What if?

What if embodiment is an action rather than a being? My initial reaction to the question was “it’s both.” The reaction came from my gut… it was a feeling, but that’s not the only reason I believe embodiment is both –– or being in action. However, I do think embodiment could be the action of a body without “meat.” After reading chapter nine in “How We Became Post–human,” I think the creators of Artificial Life are proving there can be life that is nothing more than action and information. I also think it’s possible for humans to evolve into this state, and that perhaps this state will become our ultimate condition. But for the time being, it is not our choice.

Where'd they get the plot?

I heard somewhere along the line that the movie “Groundhog Day” is a light–hearted portrayal of P.D. Ouspensky’s theory of recurrence, and after watching “The Matrix” for the first time I thought that maybe it was an enigmatic portrayal of Gurdjieff’s philosophy –– focusing on the immersive hypnotic effect of the Magician on the sheep to keep them asleep. This time around, I took some notes while watching that movie, and I now think it’s highly arguable that it has at least incorporated some of Gurdjieff’s philosophy.

Just a little of the irony

What does Harraway mean by an ironic dream? I suppose the most obvious irony is the fact that she has to struggle with the use the language of binaries to undermine the language of binaries. Her dream is also ironic, at least in part I think, because it realizes the only “common language” available to the cyborg is no language at all. “Our best machines are made of sunshine; they are all light and clean because they are nothing but signals, electromagnetic waves, a section of a spectrum, and these machines are eminently portable, mobile […] People are nowhere near so fluid, being both material and opaque. Cyborgs are ether, quintessence” (5). Such a “fluid” world, it seems, would be bound only by swirling, energetic particles, with no need to communicate other than with a momentary passing of energy, one to the other. Yet, that too is ironic, because a momentary passing of energy would automatically equate to a “common language.”