1. Turn on the kitchen burner to …2. Put 3 liters of water into a 4-liter pot.3. Place the pot on the kitchen burner you have already turned on.4. Add …
Do machines live?
The same year that Norbert Wiener published his treatise on the “human use of human beings,” in 1950, another exceptional figure in the history of computer science, Alan Turing, posed …
The pregnancy of the cyborg
…Here I want to interject an important element: words like Life, Purpose, and Soul are completely unsuitable in pure scientific thinking. These terms acquired their meaning because we recognize the …
Nanotechnologies: Visions under the microscope
Nanometer (nm) = one billionth of a meter. To begin to grasp this order of magnitude, we must agree that it refers to objects invisible to the “naked” human eye. …
Do androids play electric games?
About the game in general Play is always an activity. Even when it presupposes high levels of abstract ability, it simultaneously demands the externalization of meaning through a series of …
Technology, total war and creative destruction
An illusion hovers over the first world, that war is somewhere else, in spatial and temporal terms. It happens on the fringes of civilization and does not concern “our world” …
Are consciousness and memory technoscientific “objects”?
The question in the title now seems foolish or pointless. Of course what has historically been called “consciousness” is a techno-scientific object of analysis and research! For decades now. Even …
The pearly gates of cyberspace
This essay by Margaret Wertheim was published in Greek in the magazine futura no. 5, Winter 1998 – 1999, from which we republish it. It was included in the collective …
“A Cyborg Manifesto”: thirty years later
Cyborgs are ether, the quintessence We are now traversing the sixth decade since the writings of Manfred Clynes and Nathan Kline gave substance to the cyborg construct/artifact. Today, although it …
The piston, the worker, the hook: anatomy of cyborg ancestors
It is by no means necessary for someone to use a machine (from a smartphone to a robotic analyzer) to keep in mind how each wave of mechanization fits into …
Fitter, happier, more productive… (about self-quantification)
Fitter, happier, more productiveComfortable, not drinking too muchRegular exercise at the gym 3 days a weekGetting on better with your associate employee contemporariesAt ease, eating wellSleeping well, no bad dreams, …
Hey teacher leave our brains alone! (first notes for neuroscience)
“It was generally accepted that our fate is hidden in the stars. But now we know exactly that it is written in our genes.” This phrase of Watson’s expresses in …