“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