Self-Help for Cyborgs (First Draft)

Educating Cyborgs

Notes: http://hypergogue.net/2010/12/17/educating-cyborgs/

What would a school for Robocop look like?

1. Rock

This rock is very old.

He's right – 4 billion years*

Around 4 billion years ago, there were around 1500

types of rock and mineral.

This is chalk.

Chalk is younger than 4 billion years.

Chalk is made from dead micro-organisms.Life makes rock.

Nowadays, there around 4500 rocks and minerals.

Life makes rock.

People make art.

People make rock too.

This is a game called Minecraft.

I used to think it was “the future of gaming”.

Now I'm not so sure.Maybe it's just “the future”.

In the same way that this is “the past”.

2. Scissors

This is what The Google says a “cyborg” looks like.

Cyborgs are sexy.

Cyborgs are excting.

Mechanics, robotics and electronics are only half the

story.

What's more, they're not even the more interesting

half.

Proto-cyborgsNew York, New York 1912

Now we're talking.

Oh. Yeah!

<ahem>

Donna Haraway, “A Cyborg Manifesto”

(1985).

“In relation to objects like biotic components, one must not think in terms of essential properties, but in terms of design, boundary constraints, rates of flows, systems logics, costs of lowering constraints. Sexual reproduction is one kind of reproductive strategy among many, with costs and benefits as a function of the system environment.”

“In relation to objects like biotic components, one must not think in terms of essential properties, but in terms of design, boundary constraints, rates of flows, systems logics, costs of lowering constraints. Sexual reproduction Sexual reproduction is one kind of reproductive is one kind of reproductive strategy among manystrategy among many, with costs and benefits as a function of the system environment.”

“In relation to objects like biotic components, one must not think in terms of essential properties, but in terms of design, boundary constraints, rates of flows, systems logics, costs of lowering constraints. Sexual reproduction is one kind of reproductive strategy among many, with costs and benefits as a function of the system environment.”

Haraway's saying that technologies give women a

choice.

Technologies.

Technologies: plural.Not just spacesuits.And exoskeletons.

But drugs too.(Get over the spacesuits

already.)

And art.

And media.

3. Paper

A baby.

A cyborg baby.

He's just heard his mother for the first

time.

I think he likes it.

This is a cochlear implant.

Cochlear Implants are bionic ears.

Scott Adams.

Creator of Dilbert.

Cyborg.

From Scott Adams' blog post: Exobrainhttp://dilbert.com/blog/entry/exobrain/

All kinds of things affect the way we think.

Not always for the good.

We've gained new senses.

And supplemented our brains.

And sometimes we get to glimpse things too big for our tiny minds to grasp.

4. Games

Do you ever wonder...

… how he ended up ...

… to be like this?

The thing is, working on a ship is a big thing.

Too big for our tiny minds.

Sea shanties are working songs.

They're a brilliant way to make a complex task easy.

If these Ghanain fishermen don't row in time ...

… they're going nowhere. They NEED to sing.

The songs are a model.

Some things are too big for our tiny minds.

“I am a lead pencil—the ordinary wooden pencil familiar to all boys and girls and adults who can read and write.”

“My story is interesting... I am a mystery—more so than a tree or a sunset or even a flash of lightning. ”

“But, sadly, I am taken for granted by those who use me, as if I were a mere incident and without background.”

“I, Pencil, ... merit your wonder and awe, because I am seemingly so simple. ”

“Simple? Yet, not a single person on the face of this earth knows how to make me. . .”

That was an excerpt from a four-page essay written in

1958 – “I, Pencil”.

It details the amazing complexity of the work that goes into making a pencil.

“I, iPhone” would be a lot longer than four pages.

MOST things are too big for our tiny minds.

Not just iPhones and pencils.

5. Learning

Erm, maybe?

Erm, maybe?

Oh, please.

This is Steve Mann. He's a 'real' cyborg.

Steve's cool.

But he's not a 'real' cyborg.

No more 'real' than this guy, anyway.

Or Aimee Mullins.

Or YOU.

Cyborgs are human-technological systems.

Homo habilis made tools.

This guy's not a cyborg.

But.

Somewhere.

Along the way.

It happened.

And.

All of us.

Became cyborgs.

Which kind of begs the question....

Which kind of begs the question....

Yes, it rather does, doesn't

it?.

Which kind of begs the question....Indeed. If all of

us are cyborgs, why are you spending so much time

banging on about it?.

Which kind of begs the question....

Is this the bit where we get to

Robocop?.

A modern school.

Everybody's got Macs.

So why are they in school?

Would you send Robocop to a lecture?

Q: Do we want our kids and our employees to think about the world more?

Q: Do we want our kids and our employees to think about the world more?

Q: Or do we want them to think with the world?

Q: Or do we want them to think with the world?

Q: What if all those databases and books aren't

for writing in?

Q: What if all those databases and books are about getting stuff out?