Each time you look at a computer screen or use your phone, you enter into a relationship with non-human technology. They do it regularly, it is part of your everyday life. So you’re a cyborg. This is actually nothing special, yet many are surprised when they did not want to admit it.
Amber Case technology understood by Amber Case has always been a lot – by fewer people. Therefore, she studied sociology and anthropology. Today explores the 24-year-old cyborg anthropologist, the relationship between people and technology. To improve this, she developed computer programs for the company Vertigo in Portland.
Knowledge TIME: Perhaps because many in the term cyborg immediately thought of “Robocop” or the “Terminator” …
Case: Possibly. The notion for the first time in 1960 was used in an article on space travel. A cyborg, it is said there is an organism, the exogenous components are added so that it can adapt to a new environment. The definition still applies, with time, however, been somewhat refined.
Knowledge TIME: So are cyborgs people who can not live without technology – capable of being controlled by it.
Case: This is nonsense! The technology is at the service of mankind. We are creating robots, cell phones and other technical equipment for our own needs. They make us more functional, productive, the better. The technology makes us super humans.
Knowledge TIME: Sounds like a science fiction cliché.
Case: Yes. Just as we move towards us. For thousands of years, tools have made us physically stronger. Now we see a development of the mental self. The changes we are living through calling us out more than the processes that brought the industrial revolution.
Knowledge TIME: This is a steep thesis – also studied for a cyborg anthropologist.
Case: I watched it every day on Facebook, on Twitter and in blogs. It is clear that cars make us faster, the Internet allows us to think comprehensively, and through social networks, we are. In a study I have dealt thus, has the effects of mobile telephony for social and spatial relations. The result: The public space is privatized through the increased use of mobile phones are becoming stronger. Time and space are shrinking, because people always and everywhere lead private conversations – whether on the road, on the bus or in a restaurant.
Knowledge TIME: There are many people that it bothers solid, having to listen to intimate moments with other …
Case: The relationship of humans to technology is very individual. Nevertheless bind many of your electronics. Can be roughly classified in three cyborg types: Type 1 uses his computer only sometimes, Type 2, however, takes it as a constant reference – the person has a mobile phone, smartphone or tablet computer with you at all – and a cyborg-type 3 always connected, the view has always focused on the display.