The concrete realm
Project: The great enhancement debate

Two realms of self-enhancement

In three parts:
Introduction
The concrete realm
The informational realm

We can't be concretely unenhanced. We may only vary our degree of enhancement within the concrete realm. For this reason, the option for less concrete enhancement is not especially radical.

Donna Haraway said we are all cyborgs.
We are creature-stick hybrids.
Societal institutions imply a conception of their societies' members which reflects this.


Explanation:
Haraway's cyborg theory includes the assertion that technological artifacts are extensions of the body. It's easy to see in the case of a prosthetic leg, but consider also a walking stick, a shoe, skin cream applied to the foot, and toe-nail clippers. These are plug-ins, adding functionality, classed with sticks picked up by chimps. If these are extensions of our bodies, and if our bodies make up our selves (at least partly), then humans are creature-stick hybrids.

Two notes here:

1. It is tempting to say that modern humans are creature-stick hybrids, but it is probably all humans. Tools came before humans, and probably all humans have used tools. So, in fact, the stick has a longer heritage than this creature. (The creature may even be seen as a parasite.)

2. Since a stick is an extension of the body, it is part of the body, so it can be extended by another stick. Consider the rubber cap added to the bottom of the walking stick, the shoelace on the shoe, the plastic seal on the end of the shoelace. So, following this through, the no-drip stand and travel pouch of your essential wine aerator are material extensions of your being. Remember that when you click to buy.


The Professor's invention for peeling potatoes by W. Heath Robinson

Lastly in this explanation, societies are human things, so they have embedded in them the notion of a creature-stick hybrid. That needs some spelling out.

Generally, societies' structures betray presuppositions about their populations. For a simplistic example, when public amenities are provided in a community, it is supposed that they should be accessible to all people, as far as possible. Old-fashioned thinking had it that people were stair-climbing things, so there was little hesitation in placing steps at the access-points to, e.g., a public library. These days, the common conception of people is broader. Some people are not stair-climbing things, and so if we are to cater to them all - within reason - then we should not use only stairs, when there are other options. The conception of the community-member embedded in a stairs-only building presupposes stair-climbing ability.

A building is a very literal example of a societal structure, but the presupposition that humans are creature-stick hybrids is perhaps clearest in more abstract structures. Another simple example: laws in developed societies are built on human interaction, but discourage public nudity. So members of those societies are assumed to be persons with clothes, and clothes are, in my sense, sticks. Furthermore,

• many public spaces are not safely accessible without footwear;
• you are expected to know what to do with received mail;
• there are canned goods;
• you must trade with money;
• you will be required to open a door today.

So we are all unavoidably 'enhanced' in the concrete realm, in the sense that we are creatures enhanced by sticks. Really, though, enhancement doesn't come into it; we are creature-stick hybrids. Humans are all enhanced creatures, we are not all enhanced humans. Where you draw the line of normality, marking the beginning of megahumanity (I don't want to say superhumanity), will always be open to discussion. In years to come, some humans may choose the high-dexterity, robotic, add-on limbs, although some of them will have just one. Others will just stick to the fleshy basics. Many will not be able to afford to choose. It will be as it is with cars these days. Condemned to the bus, am I 'a natural'?

Since we cannot be without our sticks, the 'naturals' can't be picked out in the concrete realm. But, since our acceleration into the informational realm has jumped so recently, we can see some people beginning a way of being that is still almost untouched by others.

continue to The informational realm (Coming soon!)

Note:
I chose the Heath Robinson illustration because I am fan, and because his machines push the idea of 'sticks' as corporal extensions to the absurd edges. However, that's a good test and I think the idea still holds together. I must also take this opportunity to share, in the same spirit, the best thing I have seen on YouTube, since this may be the only time it will be even barely relevant. See these 'Pitagora suitchi' - 'Pythagorus switches'. The ultimate sticks?




Related links:

Donna Haraway's Cyborg Manifesto
A Wired interview with Haraway from way back
The social model of disability

Mon, Apr 28, 2008  Permanent link

Sent to project: The great enhancement debate

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