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Posthumanists’ resistance at conquest

Born during postmodernism, the posthuman rejects the idea of progress and claims that there is instead a plurality of truths. As there is no Great Family of Man, there is no happy family of posthumans, as Neil Badmington suggests in the introduction of his reader on posthumanism. Moreover, there seems to be an impossibility to make the world better as there is now a multiplicity of worlds. However, although the posthumanists are disenchanted with the humanism’s claim of unity, because they reject the idea that humans have an essential common base, I believe that it is important that posthumanists work on common projects to be able to succeed in making betters worlds.

Badmington’s introduction briefly covers the historical and critical evolution from the subject of humanism to the subject of posthumanism. It explains that posthumanism stands against an essentialist understanding of the human. Posthumanists believe in a materialist and atheist way of seeing the world. They think that there is no such thing as a reasonable human. Instead, the influence of society on consciousness and the influence of the unconscious on human behavior and thoughts are contingencies that work against a common human essence. This introduction makes Althusser’s and Foucault’s articles appear naïve in their anti-human attempt to revolutionalize the world and suggests that Derrida’s position is more adequate since it acknowledges the fact that the end of Man is written in the language of Man and therefore can’t be totally radical. Criticism against the essential human works from within and posthumanism exists in some ways in reaction to humanism, as we find limits to explore and extend our definition of human in every corner of what has been written since the beginning of times.

While reading this article I coudn’t help notice that the cited authors are the ones studied in the Humanities. What should change then to talk about Posthumanities, if the Humanities already does the work? Should there be a change in the structure of universities instead? Do we still need universities, since they somehow call for a common social consciousness? Let’s say that we get ride of universities and only form technicians and specialists, what do we lose? Why not getting ride of the Humanities, since ‘we’ have no essential common ground to build a philosophy upon? For instance, in Quebec, there is this other degree that you can get to become a technician. Do we still need a formation in culture and what posthumanities can bring ‘us’? Why should ‘we’ invest in posthumanities, if the goal is to separate each other further than ‘we’ already are?

In fact I believe that some trends in posthumanism may have the opposite goal. Posthmanism as I imagine it wants to unite more than what the articles included in this reader want to let ‘us’ believe. For instance, Donna Haraway’s conception of the cyborg is a way to unite people who feel oppressed by the same capitalist enterprise. Even Baudrillard who is mentioned in this article believes that ‘we’ are now all dependent on machine for our survival. I guess that for me at this point, this symbiosis and dependency between the human and the machine has triggered a crucial shift from the human to the posthuman. We now reason with the help of machines and computers. My memory is not only stored in my head and in my sensory-motor system, it is distributed among my library, my computer, the Internet, etc. In addition, Lyotard, in “Can’t Thought goes On Without a Body,” which is the last article of the book, seems to reverse the position expressed by the materialists at the beginning of this reader. Although this is not the main argument of the article, in imagining a machine that could replicate embodied artificial intelligence, Lyotard seems to imply that there is a common ground between humans that would need to be captured in a machine.

I believe in complexity and I have the impression that these discourses attempt to find simplistic radical solutions to a problem that is enormous and multifaceted. It is important to acknowledge that although there is no essential ground for defining the human, we still have physiological similarities which make the projects of studying medicine or psychology possible. However, it is also important to acknowledge that the formations of identities have both positive and negative valences attached to them. As Butler and Sedgwick have noted in their study of gender: if identities can unite and give a voice to marginal communities, they also give the tools to state apparatuses to legislate against those communities. In order to try to find a provisional solution to this paradox, I think that it is important to go back to Lyotard’s criticism of philosophy in “Can thought Go On without a Body?”. At the beginning of his article, Lyotard complaints that philosophers only ask questions without answers because they resist every attempt at conquest. I believe that posthumanities should strive in forming such people that attempt to create knowledge but resist every attempt at conquest. To be contined…

Second Life Official Guide as a Rhetorical Object

Shopping in Second Life…

All in color with glossy paper, the SL Official Guide often looks like a publicity magazine. Even the avatars on the cover take mannequin poses as if they were advertising for Vogue magazine!

You may think that appearance is less important in virtual worlds, but it is totally the opposite. Although the SL guide gives information about free downloads, you are always reminded about “cheap” ways of getting products to improve the way you look. For instance, at page 105, you can get clothes at the “symbolic price of L$1 and you can engage “in such activities as sitting in a chair for L$3 per 15 minutes.” I still feel that I am not invested enough in SL to consider spending money on sitting on a chair or on virtual clothing. Many of the passages in the guide are there to make you feel that spending money on your virtual appearance is very important. For instance, it affirms that “a good skin can make or break an avatar’s appearance” (91). To support its claims, many interviews of residents are included. However, it is very difficult to judge if these are true interviews or mock interviews, as it is not easy to associate a reputation with an avatar name.

Getting access to the SL virtual can be expensive. For instance, I have not enough RAM on my laptop and can’t start SL on it. On my home computer I can start SL, but I don’t have enough RAM to run a script and my session often crashes. It often takes very long before I can see buildings and landscapes appear before me. In the SL guide you learn that you can’t create object anywhere you want unless you have the resident’s permission or you own land.

On p.207, the SL guide teaches you the basics on Machinima, a way to record a movie of your adventure. However, in SL like in the real world, there are “intellectual-property issues surrounding what is shown in your movie, and you may end up infringing on another resident’s rights if you shoot their content without their permission” (210). Rules like that make me wonder if this second world might improve anything we have in our current world, or if it only replicates its structure of power…

The SL guide also calls the readers attention to the fact that the SL world has technological limitations and like a good science fiction novel, it can even predict the future. For instance, it says about virtual airplanes: “In a few more years (thanks to Moore’s law) we will be able to simulate a wing in real time, solving the many complex equations meeded to properly model the interactions of the wing, turbulence, fluid flow, Bernouilli’s Principle, etc. However, computers are not yet powerful enough to do that. So full simulation is not the answer. Instead, LSL allows residents to create content that can’t be simulated currently within SL’s physics system” (180). This type of affirmation seems to empower the SL residents, telling them that they can improve the SL infrastructure by writing scripts. However, this possibility is not accessible to everybody and it requires lots of investment in time and potentially money.

The SL Official Guide also pretends to be a historical artefact. For instance, at p.180 the guide explains that before being called Second Life, the simulation program was called LindenWorld. At that time there was no scripting language and eyeballs were flying around instead of avatars. It appears to me that this kind of insight gives the impression to the readers that the History of this world is being written by residents and for residents and that they could be easily part of this great adventure.

I also wanted to add a last thought about anonymity in Second Life. Although you can change sex, put on a disguise and even use a pseudonym, Bert-Jaap Koops’s states in “You and Your Avatar: Having Second Life Thoughts on Anonymity and Identity” that the right for identification supercedes the right for anonymity in virtual worlds. Here is an interesting excerpt:

“Since most virtual games seem to decree that in case of conflicts, the law of California applies, do I want my identity to be governed by a law-maker who used to be a terminating cyborg? And while we are on the topic of cyborgs, when will avatars become semi-autonomous and remain active when you log out, thus acquiring some sort of identity of their own? When will they start talking back, asking you who you are, this guy that is playing around with them?”

Michael J. Bugeja’s “Second Thoughts About Second Life” discusses about how universities need to be careful when introducing students “to a virtual world that accepts little responsibility for anything that happens among avatars, including online harassment and assault.”

For instance, female avatars who “experience virtual sexual harassment (and even rape) report suffering real-world anger and grief.” Talking about harassment, as a male avatar, I don’t count anymore how many “f” words and the accompanying gesture I have received in the only few times I have visited SL. Because of that, I tend to go to empty places or stay the minimum of time at the same place. Anonymity does not always rhyme with respect in SL.

Hi From Second Life!

I am on a gorgeous island, watching wales and enjoying the lulling of the waves! Unfortunately I will not be able to be with you all on Monday

Please take snapshots of your trip and send them to me!

Hocus

What is Postcyberpunk?

In Neuromancer there was (arguably according to Brian Hale in POSTcyberMODERNpunkISM) a “collapse of hierchical distinctions between high and low art, between ‘official’ high culture and popular or mass culture” (309). In Julie’s office, Disney and Dadaism share the same setting. Acker’s Empire of the Senseless and The Matrix Trilogy push further the intertextual vampirism as they openly plagiarize the narrative structures of other texts. For instance, Acker satirically reuses excerpts from Neuromancer, altering its plot, its dialogues and the characters’ traits. She mocks Case’s indifference about the motivations behind his actions. In a similarly reflexive way, The Matrix Trilogy emphasizes the importance of discovering “Why” the “One” is doing what he is doing. However, in all these three “texts” those motivations are difficult to rationalize for an external viewer and remain obscures introspections, self-discoveries or identity quests. The narrative of The Matrix is inspired by Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz, specially with all the dreams sequences that disrupt the chronology.

Like the camera in Blade Runner, the camera in the Matrix Trilogy penetrates the 3D image. However, what strikes me as a difference between these films is the virtuosity with which the camera penetrates the image in the Matrix Trilogy, the vertiginous morphing of bodies and the excess of glittering lines and data. This film exemplifies the return of the cinema of attractions, a term used by Tom Gunning to characterize the early silent film. At that time the visual effect of the image on the viewers was more important than the narrative structure of the film. This is true for The Matrix, but also for Speed Racer (also made by the Washowski brothers) which I went to see last weekend. I think that this film shifts the focus from the representation of space to the representation of speed: “faster” hallucinatory movements and the multiplication of neon-like multicolored extravagant glittering trails seems to become the new cyber style. I think that this shift from space to speed (which was also noted by Virilio in his essay) is something that may characterize the Postcyberpunk (although I have a very limited sample to draw my conclusions from).

The films in The Matrix Trilogy seem useful to examine many of the theoretical concepts studied in The Cyberculture Reader. For instance, Michael Benedikt’s idea that the cyberspace is a structure comes back in many sequences where the matrix is represented as structurally imbricated lines of code. There are multiple references to social control and social structures in the film, drawing a parallel between the structure of the matrix and ideology. Neo finds a way to defy gravity in The Matrix and many bird’s eyeview shots suggest the sci-fi totalizing gaze. Buckatman explored these two aspects in his article. Neo represents the perfect hacker has he can bend the rules of the Matrix. The narrative of The Matrix recalls the patterns found in videogames. For instance, the two choices offered by the Architect to Neo in The Matrix Reloaded emphasize the limited options the character has in this “game.”

It is also interesting to examine the interaction between humans and avatars in films vs in Second Life. Like the characters in Second Life and in Existenz, the characters in The Matrix Trilogy access the matrix in group. The avatars in Existenz and The Matrix look exactly as their human counterpart. Only the hairstyle and clothing are modified. Although the imagery in Second Life is still quite rough compared to the visual realism in Bioshock or films about avatars such as The Matrix, the structure of Second Life offers more opportunities to play different roles in the virtual world. Although there are clearly an impressive number of rules in Second Life, the options appear almost limitless compared to videogames or films, as there are no predetermined narrative or algorithms. It is interesting to note the religious inflections in The Matrix and in Existenz. I have not encountered any religious solicitation in Second Life yet, although there are spiritual communities within this virtual world. What is also interesting in Second Life is that the users have the possibility to participate in the creation of the virtual worlds, everybody having the sense of being a hacker who could “change the code.”

When looking for articles establishing liinks between cyberpunk culture and speed I have found this article by Daniel Silliman which affirms that cyberpunk culture is largely inspired by Orwell: Cyberpunk, Orwellian Fears, and the Faces of Tyranny – Changes in the Future, and What They Tell Us about What We Fear. Although there is not much about speed in this article, it refers to the TV show in Dick’s Do Andoids in which the characters work for 24h non stop.

I also include a review on Speed Racer by Christopher Orr: The Movie Review: ‘Speed Racer’ for those of you who could be interested to see this film.

Game Theory for Little Sisters

I was interested by the values vehiculated in Bioshock. This idea of what could happen if everybody became a supernatural power. The depiction of scientists as evil genetic manipulators. I also wanted to find a theory about games and found the Game Theory! The Stanford Encyclopedia of philosophy defines the Game theory as the study of the ways in which strategic interactions among rational players produce outcomes with respect to the preferences (or utilities) of those players, none of which might have been intended by any of them. Because Bioshock is only for one player, there are not much strategic interactions between players. However, there are certainly places where we can strategically collaborate with digital characters. For instance, through the radio we get information from a friend. The game also requires us to make ethical choices. In the long run, the game rewards more those who choose to rescue the little sisters rather than those who choose the quickest path.

About the Theory of Games:
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/game-theory/

The questions of being caution about one’s deceitful senses and being careful when choosing one’s collaborators are more elaborated in Existenz than in the world created by Bioshock. The viewers feel as manipulated as the gamers in the film, drawn into multiple levels of reality. The idea that the bioport has a life on its own is very interesting, as it push further this idea of collaboration between the players and the ‘machine.’ This film is certainly inspired by Neuromancer. Instead of jacking in the computer, the gamers are jacked into a bioport. Like in Neuromancer, we find in Existenz the idea of the artist/creator in the narrative who reflexively parallels the filmmaker/writer who manipulates the viewers/readers.

An interesting article about Existenz:
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=818

Presence in Cyberspace

My conception of what is a subject and what consist the boundaries of my physical body are challenged by cyberspace. I have for instance started to play at Bioshock and I feel like a child who has to learn how to walk and orient herself. I am easily immersed in this universe and after some time I feel so dizzy that I need to stop. However, I never experience this sense of fusion with my avatar as I can’t properly control it. There is always this frustrating disjunction between what I want to do and what I can achieve with the remote control. My jerky movements in the space constantly remind me that there is a divide between me and my avatar.

After reading the class articles on cyberspace and because of this experience with Bioshock and Second Life I start to realize that there are multiple conceptions of the cyberspace and that this term is multi-faceted. It is not only the imaginary space created by information systems. It can be experienced as a physical and phenomenological space. In “Cyberspace,” Scott Bukatman writes about Deckard’s electronic inspection of a photograph in Blade Runner. He observes that “the visualization of electronic space thus acknowledges the reality of an other space—a new ‘other space’—that must be known in order for Being to arise. The representation of a metaphorical ‘terminal space’ thus enacts first the fission of the subject and then the beginning of its reconstitution as a terminal subject” (88). In this film, as a spectator I can identify with Deckard watching at the picture. However, the mechanical and jerky enlargement of the picture and the action of roaming through it suggests a different physical involvement with the terminal space than the one I experience with Bioshock. In Blade Runner, Deckard is totally in control, using the camera as the totalizing gaze. This reminds me Sherry Turkle’s The Second Self in which she conceives hackers are masterers of the cyberspace. In Bioshock the space controls me.

In “Will the Real Body Please Stand-Up?” Allucquere Stone writes that “in virtual systems an interface is that which mediates between the human body (or bodies) and an associated ‘I’ (or ‘I’s’).” Bioshock and the 3D camera in Blade Runner are both interfaces according to this definition. These systems create associated ‘I’ with extended (or diminished!) capacities. However, the level of presence of the viewer and his/her interaction with the cyberspace in these two systems are very different. I would argue that both interactions sollicit mental and physical attention, but that the videogame is more physically demanding and exhausting. This would be interesting to explore further De Souza’s concept of hybrid space and Gandy’s cyborg citizen under a more phenomenological light.

I found an article about presence and videogames: Spatial Presence and Emotions during Video Game Playing: Does it Matter with Whom you Play? It seems that we are more engaged at playing against another person than against a computer.http://www.temple.edu/ispr/prev_conferences/proceedings/2005/Ravaja,%20Saari,%20Turpeinen,%20Laarni,%20Salminen,%20Kivikangas.pdf

Also, an interesting article about Presence in Cyberspace.