After-Class Writing: Haraway’s “A Cyborg Manifesto”

After today’s class, write at least 250 words summarizing your reading of Donna Haraway’s “A Cyborg Manifesto” and our discussion of it during class. Post your response as a comment made to this blog post.

Some folks are falling behind with their after class writing assignments. Now’s the time to catch them up!

These are some links that we will discuss in class:

Supreme Court Copyright Ruling

How to Be a Better Listener

Lynn Randolph’s Cyborg, oil on masonite, 10″ x 7″

16 thoughts on “After-Class Writing: Haraway’s “A Cyborg Manifesto””

  1. In Donna Haraway’s “A Cyborg Manifesto” she incorporates the views of the west, feminist culture, social changes, the impact of Marxism and the politics around these ideas. She starts out the reading where she states, “A cyborg is a cybernetic organism, a hybrid of machine and organism, a creature of social reality as well as a creature of fiction.” This struck me because when viewing society, we look at our world through a lens of the social reality spectrum. About the cyborg being considered as a hybrid machine, we as humans have been able to advance our minds and gained the ability to create advancements in all fields from the sciences to the technological areas of studies.

    However, the “manifesto” implication by Haraway is a very broad topic where she opens up about “women of colour”, the role of women in society, and the Marxist impact on our international society. She introduces an individual named Chela Sandoval who has used this terminology to show the history behind its meaning in the views of the west. It is known that women of color for many years have faced oppression in an underemployed society where one is challenged to survive in America. The views of the west have this traditional structure created where certain belief systems are already in place for those born into a society.

    This is where the politics takes over the reality of a system based society of the roles that are played in those in a hierarchy versus those that are not as important of those in an elite status. Haraway goes on the say, “The politics of race and culture in US women’s movements are intimately interwoven,” and she is correct. Women are monumental in our society and I say this with much pride. Women from all platforms have for years continued to fight for equal rights, the right to vote, and for equal pay just so that we can be considered as an equal to our opposite sex, the man. This is heavily supported through the Karl Marx system where how we live in a society where we must have a working economy. But for centuries, we have had an imbalance of those that have been in power because men have been considered the leaders in our history, the individuals in control and this has been greatly influenced by the “ontological structure”. Karl Marx ideologies has impacted our society for years and he is responsible for the role of capitalism. It is because of him that our advanced capitalist societies have influenced our main areas that are influential in our lives. This includes our home, stock market, state, school, hospitals and churches which are only some of the few that have been impacted. Western philosophies and western epistemology are the real influencers in our society that plays a significant role in our belief systems.

    Another significant point in this text was the role of communication from the technology aspect. The text states, “the translation of the world into a problem in coding can be illustrated by looking at cybernetic (feedback-controlled) systems theories applied to telephone technology, computer design, weapons deployment, or data base construction and maintenance.” The role of technology allows for us to troubleshoot errors and work on improving our technological world, but in these efforts, just like humans when a system breaks down it is a function of stress. In this technology age, we must face these realities because technology has these issues that are constantly forcing us to find a solution for it.

    1. Summary of Donna Haraway’s “A Cyborg Manifesto”

      Donna Haraway was born in 1944 and is a distinguished professor emeritus at the University of Santa Cruz in consciousness and feminist studies with an extremely interdisciplinary background. She is known to have brought Marxist feminist studies to science.
      Haraway challenges dualisms of humans – animals, human – machine, and others, in “A Cyborg Manifesto.” She points at the current human paradigm as cybernetic, and argues that we are all now hybrids, or cyborgs. She defines cyborg as being a “cybernetic organism, a hybrid of machine and organism. A creature of social reality, as well as a creature of fiction.” This opened discourse on traditions of patriarchy and essentialism. Haraway’s claims that we are all cyborgs, rather than men and women, gave equal footing to gender perspectives.
      She also addressed the issue that all that is unhuman is not unkind. She argued that we have always been augmenting our capabilities with technology. Although it may lead to an end of one thing, we are ultimately free to invest in being more human. Haraway says embracing technology and the new cyborg paradigm is the way forward to deeper human characteristics. We have an affinity for networks and by seizing these tools for our own ends, we enable our human behaviors.
      Among the many long winded points Haraway makes, one resonated with me in her quote, “In the fraying of identities and in the reflexive strategies for constructing them, the possibility opens up for weaving something other than a shroud for the day after the apocalypse that so prophetically ends salvation history.” Like many of her other messages, there is a lot to unpack from here. However, I think this drives the core thought Haraway has in her article. In the current paradigm, it is more challenging than ever to find and project an authentic identity. We often behave with “reflexive strategies” to project what we think we are, but in the absence of certainty we have a “possibility” to make something unadulterated; to make something original. To do this we must accept that what we once identified as, no longer fits. Our current identity relies on imagination, or the cyborg myth, and the current facts we can determine.

      Terms
      Apostasy – abandonment or renunciation of a religious or political belief
      Prophylactic – intention to prevent disease

  2. Donna Haraway’s “A Cyborg Manifesto” her theory is about how the human can interact with animals in a different way. She talks about the different type of machine and organism that can help with the female understanding more about creatures and animals. The theory that is being present in this article talks about how the feminism is able to understand more because we are able to understand living things around us and because we are able to carry a human being inside of us. This also talks about how we can connect to animals but we do not really see it because people might not think that these animals can relate to us we are different however we can relate to these animals. She uses different technology to help us understand that there are ways of understanding nature around us and that it can be beautiful knowing what we are being surrounded by nature. She also makes a comparison from the reading “socialist feminism–structure of class // wage labour // alienation labour, by analogy reproduction, by extension sex, by addition race radical feminism – structure of gender // sexual appropriation // objectification” this explain how females might be view by others and that it makes them feel like they do not belong. This becoming is open to Donna because she wants to understand more about how humans actually act and that female gender is treated differently from males. Although this might not be real you are able to understand from a female perspective and that people might be able to relate what women go through in the past and present. People might not agree but with this influencer, you are able to see that women try to fight for many things and this becomes a language to many people. This is more language than technology because people are able to listen to many different people from other culture.

  3. The article which was authored by Donna Haraway with the name of “ A Cyborg Manifesto” is a socialist-feminist analysis of women in the postmodern technology world. And it connects the cyborg with the uncertain identities in the current world. Haraway included the image of Cyborg, which she breaks down and interpret into four different ways– the first is as a “cybernetic organism.” The second is as “a hybrid of machine and organism.” The third is as “a creature of lived social reality”, and the fourth is as a “creature of fiction.” She used these descriptions of cyborg to help us understand that they all go together and each one of them is referring to the other. She argues that the “women’s experience” will change due to the cyborg; because it will “change what counts as experience” to women, especially in the late 20th century. She explains how “we are cyborgs” whether we know it or not because modern medicine is full of cyborgs, modern reproduction, manufacturing and modern warfare as well. In fact if any of us happen to believe that cyborgs are things of the future, they are mistaken; since it is our ontology and it gives us our politics. Haraway writes in part 151 of her essay “”illegitimate offspring of militarism and patriarchal capitalism, not to mention state socialism,” and because of that cyborgs are never trusted creatures. Which could be a con but simultaneously, illegitimate offspring are unfaithful to their origins. Eventually, she emphasized that a cyborg politics can be both pleasant and dangerous; due to the fact that it could be a way to build or destroy.

  4. Donna Haraway is an Emerita in the History of Consciousness (how the mind works) and Feminist Studies (exploring and fighting for equality amongst the sexes)at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is well known for her intellectual writing, one famously known as “A Cyborg Manifesto” in which she discussed human interaction with technology and the concept of Cyborg (cybernetic organism/hybrid of machine and organism. Basically a creature of social reality). She believed in two very important ideas, social/politically enabling subject and the Importance for social relations to include humans/non-humans. Donna understands that we are all considered cyborgs because of capitalism, constantly uslitizing and being dependent on information technology; that we are part of the ‘information technology network’. I agree with this statement because she is right when she says we are dependent; now a days everyone who is anyone has a social media account, whether it is facebook, tinder, whatsapp, snapchat, instagram, or anything to keep you connected with a family or friend. Simply utilizing a smartphone or laptop makes you part of this technological frenzy. Social media platforms are great examples of of influence on our lives and how we use it to keep ourselves updated on what’s going on in life, around the world, and conform to our capitalist environment. Willingly and unwillingly we are sucked into a universe of mind control, lost perception and knowledge, and a lazier generation (lazy using our mind and body) due to technology. Donna highly believes that our cyborg society has its pros and cons and can be quite dangerous as well as beneficial to us and our future generation. She also emphasises on the role of women in society and the importance of equality amongst men and women (wage, objectification, sexual identification/appropriation/perception, an individual females worthiness) all were highlighted as her topic of concern and discussion. Social media for instance continue to objectify and create pressure on females, making them feel necessary to look and act a certain way and have certain roles in society in order to considered “a women”.

  5. Donna Haraway’s “A Cyborg Manifesto” is an interesting piece, as the author is an interdisciplinary scholar. Haraway is a triple major with a bachelors in Zoology, a PhD in Biology and minors in philosophy and English. Her argument in this story is that we are all cyborgs, in one way or another. Seeing that this piece was written in 1985, one can argue that this is even more of a valid argument now than ever before. Her definition of cyborg though is of a “hybrid of machine and organism.” She also uses this piece to break down the hierarchy where men are on top of women in superiority and worth, and like Derrida, she isn’t creating a separate hierarchy where women are on top. She is a self proclaimed feminist, seeking female equality. Unfortunately, current day connotation of feminism is that of female superiority, rather than the true definition of feminism, which is equal rights for women. Haraway does a great job, though, of making her points of view clear. The idea that we are all cyborgs in one way or another makes us equal despite gender. It brings together machine and animal, and the whole idea of being a cyborg is a socio-political one, just like feminism. This piece is meant to break the barrier of what we believe gender is, in terms of its political definition. We can either move society along, dividing society by gender, or all unite as one cyborg identity. Thus, Haraway named this piece a manifesto, as it urges us to do something with a certain goal or aim in mind.

  6. Throughout our history, we have accomplished so much with our technology. Our systems are constantly being developed in order to reach their full potential. In Donna Harroway’s article “A Cyborg Manifesto”, she speaks about how information systems work and by doing so allows us as humans to be cyborgs. Even though the cyborg can be seen as a political subject, we were all created to handle certain things differently. Part of this modern day in age, we have our smartphones, smartwatches, and even smart glasses that can use as gadgets for our day-to-day use. For Harroway, she expressed her fascination with hybrids through her ideology of feminism and the liberation of self-expression for the female. She goes on to discuss how social reality is used through our social relations and how needed it is in order to allow this to evolve into a political construct.

  7. Summary of Donna Haraway’s “A Cyborg Manifesto”

    Donna Haraway was born in 1944 and is a distinguished professor emeritus at the University of Santa Cruz in consciousness and feminist studies with an extremely interdisciplinary background. She is known to have brought Marxist feminist studies to science.
    Haraway challenges dualisms of humans – animals, human – machine, and others, in “A Cyborg Manifesto.” She points at the current human paradigm as cybernetic, and argues that we are all now hybrids, or cyborgs. She defines cyborg as being a “cybernetic organism, a hybrid of machine and organism. A creature of social reality, as well as a creature of fiction.” This opened discourse on traditions of patriarchy and essentialism. Haraway’s claims that we are all cyborgs, rather than men and women, gave equal footing to gender perspectives.
    She also addressed the issue that all that is unhuman is not unkind. She argued that we have always been augmenting our capabilities with technology. Although it may lead to an end of one thing, we are ultimately free to invest in being more human. Haraway says embracing technology and the new cyborg paradigm is the way forward to deeper human characteristics. We have an affinity for networks and by seizing these tools for our own ends, we enable our human behaviors.
    Among the many long winded points Haraway makes, one resonated with me in her quote, “In the fraying of identities and in the reflexive strategies for constructing them, the possibility opens up for weaving something other than a shroud for the day after the apocalypse that so prophetically ends salvation history.” Like many of her other messages, there is a lot to unpack from here. However, I think this drives the core thought Haraway has in her article. In the current paradigm, it is more challenging than ever to find and project an authentic identity. We often behave with “reflexive strategies” to project what we think we are, but in the absence of certainty we have a “possibility” to make something unadulterated; to make something original. To do this we must accept that what we once identified as, no longer fits. Our current identity relies on imagination, or the cyborg myth, and the current facts we can determine.

    Terms
    Apostasy – abandonment or renunciation of a religious or political belief
    Prophylactic – intention to prevent disease

  8. The article by Donna Haraway, “A Cyborg Manifesto” was also an interesting read. Born in 1944, Haraway received a triple major. She has majored on Zoology, Philosophy and Literature. She has also received her PhD in biology. One of Haraway’s main points was that, “Information networks already make us cyborgs”. Haraway defines cyborgs as, “a cybernetic organism, a hybrid of machine & organism, a creature of social reality”. Haraway argues that we are all now cyborgs, because we are part of modern day technology. Being a cyborg isn’t all about having machines or wires or electricity running through your body. This type of cyborg that she defines us to be is- I would say “automatic”. Why automatic? I say automatic because children are born in this generation with computers and sonograms and AED’s etc. These are the things that make us cyborgs. We are born with the help of technology. We are living because of technology. Technology, no matter what story or article we are reading, has a huge impact on the human race. Haraway stresses the, “Importance for social relations to include humans and non-humans. Well in order to understand what Haraway means in this you would have to know the meaning of social relations. In this case Haraway says that, “Social reality is lived social relations, our most important political construction, and a world changing fiction. In a way we definitely are cyborgs. It just takes that one reading for us to understand the meaning of a cyborg. Cyborgs are all around us. Am i a cyborg because I wear glasses? Yes I am. Am I a cyborg because I drive a car, yes I am! What makes you a cyborg? How would you interpret what Haraway say “Importance for social relations to include humans and non-humans”?

  9. In Donna Haraway’s “A Cyborg Manifesto” she introduces the cyborg, which she describes as an man and machine interwoven. She also states cyborgs are creatures who populate worlds ambiguously, natural and crafted.
    The man needs the machine and the machine needs the man. She goes on further to say she believes gender does not exist, we are all equal, hybrid, cyborgs. That statement to me makes all people equal cyborg also, the intelligence portion would come from the human mind, not their anatomy, and the complete understanding of the machine and its functions.
    I compare this to my experience with working with Con Ed. I can admit I may have been the human in Haraways Cyborg example. When reading meters we use handheld machines to record meter readings which in turn were transferred to the central office via WI-FI thru our handheld machines. Both myself and the machine I carried all day would work together in order to create the bills for the energy customers.

  10. After reading Katherine Hayles “a cyborg manifesto” I learned about a few topics that was intriguing like subjectivity and identity. I’d come to learn that Hayles was a great professional in her field where she wrote three books using a wide spectrum of strategies not limiting her to a one track mind of thinking. In the story subjectivity was described as a concept that your identity is a sense of self not saying absolute self but a self of influential experiences and relationships that in a way molded a view of ones self . Hayles believed in a median even though she was conscious of the facts that we could communicate and be of existence in vase spectrum of ways she believe that in order for the embodiment to be there a median had to be present . When we communicated in writing that writing had to be on paper , yet wen we spoke we spoke into the air where our words got lost and lost its embodiment to us . To go on she explains that in the same as the writing is subjected to the median paper our minds (our brains) are subjected to our body as our minds and body’s are one. She brought up cyber meters which are beings who exist mediated by technology. Post human subjectivity comes after the liberal human subject advances threw technology whether though a cyborg nature or even human genetic engineering. Which began to have me think into todays version of humans if not all that are in a way some how linked into an undeniable form of technology whether phone , computer , or genetically mutated arm I can agree we are all cyborgs in our own way.

  11. Excuse Last post epic Fail.
    Donna Haraway’s “A Cyborg Manifesto” , donna was born in 1944 and was a professor in the Carolina state where she indulged in feminine studies and triple majored and later on got a Yale degree. In the story it spoke about hybrids (or cyborgs) which has become apart of modern society and apart of modern technology. Injections or even simple glasses are considered cyborg connections . The relationship between human and machine , computer networks enable modern capability for people to be instantly and forever connected to technology and/or be apart of a information based network . Belief was in affirimity that life was builded of social relations. These relationships can and have connected an advance humanity. Being able to use technology for or needed and once we become a mastery of our tool we can use the information that now makes us automatically cyborgs to make our tech and our lives better n our tech better. its important that we have and continue to develop these relationships between humans and non-humans because it expands our abilities beyond our understanding. Haraway also spoke about the marsis theory , which described a supply and demand and she applied this theory to feminism when in Hawaii sharing her feminist perspectives.

  12. Excuse Last post epic Fail.
    Donna Haraway’s “A Cyborg Manifesto” , donna was born in 1944 and was a professor in the Carolina state where she indulged in feminine studies and triple majored and later on got a Yale degree. In the story it spoke about hybrids (or cyborgs) which has become apart of modern society and apart of modern technology. Injections or even simple glasses are considered cyborg connections . The relationship between human and machine , computer networks enable modern capability for people to be instantly and forever connected to technology and/or be apart of a information based network . Belief was in affirimity that life was builded of social relations. These relationships can and have connected an advance humanity. Being able to use technology for or needed and once we become a mastery of our tool we can use the information that now makes us automatically cyborgs to make our tech and our lives better n our tech better. its important that we have and continue to develop these relationships between humans and non-humans because it expands our abilities beyond our understanding. Haraway also spoke about the marsis theory , which described a supply and demand and she applied this theory to feminism when in Hawaii sharing her feminist perspectives.

  13. Haraway is a professor of history and the feminist department which during the late 1900s, women were still under the oppression of society. She has worked under Thomas Kuhun with his book “The structure of scientific revolution” in 1962. But because of her stronger view of feminism was a bit too much for the college she worked with John Hopkin’s but then she moved to another college and they accepted her views of feminism. Haraway has argued that humans were all cyborg and hybrids. She defines ‘cyborg a cybernetic organism, a hybrid of machine and organism, a creature of social reality as well as a creature of fiction.’ The use of technology and the communication between technology and humans are relying on the relationship to make our purposes with the information technology networks. During her time many people were not very accepting on the new information technology network that this technology was taken away from us but Haraway says otherwise. She says that we should make use of the opportunity that the technology offers to us humans and make use of it for our purposes. She claims that the advancement of the technology makes them more human because they could make relationships from around the world create more social relation and that adds to the social reality that gives the opportunity for the world changing. With the social relation that humans can get from technology is that it enhances our lifestyle. Humans use this technology in their daily life to research and that is why it makes every human a cyborg. Since the advancement of technology relates to not only the way of life but also in the economy it influences.

  14. Donna Haraway is an Emeritus in the history of consciousness and socialist-feminist Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is well known for her famous writing “A Cyborg Manifesto”, in which she discussed human interaction with technology and the concept of Cyborg. She broke it down in many different ways by using different term like cybernetic organism, hybrid of machine and organism meaning “A creature of social reality, as well as a creature of fiction.” According to Haraway we are all cyborg or hybrid whether we want to or knows it or not. She talks about the interaction of human and animal as well as human interaction with technology along with the impact they share between them. Technology plays a huge role human’s life, our institution and economy system which support her points has to why she believes we are cyborg. In a way technology help us strive has human being and it kind of become essential to our lives and eventually become a part of us. Cyborg can be interpreted in a political way but a lot about life is political, more than we realize sometimes. She believes that female has special relationship with animal and that pregnancy has something to do with it, and that it’s hard for us to understand nature around us and how naturally pleasant it is. She goes further to talk about “socialist feminism-structure of class // wage labor // alienation labor, by analogy reproduction, by extension sex, by addition race radical feminism – structure of gender // sexual appropriation // objectification”. Women are often not viewed or valued like men. They are taking advantage of consistently. Their rights get played with, they get treated unfairly, all for the simple fact that they are women. Which in my opinion is totally true ,and totally not okay, especially in the 21st century that we lives in.

  15. Donna Haraway, “A Cyborg Manifesto” implies that human beings are all cyborgs due to our entire existence being mediated by digital technology in networks of global capital. These digital systems influence how we communicate with writing and spoken language. Haraway encourages us to seize these tools for our own ends, creating networks for affinity and mutual support. Technology according to Mazlish changes us and we change technology.

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