Is Clark right?
When I first heard that we were going to have to read a book about how humans are cyborgs, I immediately thought that this was going to be a book that I would hate reading. Men as machines is something that just does not appeal to me, and I thought that reading about it would be boring. However, after reading the first chapter of Natural-Born Cyborgs, I found myself completely agreeing with Clark. I think what made me agree with Clark was the way he used wording in his book. He doesn’t simply say that men are machines, rather what Clark argues is that technology constitutes “”a cascade of mindware upgrades”: cognitive upheavals in which the effective architecture of the human mind is altered and transformed”. What makes us cyborgs is the fact that our use of technology has become so crucial in our lives that it has changed the way our brains function and made it harder to distinguish what is human intelligence from what is human intelligence aided by technological tools.
Clark gives the cell phone as an example of how we have become cyborgs. He discusses how we all get so wrapped up in text messaging and talking on the phone with others that we often seem to be leading divided lives. On the one hand, we are in the space that we are physically occupying, but on the other hand, our minds are with the people that we are talking to. I know that when I am talking to someone on the phone, my mind gets completely wrapped up in that conversation that I sometimes lose sight of where I actually am. The same thing happens when I am texting with someone. Physically I may be in class, but mentally I am with that person and focused on whatever it is that we are talking about. Another way that I think my cell phone has become a part of me is just the fact that when I don’t have it with me or within my reach, I feel as if a part of me is missing. I never feel comfortable when I don’t have my phone because I feel as though any communication that I have with the world has been totally cut off. In reality this is not the case, but I rely on my phone so much to communicate with others that I feel as if it is my only means of communication with the world.
The cell phone is one example among many that Clark gives, but I think it is the one that stands out the most and that almost all of us can probably relate to. I doubt that I am the only one that feels lost without a cell phone and that relies on it for so many parts of my life. I think that with all of the advancements in technology that have happened and are happening at this very moment, it is almost inevitable for us to become so integrated with it. We have become one with technology in so many ways that we can no longer really doubt that we are what Clark refers to as natural-born cyborgs.