“As the Internet of things advances, the very notion of a
clear dividing line between reality and virtual reality becomes blurred,
sometimes in creative ways.”
-Geoff
Mulgan
Virtual worlds.
Uploading minds. In my
recent studies it has come out that in time it will be possible for people to
upload their minds via technology.
What does this mean in the long run for sustaining human life? Is it now possible to outlive when our
bodies simply melt away?
Dr. Ken Hayworth works with brain mapping…which should in
turn lead to the only logical conclusion: mind uploading. Now if mind uploading will actually
work, has yet to be seen as we’re still in the process of mapping out the
actual logistics of becoming only a biological mind.
This brings to mind the concept of cyborgs. One cannot think of the possibility of
being virtual without thinking about cyborgs. According to Donna Haraway in A Cyborg Manifesto, “a cyborg is a cybernetic organism, a hybrid of
machine and organism…” of course with cyborgs then one follows the road to
Artificial Intelligence. Will
these machines that we create one day be able to think for themselves?
In one part of Haraway’s A
Cyborg Manifesto, she gives a chart that she entitles The Informatics of
Domination. This is a chart that
she uses to describe how we as a society are moving from “comfortable old
hierarchical dominations to the new scary networks called the informatics of
domination.”
A few pairs that
stand out are:
Organism: Biotic
Component
Mind: Artificial
Intelligence
Public/Private:
Cyborg Citizenship
It’s these few pairs from the list that remind us of the
power of technology, as we move from a natural world to a world that reeks of
imitation.
Here is a link to the complete list…pgs. 10-11.
You might be thinking how does this relate back to the
possibility of becoming virtual?
I like to believe that the concept of the virtual and
cyborgs go hand and hand with each other.
Almost like one is an extension of the other, they can stand-alone by
themselves but together they make a force that can change the world.
Ciao!
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