Jason Gerbsch                                                             Approximately 250 words

jg33@geneseo.edu

INTD 105-19: Scientific Writing

In her essay, “a Cyborg Manifesto”, Haraway has three crucial points that she uses to support her argument on the ways humans have crossed boundaries.  Haraway uses the idea of a cyborg throughout the essay and as a reference point in her three points.

Firstly she covers the boundary of human and animal.  Previously the two remained separated, but now the the theory of evolution and scientific breakthroughs in genetic engineering have blurred this line.  Humans have encroached on the boundary of nature.

The second point she makes is that boundary between man and machine becomes increasingly blurry.  Haraway, points out that as medicine has become more and more advanced, humans are starting to include more artificial parts to themselves (eg prosthetics, enhancement devices such as hearing aids, etc.).  Not to mention that many household appliances and devices we rely on are becoming more and more lifelike, speaking, having personalities, etc.

The third point Haraway makes is the boundary between physical and non-physical.  Whereas much of industry and machines in general used to be physical, big machines with gears and belts and the like, nowadays much of our machines are a facade.  Many are now run by small chips or motherboards full of information, such information we know is there, but intangible. In summary machines are not as “physical” as they once were, becoming more now shells in which to shelter their programming.