The term cyborg was first created when researchers attempted to alter the human body for space travel (Corbett, 2009). It is short for cybernetic organism, that is, a being with both organic and biomechatronic components. The film Ghost in the Shell (1995) is an example of speculative fiction and takes place in a futuristic Hong Kong inspired cityscape, where cyborgs and prosthetic bodies are not unusual. Oshii Masamune’s animated science fiction film is set in 2029, when people can customise their bodies, replay memories and move from shell to shell. Susan Napier describes the film as an "exploration of the possibilities of transcending individual and corporeal identity" (Napier, 2001, as cited in Ashby, 2008, 2.4).
It is common practice to own a cyberbrain; an artificially augmented brain that allows connection to the internet and other networks. Public security agency Section 9 is searching for a mysterious hacker known as the ‘Puppet Master’. The hacker is able to alter the memories of individuals with cyberbrains, leaving the Section 9 investigator, Motoko, wondering if her memories and feelings are real. It is later revealed that the hacker is a secret project created by Section 6.
So, what is the definition of a human in a society where the mind can be copied and the body replaced? When humans live in artificial bodies and artificially intelligent androids learn to feel, are they any different? Oshii uses the trans human as a theme to speculatively explore the
Dictionary.com defines human being as “a person, especially as distinguished from other animals or as representing the human species. This means anyone who has a human body can be a human being. In the book The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E Pearson, Jenna Fox is a 17 year old girl who just woke up from a coma and has no clue who she is. She moved from Boston to California with her family because her family did something illegal. When Jenna was in Boston she got in a car crash with her friends Locke and Kara who died. In order to bring Jenna back to life, her father performed a procedure using biogel so that she would have 10% of her brain back but could not remember what happened. Towards the end of the story, Jenna meets Ethan who
Mankind has become more intellectual and creative than ever before. The human has learned to adapt and learn new ways of crafting society to be more functional. New sciences and technologies have developed at an exponential rate and then those new ideas blossom off of other ideas. This growth of ideas is similar to the process of dialectic. As this idea develops, counter ideas known as antithesis develop. The thesis and antithesis struggle between one another and convey about a new idea called a synthesis. The Synthesis contains the best of both, but creates a new antithesis as the synthesis ages. Various sciences have gone deep into human research and the makeup of the human anatomy. Scientists have become further innovative and have been able to clone people and make designer babies. Certain drugs and enhancements can also alter the way we act and think as human beings. Amid all these new alterations and being able to create life we have to ask ourselves, what is a human person? Before advanced science and mind altering drugs people would say in many instances that the person is a mind and a soul. There are many different definitions for what a ‘person’ or in many cases what a ‘human being’ is. I decided the best definition for a person to use would be the philosophical definition, which, is a self-conscious or rational being. This is a definition that makes us try to understand what is and what isn’t a person. However, this definition is simple and shouldn’t be our only
I recently completed an anatomy class, and the professor posed a question to us. He said something along the lines of, "The controller of the entire body, its functions, its thoughts, its nerves, of everything, is the brain. How can we be sure all of that is true? That's simply what the brain is telling us is true." So what does it really mean to be human? Is there a correct answer, or are there wrong answers? Is everything that you personally believe correct because there is no definite answer to this perplexing question?
“Who you gonna call ?” In this 2016 remake of the pop culture favorite Ghostbusters (1984) directed by Ivan Reitman, Actor and producer Paul Feig directs the new Ghostbusters with a handpicked all Female lead cast. With the association of men playing the part of the strong and masculine role, by default Actresses are expected to play the loving, caring, and nurturing role expected by society. In this film, Dr. Abby Yates and Jillian Holtzman reunite with Abby’s childhood friend Erin Gilbert and together they study and investigate paranormal activities. After being called to a site in the subway metro station, they meet Patty Tolan an MTA worker , who officially join them and together they become the “Ghostbusters.” They also hire a dim witted secretary named Kevin Beckman who helps them shut down the portal and save the New York City population. Although this film is a female lead film, Reitman’s version of the Ghostbusters demonstrates its high quality through a praiseworthy cast , a reversed gender role, and marvelous visual and special effects.
The Synopsis: Star Trek Episode “The Measure of a Man” deals with the thought that android could have physical and mental properties. In order to fully understand or evaluate this we have to have a clear understanding of the Mind/Body Problems and solutions. Humans are material objects consisting of physical and mental properties. Physical properties examples are height, weight, color, shape or size and mental properties are awareness, consciousness, feeling, thinking, emotions and senses. The problem arises because these properties interact where intentional or unintentional continuously. Hasker discusses several mind/body solutions such as idealism, materialism, behaviorism, dualism, and
“We were all humans until race disconnected us, religion separated us, politics divided us and wealth classified us.”(Minds). The word human is defined as “of, relating to, or characteristic of humans”(Webster Human). This definition gives us a perfect example of why the meaning of this term is so ambiguous. Debates over what truly defines a human have been going on for decades. The disputes over this have ranged from Frankenstein’s monster to Data the android from Star Trek. The question still remains, what truly defines a human? More importantly, can this be defined for us by society?
Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone, reflected the time it was created and the years that followed. Showcasing the not so black and white version of humanity and all that it entailed. Touching on the effects of the Cold War and the insecurities it brought to American society. Through this outlet in television, he was allowed to express his thoughts on the outlook that people were too afraid to speak about, lest being called out as a traitor or a communist. Almost, blatantly disagreeing with the McCarthyism if not exposing the idea of how ridiculous it was to question if your neighbor was patriotic or not. Rod brought up the anguish and blatantly obvious scenarios that would precede mutually assured destruction.
"What does it mean to be human?" This is a question that is often asked in literary works. Is it our intelligence that separates us from being like any other animal on this planet or is it something else? Perhaps it is our ability to feel empathy for other humans and other forms of life. If this is so, then how is it that we also have violence and wars where humans hurt and kill other humans? How is it that humans can hurt animals without a second thought, if it's our ability to feel empathy that separates us from them? Both Philip K. Dick and Kurt Vonnegut explore these questions in their novels Blade Runner (Do Androids Dream
What characteristics really differentiate humans from androids? Most would simply say that humans are prone to emotion and empathy while androids are incapable of those feelings, but Phillip K. Dick shines a different light on the world of humans and androids. In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Dick describes the different ways that people of this era (1992/2021) evoke emotions. To understand how people of this time feel you must first understand the people that are still existent. There are “Regulars”, people who escaped Earth in time and there are “Specials” who stuck around the Earth and are limited to feelings due to radiation poisoning.
The mind is perhaps the most fascinating part of the human body due to its complexity and ability to rationalize. In essence, the mind-body problem studies the relation of the mind to the body, and states that each human being seems to embody two unique and somewhat contradictory natures. Each human contains both a nature of matter and physicality, just like any other object that contains atoms in the universe. However, mankind also is constituted of something beyond materialism, which includes its ability to rationalize and be self-aware. This would imply that mankind is not simply another member of the world of matter because some of its most distinctive features cannot be accounted for in this manner. There are obvious differences between physical and mental properties. Physical properties are publically accessible, and have weight, texture, and are made of matter. Mental properties are not publically accessible, and have phenomenological texture and intentionality (Stewart, Blocker, Petrik, 2013). This is challenging to philosophers, because man cannot be categorized as a material or immaterial object, but rather a combination of both mind and body (Stewart, Blocker, Petrik, 2013). Man embodies mind-body dualism, meaning he is a blend of both mind and matter (Stewart, Blocker, Petrick, 2013). The mind-body problem creates conflict among philosophers, especially when analyzing physicalism in its defense. This paper outlines sound
In the movie Bladerunner, the cyborgs were less distinguishable from humans. The cyborgs in this movie were referred to as replicants. They represented a computer mind implanted into a human body. They were created to be slaves in the New World. They were designed to live only four years in length. This was all before there was an uprising and many of them escaped. Those who did not escape were kept under tight surveillance and lived out their four years. The others that escaped were hunted down by the bladerunners. The reason the replicants were such a threat is that their life span was only four years.
Aside from the biological image, humans have also been seen to be like a machine. The mechanical image started when there was a boom in technology; around the time robots came about. Some say that man is like a machine in the sense that man is a complex system behaving in lawful ways. Because of physics, it is a known fact that all things have their own distinct features according to a finite number of fixed laws. Everything happens according to strict forces controlled by the universe. So humans, like machines are programmed by a higher being. While everything does have certain laws that
Cartesian dualism and transhumanism are both controversial theories within their time contexts. Leahey (2004) describes Descartes dualism as the separation of the body and the soul. The soul is immaterial and is the location for thought, consciousness, and the Cartesian Theatre, and controls the actions of the material body. Transhumanism theorises that technology will enhance and supersede human evolution (Elkins 2011,) as technology will become an extension of ourselves, or already is. I will explore the arguments for the strengths and weaknesses of these theories, and explore their contribution to modern psychology.
In “The Call of Cthulhu,” H.P. Lovecraft makes use of a more psychological horror path, which is a major aspect of Lovecraftian horror. Psychological horror uses more suspense build up and shock than blood and gore. H.P. Lovecraft accomplishes this by using a buildup of suspense, not revealing the ‘monster’ till the end while hinting at what the ‘monster’ is throughout the story. H.P. Lovecraft writes the main character following his great uncle's manuscript and piecing together the puzzle of “the Great Ones.” H.P. Lovecraft also creates the sense of suspense by making the main character’s inner dialogue contain the main characters emotions and thoughts of suspect. Another example of the use of psychological horror is when Henry Anthony Wilcox dreams of “the Great Ones,” and experiences a period of mental breakdown that physicians could not identify. Once Henry Anthony Wilcox came out of the episode he remembered nothing, creating a shock factor, and making the reader ask “how did that happen?”
Some would choose to declare that every human being is both a body and a mind. Both being gelled together until death, than having the mind go on to exist and the body being lifeless. A person lives throughout two collateral histories, one having to do with what happens to the body and in it, and the other being what happens in and to the mind. What happens to the body is public and what happens to the mind is private. The events which reply to the body consist of the physical world, and the events of the mind consist of the mental world.