-

physical. If this idea is applied to the information in our heads - that is, the

collection of memories that make each of us unique - then we quickly

arrive at the conclusion that our consciousness can be uploaded into a

computer, decanted into a robot-body, or even backed-up onto computer

disk, giving us eternal life.This is the story of how information lost its body

and it is an idea which is now well established in Western culture and

technology. Yet, Hayles believes it to be misguided. Any informational pattern, be it pebbles on the beach or electrons whizzing across the

internet, must have a physical embodiment to exist. The importance of

embodiment is also being discovered in fields such as neurology and

experimental robotics. A surprisingly large amount of the information

processing essential for being a responsive agent in the world goes on in

body parts such as nerves, the spine and the proprioception of joints - our

powerful human consciousness is a relatively recent add-on. Hayles

argues that future posthumans will not be the ethereal information-beings

of much of current science fiction, but they will certainly have a much more

intimate relationship with computers than we do today. In terms of

information flows, a collection of humans and computers contains no

boundaries between one and the next. As computers approach the

complexity of our bodies and information becomes more important to our

work and leisure, humans and computers will become more compatible

with each other and there will be an increasing potential for one to collapse

into the other. Whether this is to the detriment or betterment of humanity

represents a cross-roads which urgently needs to be addressed. Hayles is

well aware that technology issues such as these currently concern

relatively few people - the majority of the world's population has yet to make their first phone call. Yet, now is precisely when such issues need to

be aired before our posthuman futures are set in stone as either

assimilated components in a vast machine or as free agents with powerful

human-integrated technology at our disposal.

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