IS THE POST-HUMAN A POST-WOMAN? Robots, Cyborgs and the Futures of Gender (original) (raw)
Related papers
European Journal of Futures Research, 2014
This study aims to shed light on the debate about the futures of gender, by taking into account its significance in the current development of Artificial Intelligence (AI), cyborg technologies and robotics. Its reflections are sustained by empirical data obtained between November 2010 and January 2011, when the author engaged in a study related to Gender and Artificial Intelligence at the Department of Cybernetics, University of Reading (England) under the supervision of Professor Kevin Warwick, known as the first human cyborg for his experiments "Cyborg I" (1998) and "Cyborg II" (2002). In this context, the author formulated a questionnaire which was answered by more than one hundred students and researchers of the Department. The specific question motivating this research was: how and to what extent do gender and the intersectional differences characterizing the human species inform the development of cyborgs, robots and AI? The results of the questionnaire, presented in this article, offer original and controversial perspectives on how such epistemological approaches may impact the futures.
NORA: Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research, 2024
The cultural technologies of gender, race and empire drive much of the present Anthropocene crisis, now and in the past. Everyday algorithms reproduce and multiply our cultural biases on a global scale. Anthropocentrism, humanistic supremacy and individualistic territorialism are rampant, making us all less humane. Society awakes slowly from the modern illusion of categorical identities and divides that keep nature from culture, human from animal, environment from embodiment, technology from biology and arts from science and society. The argument here is for taking stock of ways of cyborg knowing-also beyond the academic confines. It is time for new knowledge integrations forged in intellectual generosity. The cyborg, as a discipline-crossing figure, proposed theorypractices and practice-theories for how to readjust our high consumption, high energy and hyper-instrumental society, and ourselves, adaptively. In this piece, I proposed that feminist STS and cyborg knowing work as a prominent entry into the transformative multiverse of feminist posthumanities in practice.A ARTICLE HISTORY
Crossing the boundaries: Some thoughts about cyborgs
in "The History of Illustration", 2019
“… I would rather be a cyborg than a goddess” (Haraway 1985: 101). This statement ends Donna Haraway’s famous and influential 1985 article, “A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the 1980s,” in which Haraway reconceptualises what it means to be human in contemporary society. For her, technologies are a way to reimagine feminism and to challenge and break down binary thinking based on differentiation and othering (for instance, that male and female are clear categories and opposites, with the female considered deviant from and inferior to the male ‘norm’). This provides food-for-thought for contemporary illustration by questioning how the world is represented and explained, while also providing a way to engage with pressing social and technological changes that alter the definition and meaning of being human, animal, natural, artificial, self, and other.
BEHIND AND BEYOND OF THE CYBORGS AND ROBOTS IDEAS AND REALITIES:
We are progressively immersed in technology to such extend that in our everyday life we are and we do what technology allows us to be and to do. In this process, cyborgs and robots constitute elements that we analyze from a number of techno scientific and philosophical approaches. Additionally, we propose that a new concept: GEH (Genetic Engineered Human) as a new potential social imaginary element, which would be the human being improved by the broad-sense genetics engineer (that is, changing many genes by genetics engineer, modifications in the genome, cloning, and so on). If our aspirations as humans pass through technology and in particular for cyborgs, robots and GEH, the bidirectional links between these theoretical or real entities and our personal identities will be the more and more substantial in our society.
Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, 2023
This research paper embarks on a comprehensive exploration of the complex interplay between gender biases and Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms, framed through the lens of cybernetic feminism. Drawing on a rich body of interdisciplinary literature, the paper critically examines how biases are not mere reflections of existing societal norms but are intricately woven into the very architecture of algorithms. The paper delves into various sectors impacted by these biases, including healthcare and employment, and underscores the ethical and policy implications arising from the use of biased algorithms. It argues for a multi-pronged, interdisciplinary approach to address these biases, highlighting the dynamic and evolving role of cybernetic feminism as both a methodological and ethical framework. The paper also outlines potential avenues for future research, emphasizing the need for longitudinal studies and a broader understanding of intersectional identities. By synthesizing key insights from seminal works in AI ethics, feminist theory, and legal studies, this paper serves as an urgent call to action, advocating for a more equitable digital future through concerted efforts across technological, ethical, and policy domains.
The Cyborg, its Manifesto and their relevance today: Some reflections
2015
The mere presence of adoring fans has been insufficient to entice Donna Haraway to visit Australia. Only Helen Verran and postgraduates at Melbourne University’s History and Philosophy of Science department managed to interest her once in the late 1990s. So as the first Australian with a doctorate co-supervised by Haraway at the History of Consciousness program at the University of California, Santa Cruz, I have occasionally been called upon to speak when the doyenne of cyborg feminism was, as usual, unavailable down under (Sofoulis 2003). The role of antipodean Haraway always made me uneasy. It is a mistake to project patriarchal (and oedipal) traditions of scholarly filiation onto feminists. In my observation, feminist supervisors rarely seek to turn out clones of themselves and feminist students do not usually aspire to replicate/replace their professors. Like cyborgs, feminist students can be “exceedingly unfaithful to” and quite uninterested in their origins (Haraway, 1991, p.1...
Change for the machines: the cyborg in fact and fiction into the 21st century
2015
In science fiction one of the key concerns has always been the question, "What is Human?" The cyborg, an amalgamation of organic and machine, is a frequent figure in the exploration of this question. Science fiction has considered the cyborg concept as early as the 1920s and continues to investigate this figure into the new millennium. Running parallel with considerations in science fiction, military research and development into creating a cyborg soldier, a superhuman war machine, has been an integral part of military affairs since WWII. In the 1980s, Donna Haraway proposed the cyborg as key metaphor in investigating feminism in technology and science. The cyborg in SF narratives begins with a concentrated concern with sexuality as a key indicator of what makes a human and then, into the 1980s, with the onset of general computer use in general society, the cyborg becomes a figure most often employed in the subgenre of cyberpunk. After the turn of the millennium the cyborg...
Fact and Fiction in a Robotic Society from a Feminist Perspective
Zagadnienia Rodzajów Literackich, 2020
A new narrative of care for the elderly is being constructed in both fiction and our techno-societies that incorporates the use of robots in areas traditionally entrusted to women, reproducing some of the stereotypes historically attributed to them. I propose to analyse representations of robots designed for elder care in the field of science fiction, like in the case of the TV series Real Humans (2012), as well as "real" robots. My aim is to highlight the risks of reproducing gender bias in robotics, where women could continue to perpetuate their role as caregivers. The objective is to show the need to develop a gender perspective in robotics applied to the care of the elderly that will make it possible to change the status quo.