{"id":2919,"date":"2011-05-21T22:36:17","date_gmt":"2011-05-22T02:36:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/?p=2919"},"modified":"2011-05-21T22:37:00","modified_gmt":"2011-05-22T02:37:00","slug":"the-cyborgology-of-blade-runner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/2011\/05\/21\/the-cyborgology-of-blade-runner\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cyborgology of “Blade Runner”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"YouTube<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“We’re not computers, […] we’re physical,” explains the Blade Runner<\/em>‘s chief antagonist, a replicant named Roy Batty.\u00a0 In this moment of dialogue, Blade Runner<\/em> engages a frequent themes of the Cyborgology blog\u2014the implosion of atoms and bits, which we term “augemented reality.”\u00a0 In this statement, Roy unpacks the assumption that digitality and physicality are mutually exclusive, while, simultaneously, transcending the boundary between the two.\u00a0 Put simply, Roy is contending that computers cease to be mere computers when they become embodied.\u00a0 In contrast to the familiar theme of cyborganic trans-humanism, Roy is articulating (and embodying) the obverse theory: trans-digitalism.<\/p>\n

This Copernican turn\u2014de-centering humans’ role in understanding of the universe\u2014is, undoubtedly, one of the great contributions\u00a0 of the cyberpunk genre (and science fiction, more broadly).\u00a0 Quite provocatively, it points to the possibility of a sociology, or even anthropology, where humans are no longer the direct object of inquiry.\u00a0 The question, here, shifts, from how we <\/em>are shaped by and interact with our tools, to how technology <\/em>itself becomes an actors (or even agents!) in a particular social milieu.<\/p>\n

Increasingly, we find ourselves comfortable discussing what our technology “wants.”\u00a0 This de-centering of human agency was, perhaps, most famously captured by Stewart Brand<\/a> when he said:<\/p>\n

\n

On the one hand information wants to be expensive, because it’s so valuable. The right information in the right place just changes your life. On the other hand, information wants to be free, because the cost of getting it out is getting lower and lower all the time. So you have these two fighting against each other.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In Brand’s framing of this argument, information-sharing technologies influence events in a way that is separate from any expression of human will.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It would be rather shallow, however, to simply conclude that these agents are fully distinct and separable from their human creators.\u00a0 In becoming “physical,” the trans-digitalist replicants (or”skinjobs” as they are pejoratively termed) are made subject to many of the same problems which have afflicted human creators from time immemorial (including mortality).\u00a0 Embodied digitality is just as cyborganic as the digitally overcoded body.<\/p>\n

Trans-digital cyborgs are always already social\u2014always already co-determining and being co-determined by humanity.\u00a0 Importantly, this means that trans-digital cyborgs are equally embedded in the political structures that define a particular historical moment.\u00a0 These shared political stakes and the inevitability of conflict are what Roy meant to convey when he told one of his designers: “if only you could see what I’ve seen with your eyes.”\u00a0 It is precisely for this reason that the prospect of artificial intelligence is always a bit terrifying: there can be no such thing as an apolitical machine.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“We’re not computers, […] we’re physical,” explains the Blade Runner‘s chief antagonist, a replicant named Roy Batty.\u00a0 In this moment of dialogue, Blade Runner engages a frequent themes of the Cyborgology blog\u2014the implosion of atoms and bits, which we term “augemented reality.”\u00a0 In this statement, Roy unpacks the assumption that digitality and physicality are mutually […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":563,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9968],"tags":[2324,10698,10633,10699,10700],"class_list":["post-2919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-augmented-reality","tag-blade-runner","tag-cyborgs","tag-replicant","tag-stewart-brand"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/563"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2919"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2978,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2919\/revisions\/2978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/cyborgology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}