Homo Cyborg: Fifty Years Old: Homo Ciborg: Cincuenta Años Después

Homo Cyborg: Fifty Years Old
Homo Ciborg: Cincuenta aos despus Chris Hables Gray

The Union Institute and University, California, EE.UU.
ABSTRACT
While the term cyborg is only 50 years old, the process that has produced cyborgization is much older: the evolution o the human! Humans have evolved to modi y ourselves and our environment, especially through evolving culture and the technologies it creates! Culture is part o nature! "oday#s mundane i$cyborgs, military drones, intimate human$machine merging and genetic engineering are a result o this% &hich in turn produce eelings o uncanniness, hubris, and ear! Contemporary politics must ta'e this comple( dynamic into account i &e are to secure a sustainable, survivable, uture or ourselves and our descendents! )ocial e(periments such as Burning Man are a pre*guration o the 'inds o +sel , conscious techno$social creativity needed!
KEYWORDS
Cyborg, cyborgization, culture, technology, politics!
RESUMEN
-ientras la terminolog.a ciborg tiene apenas 50 a/os, son mucho m0s antiguos los procesos de ciborgizaci1n: la evoluci1n humana! 2os humanos evolucionaron para modi*car su entorno y a s. mismos, especialmente a trav3s de la cultura y las tecnolog.as! 2a cultura es parte de la natura$
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leza! 4e ella resultan los i$ciborgs mundanos de la actualidad, los aviones militares no tripulados, la usi1n .ntima humano$m05uina y la ingenier.a gen3tica: lo 5ue a su vez produce sensaciones de in5uietud, arrogancia y miedo! 2a pol.tica contempor0nea debe de considerar si estamos aseguran$ do un uturo sostenible y vivible para nuestros descendientes! 6lgunos e(perimentos sociales como el Burning Man son una pre*guraci1n de esta necesidad creativa por la concienciaci1n tecno$so$ cial!
PALABRAS CLAVE
Ciborg, ciborgizaci1n, cultura, tecnolog.a, pol.tica!
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i-cyborg
I thought it would be good to have a new concept, a concept of persons who can free themselves from the constraints of the environment to the extent that they wished. And I coined the word cyborg. I remember he [ athan !line" said, #$h, that sounds li%e a town in &enmar%.' ( Manfred )lynes *+ray,)lynes -../0 123
7i ty years ago, 89:0, the eccentric 6ustrian$6ustralian$6merican polymath, -an red Clynes, created the term cyborg rom cybernetic$organism! ;6)6 &as having a con erence on adapting humans or space and -an red and his mentor, ;athan <line, &ere invited! When = became a doc$ toral student to &or' &ith 4onna Hara&ay in the History o Consciousness >oard +Histcon, o )tudies at the ?niversity o Cali ornia, )anta Cruz, I assumed Manfred )lynes was dead !8 ;one o the Histcon cyborgologists had heard anything about him or years! 6 ter = graduated = got a el$ lo&ship rom @regon )tate#s Humanities Center to research the implications o the idea o the cyborg and began &riting to Clynes# publishers, as'ing about him! 2o and behold, he &asn#t dead but living in the same small ;orthern Cali ornia to&n as 4onna Hara&ayA >y the time = *nally met -an red, a e& years later, = &as 5uite in ected &ith cyborgs even though = certainly did not plan on studying them &hen = &ent to grad school! "rue, = applied to Histcon because o 4onna Hara&ay#s -ani esto or Cyborgs +89B5, in 4ocialist 5eview but = &ent to study military tech +6= especially, and its social implications! = considered cyborgs real enough +i mainly in the uture,, but not central to our technoscienti*c condition! 4onna#s call or ta'ing responsibility or technology, not Cust loving or hating it, and other aspects o her analytic dre& me much more than the s term cyborg!
FIGURE 1: D@>@D@6CHE +FE;C=2 >G H@)H?6 GD6G,

Human cyborgization has e(tended throughout nature, ending &ildness! Whether it is domesticated plants and animals, bioengineered bacteria, or roaches controlled through implants by teams o Hapanese scientists, the &orld is no& our garden city, and than's to our ubi5uitous pollut$ ants, our overheating garbage dump!
"he bold aced hun's o te(t are a homage to "he Cyborg Handboo' +Gray, -entor I 7igueroa$)arriera, 8995,, &hich had the same eature!
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)tudying the contemporary military changed my vie&! =t &as soon clear that the cyborg +usually called the man$machine &eapon system or Cust &eapon, &as a 'ey aspect o postmodern &ar and there ore o postmodernity +another meme = unsuccess ully resisted,! While trying to understand the deep relationship bet&een &ar and technology = read many people, but especially most o 2e&is -um ord and the science studies eminists and although the insight &as ramed in many &ays, and denied in many others, it became clear to me that our tools and ourselves &ere the same!
FIGURE 2: ;6)6 )G)"E- 4=6GD6- +;6)6,

Culture is part o nature! Human$machine space systems are all cyborgs, rom space suits to space stations! "hey are also as natural as Cungles!
@ver the years = have tried to unpac' Cust &hy this is! "here seem to be so many drivers o our cyborgiza$ tion: &ar, &or', medicine, and pleasure! =t is overdetermined! "his sea change in our relationship to technology, this culmination o the tool$machine Courney in incorporation has been noticed! =t has been called the vital machine +Channell, 8998,, the Jth 4iscontinuity +-azlish, 899K,, radical evolution, and other things! Cyborgization is Cust one, very use ul in my opinion, &ay o raming this moment!
FIGURE 3: CG>@DG HED-6FHD@4="E +FE; 6;4 =;<, >G >@> "H6W2EG,

Culture is incredibly plastic! "his image, never imagined be ore the artist! >ob "ha&ley too' up his dra&ing pad, has no& been reproduced around the &orld and has inLuenced the &ay thousands o humans thin' about technos$ cience, se(uality, and pop culture and their comple( dances! Culture is the astest &ay humans evolve!
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"he human is the protean animal, modeling animal, the ma'ing and rema'ing animal, homo aber, the na'ed ape +-orris 89B0,, the arti*cial ape +"aylor, M080,, the civilized +city living#, ape, clearly the cybernetic organic primate! We have trans ormed the &orld into an e(tension o ourselves, rom ecology to cybernetic organism% call it noosphere +"eilhard de Chardin, M00J,, metaman +)toc', 899K,, conscious Gaia, global intelligence +4yson, 899B, or inevitable singu$ larityNapocalypse! Whatever you call it, it is an e(pression o &hat ma'es us! Cyborgization is human nature! ;ot only are &e all cyborgs, but also it is as part o one cybernetic organism that is li e on this planet! "he pace o global human$machine integration is impossible to trac'! )cientists continue to per ect in ecting people &ith ne& inheritable genes, droneNhuman sys$ tems are replacing manned aircra t as the air dominance &eapon system o terror &ar, ne& vaccines are constantly being created to reprogram our immune systems +especially against the in$ evitable pandemics our recent biological success portends,, the &eb spreads, computers +as lin's to the net, as photo and te(t systems, as access to mass media, become even more intercompatible and ubi5uitous and tiny, nanotechnology advances arm in arm &ith neurotechnoscience in a 5uest or per ect lie detectors, and eventually, mind reading, and mind control technologies, and so much more! "here is no& tal' o saving the planet rom ourselves by cyborging Gaia! "he hope is that dir$ ectly intervening in massive climate change consciously, instead o doing it unconsciously &ith our &astes and our lusts as &e have or the last M00,000 years, &ill turn out better! We shall see! Cer$ tainly, this &ill ma'e the &hole mutilation$prosthetic dance o using technology to cure the problems o technology an integral part o our biosphere! "echnoscience produces a mutilation o nature so it is called on to cra t a ne& prosthesis, &hich is a urther mutilation, &hich then needs ne& *(es! We are attaching ourselves to a succession o smaller, more po&er ul, and more seductive communication N music N calculation N memorialization technologies that become mundane parts o our lives! "hese devices and our cars and our houses and our net&or' so t&are ta'e over large parts o our daily mental &or', they are ma'ing us: iOcyborg! We &ant to ma'e Google the third hal o your brain! Co$ ounder )ergey >rin declared, &hile e(plaining the ne& search eature that guesses &hat the users &ant! +4an 6rancisco )hronicle, )ept! 8M, E80, 4on#t &orry about &hether or not you are a cyborg! 6s' instead, What 'ind o cyborg am =P 6 cybernetic organism is any sel $regulating +homeostatic, system that includes organic +living, natural, evolved, and machinic +unliving, arti*cial, invented, subsystems! Civilization is a cycle o systems: organic creating machinic to perpetuate more organic to ma'ing mi(ed! 6 cyborg can also be a biocomputer +&ith memory that can die,, a transgenic plant +Celly*sh genes in tomatoes, or instance,, or a coc'roach &ith electrodes in its head controlled by Hapanese scientists, ! Cybor$ gization is not limited to systems incorporating human elements, but humans per orm all
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cyborgizations! )till, in many &ays, human based cyborgs are the most interesting, &hether it is the antasy o Dobocop, a maimed soldier &ith a sophisticated prosthetic arm, a dead person 'ept alive &ith machines a&aiting organ harvesting +a neomort or living cadaver, or anyone &hose im$ mune system has been reprogrammed by vaccinations! "here are many diQerent types and levels o cyborgization! "he incorporated living elements +viral, bacterial, plant, insect, reptile, rodent, avian, mammal,, the technological interventions +machine prosthesis, genetic engineering, nanobot in ection, vaccination, (enotransplant, and the level o integration +mini, mega, meta, mundane, can all vary, meaning that basically an in*nite number o possible cyborgs e(ist, li e multiplied by human invention and intervention! +)ee Gray et al! M080R"he Cyborg 4atabase, or e(amples and discussion o the range o possible cyborgizations!, While millions use the internet, &here every user is a temporary cyborg, and billions have been immunized, cyborgization is little 'no&n nor understood! -uch o the most interesting theory is actually ound in science *ction but there is also a gro&ing body o literature rom crit$ ical and cultural studies, catalyzed by 4onna Hara&aySs amous Manifesto for )yborgs +89B5,! Her argument that cyborgization mandated a deeper engagement &ith the politics o technoscience and a challenge to simple dichotomous epistemologies has resonated broadly through many *elds and disciplines! "he politics o cyborgization is a sub*eld o its o&n, as in )yborg )iti7en +Gray, M008,, $ur 8osthuman 6uture +7u'uyama, M00M, and )iti7en )yborg +Hughes, M00J,! "here is also a gro&ing literature about being cyborged, the best o &hich are rom the &earable computer pioneer )teve -ann +M008, and the cochlear ear implant recipient -ichael Chorost +M005,!
The Implosion of Nature an !ulture

=t has ta'en 85 years o studying the cyborgization 5uestion or me to realize the ans&er is evolu$ tion! Cyborgs evolved, and by accepting this &e can begin to really understand our nature, and there ore shape our uture! "he category natural is imploding &ith the complete technocolonization o &ildness! Hu$ mans are insinuated into almost every ecological niche and biological process on the planet, either as active shapers or through our ubi5uitous pollution! "he category natural is imploding &ith the multiple intimate intert&ining o the arti*cial into almost every macro and micro living system in the biosphere! "he cultural is no& ully revealed as natural! "here is no culture not evolved as nature! "here is no outside to culture, it is inside nature! "he speed o human evolution and biosphere domina$ tion has been e(traordinary and it is increasing! Wildness is tamed% progress is no& de eating death and chance &hile e(panding pleasure in*nitely, in other &ords the intimate mergings o ma$
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chinic and in ormatic systems into humans and other biological organisms and the integration o these organisms into vast technoscienti*c nets! "his relentless multiplying ubi5uitous trans ormation is producing a great dis$ease in our cul$ ture! 6s death has haunted all humanity since sentience, so no& does cyborgization permeate everything &e thin' and do! )uch maCor trans ormations o human consciousnessNculture have oc$ curred be ore: "aming 7ire, Decognizing 4eath, and creating )tory, "ools, -usic, 2anguage, Culture, Civilization and -achines &ere clearly on the same scale! )till, such ruptures are not common and this current brea' &ith the past could &ell herald the end o the human in e(tinction or in the proli eration o posthumanities!
7eeling ?ncanny
9an uncanny experience occurs either when infantile complexes which have been repressed are once more revived by some impression, or when primitive beliefs which have been surmounted seem once more to be con:rmed. *4igmund 6reud -.-.0 ;1.3 <here can be little doubt that the fabrication of the cyborg is a sign of a collective anxiety around the ubi=uitous presence of the machine. *Bruce +renville ;>>-0 123
"o be human is to eel uncanny! We are home and not home &ith our bodies! >ecause o the lens o consciousness our very nature is amiliar and yet uncom ortably strange! @ur models o reality are al&ays in tension &ith reality itsel , as a model can never match reality that is too com$ ple( to predict consistently any&ay! Even that sliver o reality &e have evolved to interact most &ith, the vulgar physics o the ;e&tonian model, o hunting and hunted at the &ater hole, is truly beyond our 'en! >ase desires, the blood and mucus and e(crement o living and the inevitable to$ tality o death, are concealed in our daily lives but al&ays present! )o it is al&ays there, the itch in our mind that cannot be soothed, that eeling! Even i &e gro& com ortable into the &orld in &hich &e are born, that &orld is inevitably s&ept a&ay by relentless and accelerating technoscienti*c change! @ur *rst technologies came dir$ ectly rom &ild nature +as &e did, and &ere intimate &ith it: *re, &ood, stone, cultivated plants and domesticated animals! "oday &e trans orm everything and &e eel losses &e do not 'no& ho& to articulate! @ur almost complete alienation rom &ild nature, and our increasing trans ormation and integration into our o&n creations, produces uncanny &aves o ear and denial! "he ear is easily seen in the reception to 4onna Hara&ay#s -ani esto or Cyborgs! =t is clear that many o its detractors have not actually read it! "hey rail against some te(t they e(pected
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to read, a paean to cyborgization, rather than the subtle critical analysis that Hara&ay &rote! 6s an icon, the te(t has become a litmus test on cyborgization! = you hate and ear a cyborg society o humans and machines +that is, the society &e currently live in,, you denounce the te(t &hatever it really says! = you have a more complicated reaction to cyborgization you engage it 5uite diQer$ ently! "here are many e(amples o such &ill ul readings but t&o o the most revealing are the Adbusters# spoo mani esto and >ill -c<ibben#s discussion in his best$selling: ?nough0 4taying @uman in an ?ngineered Age! -c<ibben#s reading is the subtler! He characterizes "he Cyborg -ani esto as a clever argu$ ment, &ith appeal!T +M00K: 89J$5, >ut &hat is it a clever argument orP 7or 4ele%tion, ;azi$ style eugenics, an idea he attributes to the German philosopher Feter )loterdiC' and to Hara&ay! +italics in original, p! 89K, While this is the biggest leap he ma'es, other Cumps abound! 6c$ cording to -c<ibben, Hara&ay *nds #man# and U&oman#!!!natural categories, but cyborgization &ill deconstruct them! 6nd, politics, he e(plicitly claims, is also rendered irrelevant in the vie& o the cyborgologists, since Cyborgology gave up on the old &ays o building a Cust society +the bumper stic'ers, the endless meetings!!!, and substituted a technological end run! +-c<ibben M00K: 89J$5,, a claim that is contradicted by the te(t, and Hara&ay#s li e as an activist! 2in'ing Hara&ay to masculinist ascism and its crude, horri*c, attempts to rema'e humanity reveals more about -c<ibben#s ears than about anything Hara&ay actually &rote! )o it is in$ triguing that "he Cyborg -ani esto hoa( promulgated by Adbusters +a slic' neo$)ituationist magazine and collective in >ritish Columbia, starts &ith a graphic o intertwined & A and swasti%as! ;o e(planation is oQered, Cust the image! "his is 5uite an incongruous design choice, considering the pretense that this mani esto &as &ritten by militantly pro$cybogization thin'ers loo'ing to convince! Even i one &ere to call or eugenics +positive or negative,, one &ould hardly do so by invo'ing the ;azis! "he little mani esto pamphlet +&ithout page numbers, &as stapled into the center o the Adbusters magazine, &hich is 5uite &idely distributed! =t is &ithout authors, but it starts by ac'no&ledging 7or their inspiration and uns&erving devotion to the spirit o this mani esto 4onna Hara&ay along &ith Ho&ard >loom, George Gilder, <evin <elly, Day <urz$ &eil, Fierre 2evy, Hans -oravec, ;icholas ;egroponte and )telarc! "his is 5uite a diverse group &ith many diQerent ta'es on cyborgization! Human denial o cyborgization is every&here! =t is clear in the antasies o the )ingularity, the rapture o the machines, &hich ocus on the unli'ely spontaneous development o arti*cial intelli$ gence &hile ignoring cyborgization! =t is obvious in the conLation o robots and human machine systems such as the &ar drones o 6 ghanistan and the repair systems or the Gul oil disaster! ;6)6, &hich sponsored the con erence &here the term cyborg &as coined never committed to the term, pre erring technical language +bioinstrumentation, human$machine systems,! E(plain to your
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riends that they are cyborgs because they are immunized or because o the many intermittent mundane cyborg technologies they are implicated in and most &ill respond &ith horror and dis$ gust! "his ear and denial o cyborgs is mirrored by similar eelings many have about evolution!
Farticipatory Evolution
7or some people, evolution is too mechanistic to believe! >ut this is only because they don#t understand it! @n closer inspection, evolution is an e(tremely comple( process that although &e are part o &e can never comprehend! =t is &ay beyond any overall system &e can use to e(plain it, because, among other things, evolution is evolving! "he clearest, and most important &ay this is happening is through human ingenuity, the integration o organic +evolved, alive, and inorganic +invented, machinic, systems: cybernetic organisms, cyborgs! Evolution is not Cust biological, the same orces o reproductionNchance and selectionNnecessity &or' on nonliving matter and on cultural constructions! Humans have evolved to be a trans orm$ ative species! "o gain reproductive advantage, to achieve the dominance over the rest o nature that &e have, &e continually trans orm our environment and &e trans orm ourselves! @ur ability to ma'e mental models o the &ay things are and predict &hat may be is &hat allo&s us to imagine the &orld, and ourselves, as diQerent and to ma'e it so! Humans are ma'ers o changes to nature! =t seems to have started &ith ma'ing stories, ma'ing culture, ma'ing sense o the &orld, or at least enough to manipulate it, to oster *re, to 'ill at a dis$ tance, to notice the po&ers o the moon and sun! 7rom there, rom planning the hunt and the barbecue, it is Cust a hop s'ip and a Cump to selling insurance, going to the store, and barbecue! @ course, no& there are 9 billion o us, and many o us have really nice caves and there is the car thing and the &ar machines and television and satellites and vaccines and prosthetics and genetics andV )o &here did &e come romP We evolved! Evolution mani ested us and &e perpetuate it! )till, &hat is evolutionP "here is something! =t reproduces and adapts! "here is selection! Depeat in*n$ itely! )eems simple enough, but in the details o this simple process there is incredible comple(ity! 4ar&in identi*ed t&o orms o selection: natural and arti*cial! ;atural selection is the syn$ thesis o chance and necessity generating increasing comple(ity out o oneness N nothingness N energy! -atter to particles to atoms to molecules to compounds to stars to planets and solar sys$ tems and, sometimes, li e! 2i e, a tangled ban' through time that *lls the Earth! 6rti*cial selection is human action on other organisms! M0,000 years ago a &ol lur'ed by the *re and &as lured in by &armth, ood, and interaction! ;o& &e have -e(ican Chihuahuas and
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English mastiQs! We have corn and roses and 'ittens and lemon basil! We have patiently &or'ed on nature to ma'e o the tangled ban' our garden! We no& see that there is also sel $selection! "his is obvious &ith germ line +inheritable, ge$ netic engineering, but it is no& clear that our o&n mating choices pro oundly shape evolution as &ell! =n the last 80,000 years, sel $selection has produced an incredible rate o change in the human brain! ChanceNreproduction and necessityNselection aren#t simple dialectics, there is a cyborg epistem$ ology o thesis, antithesis, prosthesis, synthesis, in diQerent progressions! >y modeling the &orld &e can plan not Cust to deal &hat &ill come, but also to shape the uture by modi ying the &orld and ourselves! "his modeling, this theorizing about the &orld and e(plaining it and trying to con$ trol it, started &ith each other! We are social animals and our success has been because o that! @nce &e evolved culture, tamed *re, and invented tools +the *rst prosthesis, &e &ere on our &ay to today!
FIGURE ": 2E"#) F26G F6D"=C=F6"@DG EW@2?"=@; G6-E >@X +C@226GE >G >D@<E; 4D?-,
"he M009 theme or >urning -an &as Evolution! "he >ro'en 4rum Collective o the )yndicate or =nitiative created this game about evolution as a gi t to >lac' Doc' City M009 &here it &as given a&ay to various strangers and riends! =t &as de$ signed to put the reality o evolution at the heart o people#s understandings o &here they come rom, and &here they might go! 4ar&in identi*ed t&o orms o selection: natural and arti*cial! ;atural selection is the blind culling o chance and necessity +survival o the survivors,! 6rti*cial selection is human action on other organisms! We no& realize there is also sel $selection, obvious no& &ith germ line genetic engineering but discernible in our o&n mating choices, no matter ho& bizarre! "hese are the Gates into the 2abyrinth o Farticipatory Evolution!
FIGURE #: G6-E >@6D4: "HE 26>GD=;"H

EW@2?"=@; +>G >D@<E; 4D?-,
"o Flay: Fic' a piece! Choose a gate! Doll the dice! -ove the piece!
@7
F6D"=C=F6"@DG
"a'e the cards i indicated! @bey! @r not! "he game &as created by anarchists so, please, argue against and change the rules! -ovement: Each s5uare is one evolution! Gou move by rolling the die and through
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the commands o the cards! "he movement into the center o the spiral and out is or&ard through time! Whether it is or&ard in any other &ay is an ongoing philosophical debate! = you land on a space &ith another player on it one o you has to go! Doll dice and the loser has to go the number the &inner rolled bac' the &ay they came! @r thumb &restle! @r declare yourselves a symbiotic meta$organism! @r mate! Whatever, it is >urning -an! !
FIGURE $: 646F"=@; C6D4 +>G >D@<E; 4D?-,

6nthropologist Go 7or&ard 80 steps =mage: <no& "hysel 6daptation is the process o organisms adapting to their environment +in$ cluding many other organisms, through mutation, genetic dri t, learning, inventing, and other processes! "he term 6daption is used here to re er to adaptation, but also to humans adapting memes, tools, and cognitive rames! Culture, especially technos$ cience, is a maCor distinguishing trait o humans and it is deployed to adapt us and the &orld around us!
FIGURE %: EX"=;C"=@; C6D4 +>G >D@<E; 4D?-,

War Go >ac' 50 )paces =mage: War is interested in youA E(tinction happens on many levels! @n some it is clearly a setbac' or the proli erating o li e! "hin' asteroid hit! @n smaller scales, do&n to the inevitable ate o the individual +you too must dieA,, death is a necessary part o evolution!
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FIGURE &: DEFD@4?C"=@; C6D4 +>G >D@<E; 4D?-,

Cyborgization Go 7or&ard 5 )teps =mage: Cyborg Goddess = you are sent to the Deproduction site you can choose rom one o the t&o reproductive methods: Cloning and )e(! "han's to mutation and genetic dri t even cloning produces diQerences that can improve survival chances, but se( produce a much &ider range o possibilities! 6nd it is more unA
Uncyborgable'
A human child raised on a desert island with no social interaction would end up with the cognitive s%ills as an adult that are not very diAerent from an apeBs, because a lot of our really smart adaptations are adaptations for putting our heads together with others and learning from others. *Michael <omassello, Max 8lanc% Institute for ?volutionary Anthropology3
"he choices &e ma'e about our cyborgization are political choices, &hether driven by ear, the desire or Custice, or aesthetics! "hey are limited by our culture, o course, but also by the technical limits o cyborgization itsel , the technoscienti*c processes that ma'e it possible! Cyborgs are sys$ tems and all systems, o being and o 'no&ing, are pro oundly limited! "his is seen most clearly in ormal systems! <urt GYdel sho&ed that the mother o all ormal systems, mathematics, is pro$ oundly limited because it is necessarily incomplete, or parado(ical, or both! +>oth aren#t yet proven but it seems most li'ely!, He did this proo by ma'ing a per ectly legitimate mathematical algorithm rom the amous parado( o Gree' philosophy about the Cretan liar, &ho al&ays lies! = a Cretan tells you he al&ays lies then is that a lieP 6s it turns out, the mathematics proves that mathematics cannot be per ect! 6lonzo Church and 6lan "uring used the same tric' to sho& that an in*nite computer inevitably is incomplete, or has parado(es, or both!
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7rom physics &e 'no& that the observer al&ays aQects the system being observed, &hich is 'no&n as the Heisenberg ?ncertainty Frinciple! 6nd since the observer$system is al&ays changing +being observed itsel , or e(ample, &hen &e ponder it,, no system can be *(ed! 6n implication o the Heisenberg ?ncertainty Frinciple is the >ayesian Farado(: to 'no& the position o an electron means one cannot 'no& its path, or vice versa! =n other &ords, &e cannot 'no& everything, to 'no& some things means not to 'no& others! 6ny non$trivial cyborg system is out$o $control in the sense that it cannot be controlled rom outside, it has sel $regulation, homeostasis! "his is one o a number o insights rom comple(ity theory on the unpredictable, uncontrollable, unmodi*able, aspects o comple( systems, including all biological ones! Even i arti*cial +machinic, genetic, nano, become a million times more com$ ple( and sophisticated, there &ill al&ays be technological limits to the replacement o the biological by us! "he great cyberneticist Gregory >ateson has pointed out that a system cannot 'no& itsel ! 6t the best it can ma'e a map, a model, but the map is never the territory! "he tension bet&een needing to believe in our stories, our models, our maps, and yet realize that they are not reality &ill never disappear! We need to embrace it, not repress it or the repressed returns as irrationality or &orse! What is uncyborgableP >y de*nition, parts o every cyborg have not been cyborged, that is t he paradox at cyborgBs heart! 6 cyborg is al&ays biological, at least in some small &ay! When ma$ chines totally replace the biological that &ill be a robot and the cyborg &ill be gone! >ut that is very ar a&ay rom today! 6s long as there are cyborgs, the organic &ill survive! 7ear, and desire, and other human emotions and choices &ill set limits on cyborgization, as &ill the very nature o systems and the realities o technology! >ut as an e(pression o human nature, our morphing, moding, messing around &ith our environment and us, cyborgization is going to continue and deepen! )o the issue isn#t i &e#ll be cyborged, but ho& and &ho &ill decide! 6s 4onna Hara&ay pro$ claimed a 5uarter o a century ago O &e must ta'e responsibility or our cyborgorization! We must ta'e responsibility or our evolution! @ther&ise, somebody else &ill! "he >org o the 4tar <re% universe are a good &arning! = &e don#t chose participatory evolution &ith cyborg amily values our uture &ill not be guided by ourselves or even the blind hand o chance! =nstead, tomorro& &ill be molded by the vulgar *st o governments, corporations and other authoritarian systems that in service o their short term ends &ill &arp us into nightmares! Here the >org are &rong! Desistance isn#t utile, it is ertile! Evolution is a series o revolutions and no& &e are the revolutionaries! =t is evolve, or dieVoQ!
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;e& technologies mandate ne& political systems and institutions i democracy is to be pre$ served and deepened! Constitutions, >ills o Dights, and +sel , governing initiatives are crucial democratic technologies, but so are autonomous decentralized organizations that cut across and belo& oZcial systems to do directly &hat civil society or speci*c communities desire! "hese ne& political technologies are based only in part on old political theories! ;e& theories, coming out o actual political struggles and practices and rom artistic and technological innovations, are crucial! "heories about in ormation, the signNtropeNhallmar' o postmodernity, are particularly important! "he process that produces all cyborg technologies, including the political, ollo&s the cyborg epistemology proposed in 8995 by mysel , )teven -entor, and Heidi 7igueroa$)arriera: "hesis, antithesis, Frosthesis, )ynthesis! 6nd again! =n other &ords, part o the dynamic is dialectical! 6s the monetization o culture over&helmed so much in the t&entieth century, attempts &ere made to limit its dominance in the orm o anti$monopoly legislation, lobbyist limitations, and campaign *nance re orm! "hat these eQorts have totally ailed has created deeper criti5ues, especially those o the M8st Century movement o movements! "hey have led directly to privatization so t&are, de$ centralized net&or'ing strategies, 4=G +do it yoursel , proCects rom the global +indymedia, 2inu(, the )ocial 7orum and counter$ orum net&or', to the most local such as my beloved )anta Cruz 7armer#s -ar'et! "his ne(us o theory is also based on a long practice o grassroots democracy, aZnity groups and consensus, eminist process and real community! >ut other alternative 'no&$ ledge systems can ma'e use o the same tropes! 6l [aeda +base in the net in 6rabic, is a per ect e(ample, &ith its cyborg suicide systems, decentralized command and control &ith media lin'ages and high levels o secrecy! =t is also a re$ Lection in an asymmetrical +as in &ar, mirror o the in ormation$intensive high$tech cyborg combat systems o the ?!)! and ;6"@ and the contrasting liberatory potential o the inter&eb! +Gray, M005, Deaction, inheritance, prosthesis, reLection, and al&ays something ne&$$the caus$ ality o culture is never simple, binary, or ever ully understood Human biological evolution in the last 80,000 years has been rapid! Human cultural evolution in the last 80,000 years has been much aster! "he relationship bet&een biological, technological, and cultural change is impossible to sort out but &e can certainly aQect it! We are it! Emotionally accepting that is the hard part! Coming to terms &ith our cyborgization is learning ho& to live &ith our uncanny eelings, and gro& through them! We see this in culture &ith ne& belie systems and institutions! >ut the danger there is believing totally in partial stories! >etter to believe partially in many things! 6 good model or this is the estival called >urning -an! Every year, or one &ee', >lac' Doc' City is built on an al'aline desert, 50,000 people inhabit it, and it is dismantled! "he city is 4=G, almost entirely sel $governing, an almost pure gi t economy &here money is banned almost every&here, and it never stops ma'ing un o itsel ! =t is only possible because o the clever and e($
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tensive use o technology, &hich is a central part o the art and un o the place as &ell! =t sho&s ho& contingent, ho& created, human cultures are! =t is living proo that other &orlds are possible, perhaps even better ones!
FIGURE (: >26C< D@C< C="G
M080: -E"D@F@2=) +>G >D@<E; 4D?-,

"he M080 theme or >urning -an &as -etropolis! "his collage is a homage to the previous three in$ carnations o >lac' Doc' City and the diQerent people &ho camped &ith >ro'en 4rum in them! "he temporary, intermittent, 4=G, gi t based, art and pleasure ocused nature o >lac' Doc' City#s culture demonstrates the incredibly cre$ ativity, Le(ibility, and contingency o human social adaptability and technology and the po&er o decentralized decision$ma'ing! 6ll o these 5ualities, and more, &ill be needed i humanity is to survive the current crisis o crisis &e are undergoing!
FIGURE 1): >?D;=;G -6;
+>G4@C"@D) W="H@?" >@?;46DG C6-F,

=t is not enough to describe the u$ ture! We must live it i it is to come to pass! "his is pre*guration! >lac' Doc' City is pre*guration by eco$ nomics +gi t,, politics +4=G,, and culture +art, music, consciousness, leave no trace on the >lac' Doc' desert, o a better &orld that is cer$ tainly possible!
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FIGURE 11: E"HEDE62 +@=2 >G H?2=6 C! D! GD6G,

=magination is one o humanitySs most e(traordinary capabil$ ities! "o thin' o possible utures is to begin to actualize them! = &e are to evolve into posthumous o grace and harmony, a good place to start is by contemplating creatures such as Eth$ ereal, by the artist Hulia C!D! Gray! 6n 65ua human o beauty and calm, at home in the Lo&ers, at home &ith itsel !!
*c+no,le gments
"his essay has a complicated genealogy! "o start it is based on my previous &ritings on cyborgs and several ongoing research proCects, such as the Cyborg 4atabase! =ts speci*c origin is a tal' in the summer o M009, T@nly Good and Evil: Fostmodern "echnoscienceT, >ellas 6rtes, -adrid, )pain, sponsored by Cibersomosaguas! = added the idea o the uncyborgable later, &hen it &as put or&ard by the organizers o 6mber #09, a &onder ul con erence on 6rt and "echnology in =stanbul! "his ormed the basis or a short article = &rote or the magazine 2iteral, published in )panish and English! "hat article &as the rame or my 'eynote tal' at the 6mber #09 con erence and, in turn, parts o both &ere incorporated into a longer essay or the 6mber #09 proceedings, ?ncyborgable, &hich also dre& on an essay &ritten &ith )teven -entor, Cyborgs, -asculin$ idad, -ani*estos y Cambio )ocial published in )panish in Cultura digital y movimientos socials, =gor )abada y 6ngel Gordo, eds!, -adrid: Catarata, M00B, pp! 8M5$8JB! "hen in Huly o M080 = used much material rom these to &rite a long essay, "he ?ncanny Evolution o the Cyborg, or a volume being put together by the Contemporary 6rt -useum o <aliningrad, Dussia, called Evolution Haute Couture: 6rt and )cience in the Fost$>iological 6ge! =t should be published in Dussian and English some time in M088! "hat te(t has been truncated, modi*ed, and elaborated upon here!
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Homo Cyborg: Fifty Years Old: Homo Ciborg: Cincuenta Años Después

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Homo Cyborg: Fifty Years Old

Homo Ciborg: Cincuenta aos despus Chris Hables Gray

Revista Teknokultura, 2011, Vol. 8 N: 2: 83-104 !!N: 1"4# 2230

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