I just wanted to take a quick moment to define one of the terms that will popping up throughout this examination into cybernetic and cyborg commodities. The (1) mark expects multiple entries similar to this, elaborating on further terms as they become necessary.
Posthuman
It seemed appropriate to start off with this one, seeing as it titles this blog. David Bell, in his book Cyberculture Theorists, outlines a simple explanation of this term.
Posthuman relates to multiple ideas, dealing with the evolutionary potentialities of the human body in both physical and ’spiritual’ existential forms.
One idea is that humans have reached an evolutionary ‘dead-end’ and are supplementing their desires for further evolution through incorporating technologies into, around and through themselves.
Another idea is that through the continuing intimate and meaningful interactions with nonhumans (that is, technology and its artefacts) that we have long ceased to be human.
The term ‘posthuman’ is grounded firmly in the fields of biomedicine, science fiction and cyberculture theory. It conjures potent and powerful images of an exciting, and terrifying, future. While the ‘posthuman’ does not equal ‘cyborg’, they are inextricably linked: the ideas that posthumanity creates are made into physical constitution by the cyborg.
Bell, D ‘Cyberculture Theorists: Manuel Castells and Donna Haraway’, London ; New York : Routledge, 2007 p24
