Big Ideas and Sweeny's Cyborg

One of Sweeny's ideas that could be used as what Walker called a "big idea" is his conception of the cyborg. Sweeny's cyborg is one of his lines of sight, in this case where the human and the technology form an intertwining symbiosis with each other. Fostering not necessarily a dependence upon technology, but rather an interdependence with it, could be useful as a foundational basis for acquainting students with technology in the class room. Teaching students how to be a part of the technologically changing world and to work have it work with them can be a beneficial perspective for them. It will encourage them to open their minds and scopes to the possibilities of new technologies, while eliminating part of that element of the fear of change and perhaps making it easier for them to think of ways to combine art and technology. Seeing technology within ourselves, or ourselves in technology, can help us come to a more interactive and understanding place in our perspectives, thus allowing for new opportunities of progress and innovation.

           While thinking on this idea of seeing ourselves with and connected to/by technology, I thought of Aimee Mullins. Mullin's is a contemporary spokesperson for "handy-capable" people. A double amputee, missing both of her lower legs, Mullin's has a unique perspective on things like prosthesis. Her own manufactured and designed limbs enable her to do things that "normal" and biologically equipped people might not even be able to do. She can change her height, her appearance, her characteristics as a species to transform into a cheetah, potentially her ability to do things like run and jump as well. Her own "humanness" and her abilities are changed and in some ways enhanced by her cyborg transformation via prosthesis.

  Another thing the idea of the humanity involved int he cyborg was the movie Bicentennial Man, based off of an Isaac Asimov story by the same name, starring Robin Williams. Williams' character is an android who longs, like any other Pinocchio, to be a real human. As the movie progresses, he challenges the concept of what it is to be human. As a make-up of pure technology, what makes him artificial? What constitutes for genuine feeling, even if it is comprised of coding and algorithms, when our own brains are just as similar to computers but chemical instead? Is being human biological? If so, what about prosthetic limbs, plastic or implanted hearts? The android goes through great lengths to establish himself, legally, as a human. And well, I won't give away the ending.





The movie A.I. goes into similar explorations through the experiences of an android suited to be a child, though with a less optimistic outcome.