H33
"For Haraway, and for Franklin, the transbiological refers to the new conceptions of the self, the body, nature, and the human within waves of new technological advancement." (Halberstam 33)
In another page I talk about Disney princesses and how they provide a pacifying idea of humanism. Given that the root word of humanism is human, the development of technology presents possibilities for new theories and ideologies. The interspecies reproduction prompts curiosity in the image above as does the the mix of the human and the technological.
With films like Her and people marrying video games, the technological has crept into user interfaces and attempt to provide the user with experiences with a human(oid), complete with communication and emotion. Benjamin speaks about how people are denied their bodies in the face of new technology (Halberstam 29). Despite this denial, what bodies are made possible through technology? Does it allow for transcending embodiment through the virtual?
During my adolescence, I would juggle school, swimming, and playing MMORPGs. These virtual worlds provided an alternative space apart from the reality that I was living. It had built in systems of reward, pathways of success, and even featured an economy that one can venture to accrue in-game currency. It provided an opportunity for me to portray myself in ways that exceeded the current limitations, at the cost of my other responsibilities.
At the end of the day, our bodies are still human with human limitations. Time, however relational it is theorized, still stands as a finite resource. Humanism is rooted in the value of human life and experience, a call to exercise agency within one’s own life. But what about “virtualism,” what does that value and call individuals to do in its teleology? An agential assertion of existence that transcends human existence? A reproduction of self in ways other than physical embodiment?
Somewhere in the world of 0s and 1s, my character sits waiting for my return. Perhaps, she/it has grown tired of waiting and gone off to do whatever she/it wants to do while I move towards other things within the world of the “real.”
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