After the cyborg, a bestial revelation
July 6, 2023 12:48 PM Subscribe
Following the chimera out of the dead soil of the human will be an unnerving experience. "But that’s precisely how we’ll know we’re on the right path." Leo Kim asks us to think beyond Donna Haraway's cyborg, and towards a speculative monster better suited for our time.
Some previouslies.
Some previouslies.
There are both "previously" links and a description that this is responding to Donna Haraway?
posted by sagc at 1:05 PM on July 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by sagc at 1:05 PM on July 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
A little context above the fold would be useful to see if one even wants to click the previouslies.
These comments probably belong elsewhere in the site.
posted by Billiken at 1:11 PM on July 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
These comments probably belong elsewhere in the site.
posted by Billiken at 1:11 PM on July 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
Sure, I could say more.
Kim starts by describing the importance of Haraway's cyborg metaphor. Back in the mid-80s, this was a way for her to think about human relationships with technology that were more embodied, more revolutionary (check the journal where the essay first appeared), more creative, and more generative of ideas.
Now Kim thinks we need a new monster (if you categorize cyborgs as monsters, which many did) that better describes the stresses and possibilities of the 21st century. A key goal is decentering both humanity and technology from the monster, so as to emphasize the natural, non-human-created world. Another is picking something which isn't already part of the status quo culture.
He suggests the chimera, a blend of species. This doesn't foreground technology. It's still awkward and, well, monstrous in a way that isn't comfortable for our culture. And involving other species reminds us of the sheer scale and diversity of nonhuman life on Earth, nudging us away from anthropocentrism.
...does this help? I don't want to be too academic, although I am one. And I wanted in the post to strive for brevity.
posted by doctornemo at 1:51 PM on July 6, 2023 [10 favorites]
Kim starts by describing the importance of Haraway's cyborg metaphor. Back in the mid-80s, this was a way for her to think about human relationships with technology that were more embodied, more revolutionary (check the journal where the essay first appeared), more creative, and more generative of ideas.
Now Kim thinks we need a new monster (if you categorize cyborgs as monsters, which many did) that better describes the stresses and possibilities of the 21st century. A key goal is decentering both humanity and technology from the monster, so as to emphasize the natural, non-human-created world. Another is picking something which isn't already part of the status quo culture.
He suggests the chimera, a blend of species. This doesn't foreground technology. It's still awkward and, well, monstrous in a way that isn't comfortable for our culture. And involving other species reminds us of the sheer scale and diversity of nonhuman life on Earth, nudging us away from anthropocentrism.
...does this help? I don't want to be too academic, although I am one. And I wanted in the post to strive for brevity.
posted by doctornemo at 1:51 PM on July 6, 2023 [10 favorites]
...does this help?
It does. Thank you.
I was a big fan of Haraway when I first encountered her work, and I do not think she was wrong for the time. I am all for metaphor-building that moves us away from anthropocentrism. Works by Ed Yong, Merlin Sheldrake, Robert Macfarlane, and even the great article linked earlier the week about orchids are providing my mind (at least) plenty of living examples of non-human relationship/symbiosis; other forms of naming and verbing; alternate, non-human or (anthropocentrically important) non-plant forms of life and intelligence; life forms with up to 48 potential gender configurations, etc., etc.
We understand our world and economics and politics and our relationships with the natural world through filters of metaphor. I am all for scrapping most of the old ones and crafting new ones. I am not sure ‘chimera’ is the most, erm, life-giving one, tho, simply because it relies on a smushing together of disparate parts. It has to me no sense of wholeness or one-ness. It feels more Frankenstein than … things living in other things, food coloring blending into the cells of yarrow, you’ll-never-separate-the-two-without-destroying-the-whole place we are.
Those are my initial thoughts. Still, happy to see the re-metaphoring happening .
posted by Silvery Fish at 2:23 PM on July 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
It does. Thank you.
I was a big fan of Haraway when I first encountered her work, and I do not think she was wrong for the time. I am all for metaphor-building that moves us away from anthropocentrism. Works by Ed Yong, Merlin Sheldrake, Robert Macfarlane, and even the great article linked earlier the week about orchids are providing my mind (at least) plenty of living examples of non-human relationship/symbiosis; other forms of naming and verbing; alternate, non-human or (anthropocentrically important) non-plant forms of life and intelligence; life forms with up to 48 potential gender configurations, etc., etc.
We understand our world and economics and politics and our relationships with the natural world through filters of metaphor. I am all for scrapping most of the old ones and crafting new ones. I am not sure ‘chimera’ is the most, erm, life-giving one, tho, simply because it relies on a smushing together of disparate parts. It has to me no sense of wholeness or one-ness. It feels more Frankenstein than … things living in other things, food coloring blending into the cells of yarrow, you’ll-never-separate-the-two-without-destroying-the-whole place we are.
Those are my initial thoughts. Still, happy to see the re-metaphoring happening .
posted by Silvery Fish at 2:23 PM on July 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
I have spent far too much of my life trying to figure out what Donna Haraway's "A Cyborg Manifesto" is actually about: The use of jargon that is never defined. The strained metaphors taken literally. The willful refusal of an essay to make itself understood, and the willful refusal of everyone who talks about the essay to make themselves understood either.
I can't tell whether this is a feminist posthumanist theory essay or a parody of a feminist posthumanist theory essay.
posted by AlSweigart at 2:28 PM on July 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
I can't tell whether this is a feminist posthumanist theory essay or a parody of a feminist posthumanist theory essay.
posted by AlSweigart at 2:28 PM on July 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
I can't tell whether this is a feminist posthumanist theory essay or a parody of a feminist posthumanist theory essay.
While Donna Haraway is often playful, there is precisely zero evidence in what I've read by her since to suggest "Cyborg Manifesto" is a parody.
posted by doctornemo at 6:22 AM on July 7, 2023
While Donna Haraway is often playful, there is precisely zero evidence in what I've read by her since to suggest "Cyborg Manifesto" is a parody.
posted by doctornemo at 6:22 AM on July 7, 2023
To clarify, I was talking about the linked article, not Haraway's "A Cyborg Manifesto."
But if you read "Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity" (the published paper at the center of the Sokal hoax) you won't find a wink and a nod anywhere in that essay either.
posted by AlSweigart at 7:26 AM on July 7, 2023
But if you read "Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity" (the published paper at the center of the Sokal hoax) you won't find a wink and a nod anywhere in that essay either.
posted by AlSweigart at 7:26 AM on July 7, 2023
Thank you for this!
Haraway's cyborg theory rejects the notions of essentialism, proposing instead a chimeric, monstrous world of fusions between animal and machine.
I've been drawing things I call robot expressionism for decades. It's wonderful to see other views with similar premises.
My take on it is that robots will cease to be the clunky (or sleek), metallic amalgams we've come to expect from science fiction and will morph into organic/machine hybrids.
Instagram link to my most recent images
posted by mmrtnt at 7:42 AM on July 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
Haraway's cyborg theory rejects the notions of essentialism, proposing instead a chimeric, monstrous world of fusions between animal and machine.
I've been drawing things I call robot expressionism for decades. It's wonderful to see other views with similar premises.
My take on it is that robots will cease to be the clunky (or sleek), metallic amalgams we've come to expect from science fiction and will morph into organic/machine hybrids.
Instagram link to my most recent images
posted by mmrtnt at 7:42 AM on July 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
To clarify, I was talking about the linked article
Oh, my bad.
posted by doctornemo at 8:30 AM on July 7, 2023
Oh, my bad.
posted by doctornemo at 8:30 AM on July 7, 2023
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posted by Billiken at 1:00 PM on July 6, 2023 [8 favorites]