The Melting World

From class forum: I am still thinking (in media
res) through my argument here, but I think I can agree
with cyborg theorists that technologies (as we use the
more interactive ones more and more) become part of our
physical/mental selves and maybe this co-joining
strengthens us in some ways (we can ‘know’ facts
instantly via Internet search) but perhaps this same
bond weakens us at the same time physically (we get what
Donna Haraway calls ‘frighteningly inert’ (M&P, p.119)
and if the machines become so inter-dependent with us
and then were to lose their energy source (electricity
cuts, etc.); obviously we then lose a part of our new
(hybrid) selves: some would survive, some wouldn’t, in a
truly hybrid human/machine world.

No doubt, as you noted, we humans are often dramatically
resilient, and that is Andy Clark’s point in Nature’s
Cyborgs, really (Mod. 5 Interactivities revised #4).
That we alone have minds that are soft, plastic
(malleable/adaptable) and lately our developed
technologies are beginning to reflect
(complement/become) that adaptable and plastic side of
our thinking…he argues that eventually we won’t
distinguish between the human (skinbag) and the machine
(extension of our minds)
Source

But where does nature come into cyborg theory? We still
are far from controlling it; or I should say we control
it so poorly to the point of its and our destruction,
perhaps. I am interested in how nature will find its
balance in the interplay between man and machine. As we
get more immersed in higher interactive technologies,
will we forget to seek balance with the natural world?
Will we need that balance? I think we do and will…