Cyborgs

"Inventing is mixing brains and materials. The more brains you use, the less materials you need.” Charles F. Kettering.

According to the Murphie & Potts´s definition, a cyborg is a cybernetic organism, and this could mean anything that crosses the borders between cybernetics and the organic. A cyborg, however, is not just a border crossing but a subsequent exchange, mixing and blurring of the cybernetic and the organic.

Fantasy associated with robots, and offered to us by science fiction novels (Fig. 2), movies, comics and cartoon, is so far from reality that the current industrial robots seem no more than primitive versions of these fantastic machines ( for example, C3PO, R2-D2, clones and those fantastic war machines capable of moving the film series "Star Wars", the Terminator, Cyberdyne T1000 and the films "Terminator" I and II, Bishop of the movie " Allien II ", etc.)..
Nevertheless, this fantasy is not new. Correspond to one of the great dreams of man since ancient times; to reproduce itself by mechanical means creating an ideal slave, that is, able to perform human tasks. At the turn of the century, wrote the American inventor Nicola Tesla in Croatian: "I conceived the idea of Constructing an automaton mechanically which would Represent me, and which would respond, as I of myself, But, of course, in a much more Primitive Manner, to external influences. Such an automaton evidently had to have motive power, organs for locomotion, directive organs, and one or more sensitive organs so adapted as to be excited by external stimuli. "
Great thinkers of our common history have dedicated to imagine, design and build mechanisms to "copy" someone (s) of human capabilities. Among those whose work came to our days, it is worth noting Ctesibius, Leonardo da Vinci, Nicola Tesla, among others.
Nowadays, the robots are more and more present in society.  As says Fábio Ramos, a PHD researcher  of the University of Sydney,  “Today we have robots that aspire to house dust, robots that clean the pool, robots that guide us in museums, etc.. In the future robots will have seat-of-the-wheel robots to help the blind, among others. However, I think the impact will be greater in the robotics industry. In mining, we are creating technology that will revolutionize the industry and prevent injury to persons in underground mines and surface. In agriculture and livestock, intelligent machines will help improve production, making it more efficient and reducing the use of natural resources. In health, robots help the elderly regain independence and self-esteem”.
In the other hand, “a completely automated world may not be what we really want or need. Some tasks must be performed by humans, either for psychological reasons, or the ability to create and adapt what we have. Robots can help us greatly in dangerous activities or activities that require much effort; however there are tasks that can hardly run in the near future. I still cannot imagine a robot teacher, psychologist, medical journalist, and many others. All of these occupations involve creativity, sensitivity and a broad analysis of the problems / situations. I think the human brain can only gather those skills”, complete Ramos.

Reference

Murphie, A. & Potts, J. (2003). Culture and technology. Basingstoke.

Time magazine lists ranking the 100 best gadgets in the world

Time magazine recently published a list of 100 most influential and best gadgets of 1923 to the present day. The devices shown were divided into the categories entertainment, communication, cameras and even a "gadgets ahead of its time," for devices that exceed the standards being launched. The magazine's readers have placed in the top 5 iPod, Kindle, Game Boy, iPhone and iPad - Apple dominating the rankings with three devices.

In less than 100 years these 100 gadgets changed our society and the way that they interact. Jaron Lanier says in his book “You are not a gadget”: “I am always reminded of how small changes in the details of a digital design can have profound unforeseen effects on the experiences of the humans who are playing with it. The slightest change in something as seemingly trivial as the ease of use of a button can sometimes completely alter behavior patterns.
The complete list of gadgets can be conferred on the magazine, have a look and chose the one that changed your life more.

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,2023689,00.html

Reference

Lanier, Jaron. (2010) You are not a gadget. New York.

Remix

Is this Remix?

If there is one Brazilian icon that Australians love, it is the Havaianas sandals. They wear them everywhere, no matter where they are. I have seen people in Opera House, at a party and even during an overseas flight. In Brazil, we only wear sandals to go to the pool or beach. So, I was not surprised when I was walking around Manly and I saw this kind of artistic expression made using these sandals. Is this Remix?

It seems to be. As says Lawrence Lessig, Remix is collage; it comes from combining elements of RO culture; it succeeds by leveraging the meaning created by the reference to build something new. And the creativity is the key. And the expression in itself is what make so different things appeared. It is very unusual to have a sandal as a raw material for an artistic expression. That is only possible because of the remix, and its openness of meaning.

Reference

Lessig, Lawrence (2008). Remix: Making Art and Commerce thrive in the hybrid economy. New York: Penguin Press.

Miner’s panopticon

70 days ago, 33 miners in Chile started their imprisonment inside a mine 700 m deep.  It was the 5^th of August, and an accident imprisoned them in San Jose mine, 800km from Santiago, Chile. For more than one week nobody knew if they were alive. Then, using very high technology equipment, they found out they were there alive. Since the miners were found, they are experiencing something that brings me the idea of a Panopiticon.  The concept, design by Jeremy Bentham in 1785, is an architectural figure that comes in direction to surveillance without feeling watched, because the big tower is transformed in 15cm role from where a camera goes to the miners, 700 meters down the Earth. As said in the article Panopticism by Michel Foucault, the panopticon must not be understood as a dream building: it is the diagram of a mechanism of power reduced to its ideal form; its functioning, abstracted from any obstacle, resistance or friction, must be represented as a pure architectural and optical system: it is in fact a figure of political technology that may and must be detached from any specific use.

In this kind of building, the crowd, a compact mass, a locus of multiple exchanges, individualities merging together, a collective effect is abolished and replaced by a collection of separated individualities. From the guardian´s point of view, it is replaced by a multiciplicity that can be numbered and supervised; from the point of view of the inmates, by sequestered and observed solitude (Bentham). In the case of these 33 miners the solitude comes with the tragedy, in situations like that the discipline is essential, but it happens because of the individuality of each other. They have the discipline to live in that situation; they have to organize themselves to go through an extreme routine. And they have been watched 24 hours a day, not for just one person, but for the entire world.  It is amazing because everyone looked at them, but they did not realize that, the focus was just in their one life on day-by-day.  All because cameras were send to them.  The Panopticon is a marvelous machine which, whatever use one may wish to put it to, produces homogeneous effects of power. So it is not necessary to use force to constrain the convict to good behavior. All that was the good luck for the miners.

Eventually, after so many days they were out. As soon there are coming out, after being in almost complete dark for more than two months, it is not the lights that they will have to take care. They will realize the attention that they have been exposed and what it will influence their life from now. Before they were miners that used to spend a lot of time inside the earth, and with not much contact with anyone. Miner is one of the oldest professions, nothing to do with communication. And now they are celebrities, because of all these digital culture technologies. In two months, the unexpected would happen. There are none in all channels of communication that are not talking about them, their names  are on Google, the television everywhere are talking about them, in places for sure they would have never thought existed. That´s the miner reality show.  

Reference

Foucalt, Michel (1977). “Panopticism”. In Kaplan, D.M. (ed) Readings in the philosophy of technology. (2004) Lanham.