“Prologue: Computing Kin.” My Mother was a Computer

    Katherine Hayles begins with the notion the stories and narratives people tell about themselves and what it means to be human or nonhuman, shape identities and societies. The stories currently being told are shifting toward computer terminology, processes and relationships and thus are influencing what it is to think of humanity and inhumanity. Stories are media and thus become part of the influential environment but humans are participatory in that framework and are not passive recipients of media messages. It is important for Hayles that human’s remember their material presence and influence in and on the environment and how the environment acts on people and society. Humans and computers have both material and virtual elements, literal and metaphorical components, influencing each other and participating in the grander biosphere.
     The continued evolution of humans with nonhuman machines is obvious in current computerized society. Thus it is in humanity’s interest to set up intelligent evolving patterns and ways of understanding humanity, and evolution, in relation to the environment. It would be counterproductive to become stuck in a feedback loop of disembodied society that runs away from reality and ecology to find itself stranded on an island/planet with no food and water.
     Although current reality has many virtual arenas, humans cannot be thought of as separate from the grander environment. The erroneously considered separate environment may not be manipulated blindly. For consequences in reality have human consequences too. Humans need to participate as both material and immaterial, managing both aspects and not be molded by media blindly. It is important what stories are used to think of being human and how those stories produce real humans with real human actions and consequences.
    Hayles supports her position by stating humans cannot exist without a measure of materiality, whether that be a society dependent on fossil fuels, the materials required for the Industrial Revolution or the energy required to make and power virtually everything. Computers are intelligent systems that have permeated many aspects of modern society that are made of physical substances and contain a vast virtual world of human enhancement, simulations, knowledge and communication. Computerized systems have come to permeate the very fabric of society and conceptions of what it is to be human versus nonhuman.
     One of the ways in which computerized ideas, modeling and terminology have made their way so deeply into the human narrative include using the metaphor of a computer for the workings of the human mind. Furthermore Hayles notes a shift away from stories involving the mythical character Mother Nature for computerized metaphors and complexity theories. The very processes with which children learn to read and understand narratives is being taught with the use of computers and educational computer programming in schools. The literal voice of a mother or teacher is replaced by computer sounds and interactions. Many day to day conversations in business, relationships, literacy and reading are based on computerized platforms and high tech communications technology.
     To illustrate the utility of using intelligent computerized systems Hayles notes how climate modeling requires the use of computers to understand as complex systems beyond the range of a human mind alone. To bring home the idea that even with the aid of intelligent systems humans are not the masters of the universe and not separate from the environment she mentions how climate change is beyond human control and has real life consequences.


     It is easy to see the saturation of computers and clever technology in everyday life and their role in education, sociality and business. Computer metaphors for human systems are encountered often enough to accept their role in the human narrative. Importantly humans must not allow their narratives to be overrun by uninterested entities evolved from virtually profitable enterprises isolated from reality. The consequences of such folly could be a materially depleted reality, and humans cannot so far exist without a measure of materiality.
    At first it seemed odd to me to be reminded of my materiality and its importance but then likened it to seeing a jumping deer road sign on a long trip and being reminded to be mindful of random deer approaches which at first are easily dismissed along the lines of of course a driver should be watching for deer but until that moment perhaps the driver was not. Like a driver experiencing a random deer encounter while unprepared daydreaming can experience a bad accident, a human swept away by entertaining comfort and intellectual interests online can lose sight of personal encounters that drive progress in a potentially harmful direction. I agree that it is important to be mindful of the environment and how it is important to be the change you want to see in the world.

     Hayles, N. Katherine. “Prologue: Computing Kin.” My Mother was a Computer: Digital Subjects and Literary Texts. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2005. 1-7 and 245. (CanCopy Course Kit).


Questions to Consider:

1. Do you lose track of your materiality? Are some computer environments easier to become materially lost in? In what ways could losing track of materiality negatively influence the self (and the self in relation to the environment)?

 2. Do you have more virtual actions or material? Which has more consequences, the virtual or material actions? Good or bad, and why?



 Additional Resources:

How We Became Posthuman Prologue by Katherine Hayles
 YouTube interview with N. Katherine Hayles discussing questions regarding themes in her books.

Wikipedia article on N. Katherine Hayles
N. Katherine Hayles official UCLA website
Wikipedia article on Posthumanism

What Does it Mean to be Posthuman?

     In What Does it Mean to be Posthuman Katherine Hayles expounds an optimistic view of defining posthuman. Posthuman for Hayles does not end human but extend human. Humanity may be extended and enhanced through interactions with complex systems containing human and non-human components, smart tools and smart environments. Expanding the boundaries of agency to include varied and complex, evolving, adaptable, and self organizing systems could lead to more complete information and improved decisions. Including complex and varied systems in the terms of agency can pave the way to agency for human populations currently denied.
       It is important to accept an optimistic view of working with technology and complex adaptive systems because they are becoming a larger part of the average person’s life. The ability to accept and utilize the help of smart programs, systems and fellow humans can only aid in informed decision and policy making. Intelligent systems participate in such day to day activities as logging into voice mail services or using spell check. Current dominant political notions that would be passed in becoming post include specific types of humans having agency and control over environments. Unequal agency reflects unequal power distribution and the existence of humans who are denied said luxuries.
      Hayles supports her position by saying humans and human bodies do not exist nor have evolved in isolation. Historic, environmental and random forces have influenced human consciousness, politics, society and general development. Human beings exist as part of a complex system and not in positions isolated from the world and other humans. Acting as though the environment is separate from the self and may be manipulated and exploited for gain and not necessarily for good is an unfortunate consequence of isolated agency. Necessity of the best situations for the most people can be unexplored by the powerful in a system of autonomous isolation from the masses of individuals being acted upon.
      An enlightened humanism view of humanity is challenged. Trading in the ideas of dogmatic destinies and linear passed down stories, for consciousness derived from self organized phenomena in the context of complex relationships. Humans and specifically specific humans are not the sole engineers of their place in the universe, and interact and exist in networks of relationships of human and non-human components. “Meaning is not guaranteed by a coherent origin; rather, it is made possible (but not inevitable) by the blind force of evolution finding workable solutions within given parameters.” (p. 285)
      Recognizing complex self organizing systems emerging from randomness that contains nonhuman components can allow one to recognize the potential for pattern emergence with nonhuman elements and their assets for enhancing thought.
      The nonhuman elements with which we think and live are numerous and include the multimedia, clever colleague the computer and its great asset the internet. The computer, internet, mobile devices and computer enhanced locations join together to form an exceptionally intelligent environment to live and work in. Some of the smart systems we participate in are smarter than the average user, especially when connected to the vast stores of knowledge available on the internet. It is important to recognize how necessary the nonhuman elements are for human thought. Distributed systems and consciousness allow people to access information and relationships outside that of a single mind. Machines and the internet extend human capacities and ability to think and are not to be feared as other emerging complex systems wielding malicious intent. 
    

     Hayles enhances my ability to be positive about the prospect of becoming posthuman through emphasis on the natural interactions and evolution between humans and their environment. By using a larger body of distributed consciousness, and interacting with smart accurate machines and programs, humans have and continue to develop smart evolving systems. More thinkers, human, nonhuman and posthuman in the tank can lead to more accurate projections.
      Ending a version of human does not need to be frightening when the prospects are shiny. Casting a wider net and allowing the spread of one’s autonomy to move out through an intelligent network of systems can provide a more bountiful catch of possibilities and profit than fearing the dissolution of all agency with the opening of boundaries to control.This view of posthuman exalts an idea of human agency that is partially permeable like a living cell that respires, metabolizes and grows within a grander living organism and strives to be unlike a jail cell that is the rigid non-living container of thick boundaries holding a person.
     A positive view of posthuman is more about long range survival than immediate personal gains such as those associated with depleting a resource to pad personal accounts. Long range survival that includes utilizing the talents of all humans and not those in the narrow definition of human agents that are white wealthy men. Utilizing the enhancing faculties of smart environments is natural to and grafted already into the everyday lives of individuals. These faculties are necessary to continued social evolution and human enhancement within the current computerized environment.
      Hayles does not, however, alleviate the terror associated with smart machines outsmarting even the posthuman and eventually overtaking all of human agency and choice. Is it impossible to think intelligent programs and machinery are worse at telling us what to do than men interested in lining their pockets?


         Hayles, N. Katherine. “Conclusion: What Does it Mean to be Posthuman?” How we Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1999. 283-291 and 322-323. (CanCopy Course Kit).

Questions to consider:

1. Considering the importance of the environment and nonhuman aspects in the realm of everyday thought and decision making how is your life enhanced or limited by the ‘smart’ or ‘technological’ environment.


2. What consequences may there be in the hyper-smart evolution of a system of smart programs developed by people interested in power and profit?



Additional Resources:

Wikipedia article on Posthuman

Philosophical definition of Agency presented by Wikipedia


Cyborgs and Barbie Dolls: Feminism, Popular Culture and the Posthuman Body by Kim Toffaletti: A link that promises a free download of this interesting book with similar themes.

War with the robots in the Animatrix : Video clip to illustrate type of terror that can come from losing agency to advanced machinery.