Racheal Devine                                                                  about 150 words

rmd20@geneseo.edu

Science Writing INTD 105-19

A Cyborg Manifesto Response

In Donna Haraway’s, “A Cyborg Manifesto”, she develops her ideas about the late twentieth century, calling it “our time, a mythic time” where we are all cyborgs now. The cyborgs are a type of condensed image of our imagination and reality, hybrids of machines and organisms, a creature in the post gender world. She says that in this time, the border between man and animal has been breached completely, the uniqueness gone, as well as the boundary between machines and man, and between the physical and nonphysical. A Lot of her essay has to do with feminism and fractured identities. She believes gender, social, race, and historical constitution cannot be the basis for unity, nothing about being a female binds to “women”. She ends with the point that the history is dependent on the social relations between people and ultimately she says, there isn’t any other time where there is a greater need for political unity.

This can connect back to the vines on the buildings because they act as a barrier between man and nature/animal.

Aubrie Cross

In the article “A Cyborg Manifesto” by Donna Haraway, a lot of different aspects were mentioned and then connected in some way or another. The points she analyzed were between feminism, socialism, and materialism. She broke them down into her main focus for the article and discussed the division between humans and animals along with organisms and machines. As you read more into the article, she begins to talk about how over time these divisions have become less noticeable. This is where she incorporates the “cyborg” which she explains it as an “organism, a hybrid of machine and organism, a creature of social reality as well as a creature of fiction.” In other words, the cyborg is a metaphor to represent the progression between each boundary she talked about.

This article directly correlates with the mini essay we wrote because  it emphasizes the boundaries between human and nature.

Matt Klein                                                            approximately 150 words

mgk6@geneseo.edu

INTD 105-19: Science Writing

“The Cyborg Manifesto” Response

By Matt Klein

In the late twentieth century, many boundaries in society were beginning to break down. In “The Cyborg Manifesto,” Donna Haraway analyzes these boundaries in the context of technology and socialist-feminism. In her main points, she discusses the division between humans and animals, organisms and machines, and the organic and inorganic. Haraway demonstrates how these divisions have begun to disappear, and she hybridizes these pairs into the image of the cyborg. The cyborg represents the transgression of each of these boundaries, leading to a more unified society. In her words, “The cyborg is a creature of a post-gender world; it has no truck with bisexuality, pre-oedipal symbiosis, unalienated labour, or other seductions to organic wholeness through a final appropriation of all the powers of the parts into a higher unity” (292). Haraway thus illustrates how our world is transitioning from individualism to the inclusion and wholeness of our entire society.

This relates to my mini-essay on the arboretum in the sense that the arboretum, like the cyborg, is a hybrid of humans and nature.

Emma Cooke                                                                                     about 150 words

erc8@geneseo.edu

INTD 105-19 Science Writing

The Cyborg Manifesto

               Donna Haraway’s essay “The Cyborg Manifesto” is a new look on feminism. She draws attention to the idea that a world without gender would be superior to a world with equality between genders. In her essay she also focuses on her belief that the boundaries between the human and animal worlds as well as those that separate living organisms and machines are breaking. Her essay uses the idea of a cyborg society as a metaphor for this genderless and boundary-less society she envisions. However, there are moments within Dr. Haraway’s essay in which she contradicts herself and makes the cyborg society she has envisioned seem less appealing.

“The Cyborg Manifesto” can be connected back to Sturges Hall because the ivy which grows up its walls is a symbol of the blurred boundary between the human and natural worlds, a boundary which Dr. Haraway believes should be broken completely.

Juniper Tremper
Scientific Writing 105-19
Geneseo, NY
~170 words

A Cyborg, A Stump, and A Counterproductive Feminist Idea
Juniper Tremper

The beginning of A Cyborg Manifesto describes the deteriorating boundaries of “what counts as nature.” Donna Haraway’s lengthy metaphor of a cyborg as a genderless being   analyzes the usefulness of such an existence, and states outright that they could be an “imaginative resource suggesting some very fruitful couplings.” In other words, there are advantages to embracing cyborgs because their neutrality unbinds them from our traditional loyalties to politics and parents. Haraway references the importance another professor places on “the limits of identification,” and elaborates that the gender labels we abide by are limiting boundaries, by inadvertently creating inescapable sexual objectification. She proceeds to explain that “transgressed boundaries” are also beneficial when applied to the dissonance between genders: that labels marginalize what effects would be possible in a “cyborg society” where dissimilar people “hold together… long enough” to achieve a common goal. In such situations, ignoring labels improves their ability to unify and cooperate.

Like a tree planted to be cut down, the purpose and use of identifying “women’s history” contradicts itself.

Paul Weissfellner

The Cyborg Manifesto

According to Donna Haraway, human society is in the midst of a huge shift that wil redefine traditional relationships and reshape how humans view the world. The boundaries that once served to divide up the natural world so neatly are slowly shifting and dissolving, leaving a more confusing, holistic view of the world and everything in it; no longer are humans considered separate from animals or from machines. Indeed, in many capacities, humans often work so closely with one or both so as to be indistinguishable from each other. Another shift that Haraway talks about is from identity to affinity; that is, from groups that form simply because of who people are, to groups that form because people choose to be a part of them.

Haraway brings up interesting points, especially with regard to my rock. If there is no meaningful difference between humans and nature, then that does that mean for the rock? It sits at an intersection, but, according to her, that intersection does not even exist.

Logan Steffens

In Donna Haraway’s “The Cyborg Manifesto” she states that we should remove all boundaries between us and become more like a cyborg. The cyborg is not a machine; it is “a hybrid of machine and organism.” She states that in today’s society we are all cyborgs, and that the cyborg is an image of imagination and reality, it shapes everything we do and have done including the traditions of racism and male dominance in our society today. Specifically she states, “The cyborg is a creature in a post-gender world.” Meaning that she wants everyone to be equal. Nobody should be subject to a title that they may not want to have. It is easy to see that Haraway is a feminist in how she defends it so often. Also she mentions the difference between socialist feminism and radical feminism in that socialist feminism has to do with class structure and alienation while radical feminism deals with gender structure and sexual objectification.

Alec Toufexis

agt9@geneseo.edu

INTD-105-Scientific Writing

Donna Haraway makes it clear in her essay, “The Cyborg Manifesto”, that we are transitioning from an organic, industrial society to a networked, artificial society ruled by technology. She believes this new reality will be detrimental because it is a movement that is a result of patriarchal dominance and the capitalist system. The “Cyborg” that will result from this societal change will blur the distinction between humans and nature and will cause the end of innocence, privacy, and natural purity that characterize feminism. Also the fundamental human interactions needed to promote the feminist ideals will cease to exist.

I find that her views on the subject do not match with my own and that her ideas are largely speculation as of now.  Through my analysis on The Greek Tree, I found that humans and nature could thrive even when the boundary between the two dissolves.

Daniel Biskup                                                               156 words

djb29@geneseo.edu

INTD 105-19: Science Writing

This piece contrasts with the opinion I formed from my object, that Haraway believes that organism and machine are converging, while I found that man, similar to machine in my context, was diverging from nature, similar to organism. Haraway’s begins with explaining the piece is praising feminism by ironically blaspheming against it. She then introduces the cyborg, a cybernetic organism, that is organism and machine. She introduces how medicine and wars are “cyborg orgies” because man and technology both create life or destruction. The cyborg is a post-gender creature that transcends the boundaries of man and woman. It rejects its creator because it is considered illegitimate. She demonstrates how it blurs three seemingly distinct boundaries: human and animal, organism and machine, and physical and nonphysical. She then goes on to talk about fractured identities and how each identity is independent. Finally, she introduces dichotomies that compare human to cyborg views and show how similar they are.

Patrick Jones                                                              Approximately 150 Words

pwj2@geneseo.edu

INTD 105-19: Science Writing

“The Cyborg Manifesto” Summary
By Patrick Jones

In Donna Haraway’s “The Cyborg Manifesto”, she uses a cyborg as a symbol of the broken boundaries between the natural and artificial worlds and then discusses the use of gender and race as an identifier.
In her piece, Haraway uses the cyborg to discuss three different broken boundaries. Firstly she describes the boundary between animals and humans, that has been broken as animals rights activism has increased over the last few decades. The second and third boundaries are between organisms and technology and the physical and non-physical worlds, which have both been broken by the increase in technological use in everyday life. Haraway then precedes to discuss how humans use gender and race to divide society instead of working to create unity.
It appears Haraway and I have different views on the division between worlds. When I saw the concrete curb behind Milne library I saw a clear division between the artificial and natural worlds while Haraway sees a more faded division that is continuing to disappear.