Webvisions 2009 - A Short Introduction to Cyborg Anthropology

Editor's Notes

• #26: Lev Maovich's \"Visual Technolgoies as Cognitive Prostheses: A Short History of the Externalization of the Mind\" tracks how over the last century and a half visual technologies - from photography and film to contemporary experiments in computer-image systems, cognitive psychology, and neuroscience -- invent or fabricate models through which it becomes possible to \"externalize the functions of consciousness.\" (10).
• #27: Stiegler's conception of the future anterior. This compression of time is important. A human will use millions of prosthetics in a lifetime - any external manufactured object that can be purchased or aquired. convertibility of the human and nature (simondon, 1958: 245) Object-relations arise precisely from the “constitutive incompleteness of the individual:, “The technical object understood according to its essence – the technical object such that it has been invented, conceived and desired, and taken up by a human subject – becomes the support and the symbol of that relation we want to call transindividual”. if each product has a lifetime of a few years (and development time of longer) and we use a new computer every two years, we’re collectively part of those computers we threw away, because we co-produced with them. they are our interfaces, our spacesuits, our hands. our skin we have shed for newer, shinier cyborg skin. Add up the years that we have spent evolving complex functionality and environmental adaption items internally and its number is in the millions. add up the time we’ve spent in externalizing functionalities and evolving abilities separately, letting demand, advertising and market conditions carve out a machine or external object’s ability to reproduce, A vehicle itself is a prothetic device, as a snail has a shell a car is a prosthetic that gives one superhuman speed. but we are used to these things - they are really quite incredible. to be superheroes in our own lives - to have the ability to choose our own external prosthesis, as a young graduate upgrades their external vehicle prosthetic as money is raised, and in doing so appears more attractive to the opposite gender. but if an interface or prosthetic device is not updated in relation to others, the prosthetic will turn against the wearer. Old clothing, when not trendy, makes one appear out-of-date. Mullets cause derision and amusement. There exists a finite amount of value that can exist, and once the value is replaced by the next prosthetic, woe be to they who do not upgrade, be it clothing or computers. in some countries, men with older cell phones are ashamed to be seen with them. In Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents, his words suggest \"a possible future in which the magnificence of humans as prosthetic gods is tempered by the ill-fitting and troublesome nature of their auxillary organs (11). records are 4th dimensional. you're getting a chance to be here while still being in another plac ein a another time. Power commodity aesthetics. A persons external devices now allow them to move faster and better (if used correctly) compressing repetitive tasks into simpler things, freeing time (or complicating it). The iPhone is a piece of what we might call \"power architecture\". Interface culture is now occurring when with the rise of fractal prosthetics. We have screens inside of machines, protheses inside of protheses. Software, the liquid manifestation of our prosthetic devices. Lev Maovich's \"Visual Technologies as COgnitive Protheses: A SHort History of the Externalization of the Mind\" tracks how over the last century and a half visual technologies - from photography and film to contemporary experiments in computer-image systems, cognitive psychology, and neuroscience -- invent or fabricate models through which it becomes possible to \"externalize the functions of consciousness.\" (10).
• #29: Stiegler's conception of the future anterior. This compression of time is important. A human will use millions of prosthetics in a lifetime - any external manufactured object that can be purchased or aquired. convertibility of the human and nature (simondon, 1958: 245) Object-relations arise precisely from the “constitutive incompleteness of the individual:, “The technical object understood according to its essence – the technical object such that it has been invented, conceived and desired, and taken up by a human subject – becomes the support and the symbol of that relation we want to call transindividual”. if each product has a lifetime of a few years (and development time of longer) and we use a new computer every two years, we’re collectively part of those computers we threw away, because we co-produced with them. they are our interfaces, our spacesuits, our hands. our skin we have shed for newer, shinier cyborg skin. Add up the years that we have spent evolving complex functionality and environmental adaption items internally and its number is in the millions. add up the time we’ve spent in externalizing functionalities and evolving abilities separately, letting demand, advertising and market conditions carve out a machine or external object’s ability to reproduce, A house itself is a prothetic device, as a snail has a shell a car is a prosthetic that gives one superhuman speed. but we are used to these things - they are really quite incredible. to be superheroes in our own lives - to have the ability to choose our own external prosthesis, as a young graduate upgrades their external vehicle prosthetic as money is raised, and in doing so appears more attractive to the opposite gender. but if an interface or prosthetic device is not updated in relation to others, the prosthetic will turn against the wearer. Old clothing, when not trendy, makes one appear out-of-date. Mullets cause derision and amusement. There exists a finite amount of value that can exist, and once the value is replaced by the next prosthetic, woe be to they who do not upgrade, be it clothing or computers. in some countries, men with older cell phones are ashamed to be seen with them. In Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents, his words suggest \"a possible future in which the magnificence of humans as prosthetic gods is tempered by the ill-fitting and troublesome nature of their auxillary organs (11). records are 4th dimensional. you're getting a chance to be here while still being in another plac ein a another time. Power commodity aesthetics. A persons external devices now allow them to move faster and better (if used correctly) compressing repetitive tasks into simpler things, freeing time (or complicating it). The iPhone is a piece of what we might call \"power architecture\". Interface culture is now occurring when with the rise of fractal prosthetics. We have screens inside of machines, protheses inside of protheses. Software, the liquid manifestation of our prosthetic devices. Lev Maovich's \"Visual Technologies as COgnitive Protheses: A SHort History of the Externalization of the Mind\" tracks how over the last century and a half visual technologies - from photography and film to contemporary experiments in computer-image systems, cognitive psychology, and neuroscience -- invent or fabricate models through which it becomes possible to \"externalize the functions of consciousness.\" (10). No matter the technological, social, cultural changes - the underlying laws of nature still apply.
• #34: What the heck does this really look like? Could one ever guess the function of this thin device?
• #35: Scrying Pools.
• #38: One of the most prominent retailers of prosthetic devices.
• #39: They’ve become museums of Prosthetics.
• #40: Here, you can get advice on the sort of prosthetic extensions you’d like to absorb into your lifestyle.
• #47: One of the earliest forms of life to develop a carapace or shell was the trilobiteA free-swimming filter/feeder. We are all Trilobites. We filter feed information in the same way they do.During a certain point in history, the amount of trilobites exploded into existence. During this era, the number of information filter feeders has also exploded into existence online. Trilobites shed their eyes when they grow out of them. We also shed things (our own eyes in the form of computer monitors)-- our clothing when it becomes old, and our electronics when they do not provide us the mobility or resolution of experience we require to exist.
• #59: Women workers in a bicycle factory.Location:Coventry, United KingdomDate taken:1900
• #61: Description of the UNIVAC I:The machine was 25 feet by 50 feet in length, contained 5,600 tubes, 18,000 crystal diodes, and 300 relays. It utilized serial circuitry, 2.25 MHz bit rate, and had an internal storage capacity 1,000 words or 12,000 characters.
• #62: (UNIVersal Automatic Computer) The first commercially successful computer, introduced in 1951 by Remington Rand. Over 40 systems were sold. Its memory was made of mercury-filled acoustic delay lines that held 1,000 12-digit numbers. It used magnetic tapes that stored 1MB of data at a density of 128 cpi. In 1952, it predicted Eisenhower's victory over Stevenson, and UNIVAC became synonymous with computer (for a while). UNIVAC I's were in use up until the early 1960s. See delay line memory.UNIVAC IThe circuitry that filled up the walk-in CPU of the UNIVAC I, now fits on your finger.
• #63: Central Computing Annual Report Excerpt 1986Advanced Research Computing: The Cray X-MP/48This year's most significant event was the arrival of the Cray X-MP/48 supercomputer which SERC will operate on behalf of all the research councils and the British academic community.
• #67: World's smallest and thinnest RFID tag is powder made by HitachiThis new RFID powder has 128-bit ROM that can store a unique 38-digit number and include the various stages of the manufacturing process. This is useful for identification of problems and recalls.
• #69: Columbia University Computing HistoryA Chronology of Computing at Columbia UniversityThe world's most powerful computer at Columbia University's Watson Lab, 612 West 115th Street NYC, 5th floor rear, 1954.
• #87: Photography capturing
• #89: R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) is a science fiction play in the Czech language by Karel Čapek, and an upcoming feature film of the same name from director James Kerwin. It premiered in 1921 and is famous for having introduced and popularized the term robot.
• #90: Metropolis (Fritz Lang 1927).
• #97: Cheyenne, WYUplink Center530 EchoStar DriveCheyenne, WY 82007
• #98: Cheyenne, WYUplink Center530 EchoStar DriveCheyenne, WY 82007
• #99: Echostar 3 [Lockheed Martin]
• #100: Feed Intake Center (at Voice of America)
• #103: Remote surgery (also known as telesurgery) is the ability for a doctor to perform surgery on a patient even though they are not physically in the same location. It is a form of telepresence. Remote surgery combines elements of robotics, cutting edge communication technology such as high-speed data connections and elements of management information systems. While the field of robotic surgery is fairly well established, most of these robots are controlled by surgeons at the location of the surgery. Remote surgery is essentially advanced telecommuting for surgeons, where the physical distance between the surgeon and the patient is immaterial. It promises to allow the expertise of specialized surgeons to be available to patients worldwide, without the need for patients to travel beyond their local hospital.
• #121: Why build a network of telephone wires out to remote areas when you can go straight to a cutting-edge mobile network at a fraction of the cost?
• #122: Carrying device (women - around neck for easy access).
• #124: The talking drum is a Nigerian drum whose pitch can be regulated to the extent that it is said the drum \"talks\" and can be used for drum communication. Talking drums are hour-glass shaped with two heads (made from either goat, lizard, or fish skin) tuned by straps that connect the heads with each other. The player puts the drum under one shoulder and beats the instrument with a specialised beater. The pitch is raised or lowered by squeezing or releasing the drum's strings with the upper arm. This can produce highly informative sounds to convey complicated messages. The ability to change the drum's pitch is analogous to the language tonality of some African languages.File:TalkingDrum.jpg
• #136: . Yoneji Masuda is regarded as one of the first persons discussing the arrival of the information society in the early 1980's
• #161: TORONTO (AP) _ When you first meet Steve Mann, it seems as if you've interrupted him appraising diamonds or doing some sort of specialized welding. Because the first thing you notice is the plastic frame that comes around his right ear and holds a lens over his right eye.But quickly you see that there's more to his contraption: A tiny video camera is affixed to the plastic eyepiece. Multicolored wires wrap around the back of Mann's head. Red and white lights blink under his sweater.Mann greets you, warmly at first, though he soon gets distracted by something on the tiny computer monitor wedged over his eye.In fact, being with Mann sometimes feels like the ultimate, in-your-face version of having a dinner companion who talks on a cell phone.But don't be put off by it.Someday you, too, might be a cyborg.Mann, a 41-year-old engineering professor at the University of Toronto, spends hours every day viewing the world through that little monitor in front of his eye
• #185: ITH e-mail, cellphones and other technology, it's easier than ever for grandparents to keep in touch with their far-flung children and grandchildren.But nothing has been able to replicate the physical interaction that comes with an occasional visit.Now, robotics researchers at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh have designed a soft, huggable pillow that uses sensing and wireless phone technology to provide a physical touch, and thus better social and emotional support, for distant family members.AdvertisementThe pillow, called the Hug, was developed after the researchers studied how robotics could improve products the elderly use every day. The research team, financed by a grant from the National Science Foundation, came up with 53 different ideas for products. They decided to begin by designing what eventually became the Hug because their research found that what older people often needed most was emotional support, said Jodi Forlizzi, an assistant professor of design and human-computer interaction at Carnegie Mellon.\"Intimate communication is important for maintaining mental and physical health,\" she said.The device, which is about the size of a throw pillow but as firm as a seat cushion, is shaped like a person about to give a hug, with two arms reaching up and out from a small torso. The outside is covered in velour, \"making it soft and plush and something you would want to hold up against your body,\" said Carl DiSalvo, a doctoral student in design at Carnegie Mellon who worked on the project.The Hug is intended to be used within an extended family: for instance, between a grandfather and his far-away granddaughter, who would each have a device. \"This is not meant to share hugs with a hundred people,\" Mr. DiSalvo said. \"This is to be used with those closest to you.\"To send a hug, the grandchild would squeeze the left paw of her device and speak her grandfather's name into a microphone in the top of the torso. Voice recognition software in the processor in the device identifies the name and matches it to a preset phone number corresponding to the other Hug. The girl's Hug calls the grandfather's, which lights up and plays sounds. To accept the hug, he squeezes the left paw and says hello, opening a direct voice link between the two.Once the connection is established, the girl squeezes or pats the device. Sensors convert those motions into a data stream that is sent to the other Hug and converted on that end into vibrations through small motors embedded in the device. Thermal fibers around the Hug's belly radiate heat that increases with time. The hug is ended by pressing the right paw and saying goodbye.If someone is not home to receive a hug, the other person can leave a message that includes voice and vibration patterns. The Hug can store up to four messages.Unlike a regular phone, for which wrong numbers are a way of life, there is no need to fear getting a hug in error. Each person you would want to hug has to be added to your network, much like a cellphone is programmed with personalized rings.
• #186: projectLilyPad Arduino (a construction kit for electronic textiles) (2007) Craft technology gorup, U of colorado at boulddrt, Drpt. of com sci, boulder co, USAwith Fun Electonics, Arduino. The lilypad is a constriction kit that engalbes people to build their own soft interactive weaable,. Microcontroller, sensor, and actioastor pieces cna be swen tohgether with conduction trhead (the stircting creates both electirca and physical vonnections) and hren programmed to exhibit all sorts of behaviour with the Arduino softwate. The kit allow speople, designers, artists, hackers, and kits to experiement with e-textiles. The soft version is a researhc ptototype based on fabric printed circuit boards. Each board is coconstrcuted out of laser-cut conductive fabric attached to a traditionakl clothj sbutstrate. Every input/otput tab of each module is attahced ot a conductive fsbric petal ont he floer-shaped boards.
• #187: NY, NY. with Christian Croft. Harneses the energy of the turning wheel through a series of gears that spin an embedded generator. Voltage produced can be used for a rang of low-powe rapplications such as charing small electornics Inspirations: Joe Paradiso ‘Energy Harvesting for Mobile COmputing’.
• #188: While wearing the jacket, a Smoke can exhale the smoek into a one-way air valbve int eh side of the collar. The smoke is then funneled into apair of plastic nclosed, transparent ‘lungs’ on the front of hte jacket, filling htem with smoke. After repeated exposure to the cigarette smoke, the air filter linings of the lungs beghin to permanenelt darken.
• #189: London, UK YThe M-dress is an elegant silk jersey dress htat is also a functional soft electroncis mobile phone. The M-dress accepts a standard SIM card and allow the weaer to receive and make calls without carrying a cellular phone in their procket or purse. The m-Dress was designed after research show that women who wear fitted garments with small or no pockets, often miss calls betcuase boile phones are awkward to carry. Whne the dress rrings, the simple hesutr eof bringing a hand to the ear allows the sensor to open the call. When done, the gesture of releasing the hand downwards closes the call. (caseorganic: also shows the natural positon of what one would use with a mobile phone).
• #190: Ritchie's work deals with the vastness of our universe and the various ways that we attempt to rationalise, fictionalise or understand the matter that exists beyond the limits of our perception, transmuting science, history and philosophy into raw material for what he describes as an 'information architecture'.
• #203: Figure 1. By giving tangible (physical) representation to digital information, tangible user interfaces make information directly graspable and manipulable through haptic feedback. Intangible representation (such as video projection) may complement tangible representation, synchronizing with it.
• #224: Scientists have a better understanding of the role black holes have played in the evolution of galaxies in our cosmos, thanks to a new and unprecedentedly detailed simulation of the universe developed by researchers from Carnegie Mellon University.Black holes were once thought to be rare beasts. Still elusive, they are now thought to be ubiquitous in our universe. Despite this, they have not been included in previous universe simulations because on such a grand scale of cosmic structure, they are just too small to figure.Now a team of scientists, led by theoretical cosmologist and associate professor Tiziana Di Matteo, incorporated the physics of black holes into a universe simulation for the first time.\"It is very computationally challenging, involving more calculations than any prior similar modeling of the cosmos, and the result offers us the best picture to date of how the cosmos formed,\" she said.The simulation has revealed the regulatory role black holes play in galaxy formation. Di Matteo explains that although virtually all galaxies had a quasar at their core in the early days of the universe, now only one in 10,000 does. The simulation sheds some light on why this is.\"The black hole tries to swallow a lot of gas,\" she says. \"But this growth is kind of suicidal. As it tries to swallow more and more it will radiate so much energy that it will affect its surroundings and stop more gas from flowing in.\"As the gas stops flowing in, the edge of the black hole isn't heated any more and gradually the radiation stops, shutting off the quasar.Di Matteo built her universe on the Cray XT3 system at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC). She set up the initial conditions to match the observed cosmic microwave radiation produced at the birth of the universe, and seeded her microcosm with a quarter of a billion particles of measurable everyday matter.Next, fluid spheres went in to represent cooling clumps of gas, equations to account for dark matter, growing black holes and exploding stars.Once all the data was in, Di Matteo turned the universe over to the 2000 processors of the XT3. Even with all this computing power, the team had to use special techniques to help reduce the workload. Once this was set up, the simulation ran for four weeks.Check out the results here. As the universe unfolds, the matter becomes lumpier and lumpier. The first black holes appear when the universe is 300m years old. By the end, supermassive black holes lurk in the centre of most galaxies.Now that the simulation has run, the next step is to analyse the data. This, Di Matteo says, will be a pleasure.
• #233: Harry Potter is contained in the most libraries. <a href=\"http://manyeyes.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/visualizations/harry-potter-is-freaking-popular\">manyeyes.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/visualizations/harry...</a>
• #235: Different colors designate different types of weather. Social Weather Mapping [smalltalkapp.com] geo-locates recent tweets in the US that contain the terms &quot;sunny&quot;, &quot;rainy&quot;, &quot;snowy&quot;, &quot;windy&quot;, and &quot;foggy&quot;. The size of the circles are determined by the number of tweets, and are colored by its current dominant weather. As sufficient &quot;weather&quot; data is aggregated, it can be used to form a multi-dimensional picture of the weather and the effect is has on our lives.More information at the Use All Five design agency blog. The data visualization is part of the just released Google Chrome Experiments website, and developed in Javascript only. <a href=\"http://infosthetics.com/archives/2009/03/social_weather_mapping.html\">infosthetics.com/archives/2009/03/social_weather_mapping....</a>