Wings Over the Pyre - January 31st, 2005

09:08 am - Modern Bigotry

Technorati Tags: personal, identity, cyberpunk, comic

The funny thing is that this is something that actually comes up in my life. And not just because I've been heavily involved in cyberpunk literature from very, very early.

Is a man with a mechanical arm less human than one with an arm made of flesh? Does it matter if he never originally had one, or is is different if it came off in an accident? How does that change if they deliberately had it replaced to be better at what they do in life?

Before you get too arrogant about that latter, is it somehow inhuman to make yourself move faster by replacing your legs with a mechanical contraption? If so, why is it you don't make running motions while you're in your car? Is sitting in an "unnatural" manner less "human" than running everywhere you go? Is it important that you not be engaged in the natural use of the fleshy bits if it serves your ends?

As far as I'm concerned, its what I accomplish that defines me as human or not, not the means by which its done. If I replaced every bit of my body, a piece at a time, until not even my brain remained (a process I earnestly hope to have perfected some day), I'm still human, because my ends are human.

Of course, as my personal experience drifts further and further from the experience of what we consider the "baseline human condition," my choices and desires and ends will come to be more and more alien to their understanding, but that presents a thorny conundrum for those who'd define humanity by that measure. How different do you have to be to no longer be human? Is cultural difference sufficient? Clearly, that's been the case in the past.

Arguably, I'm already firmly in the realm of inhumanity by most cyberpunk and conservative identity theorists' measure as it stands. Being physically limited and different as I am, my personal experiential sphere is so different from that of pretty much any of my readers that I might as well be alien to you. Your identity, your experience, your perception is funneled to me through a hundred thousand cultural mediums, but mine is never really yours. You never really know what it is to live in my skin. In that sense, I'm already cyberpsychotic/alien. I've embraced this fact, of course. Its really the only choice.

The ongoing consideration of identity is something not enough people delve into. Sooner or later, its going to be an important issue. Sooner rather than later, I'm wagering.

Current Mood:

thoughtful

Current Music: Richard Cheese - She Hates Me/Puddle of Mudd

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10:00 am - Aztec Awareness

Technorati Tags: meme, calendar, Aztec

The Gregorian date 19 April 2004, corresponds to the following Aztec date:

Xihuitl
solar year Trecena
13-day period Tonalli
day
5-Tecpatl 1- Coatl 8- Malinalli
(Alfonso Caso correlation)