Seduced & Abandoned: The Body in the Virtual World - The Feminine Cyberspace

Summary

视频剧本深入探讨了网络空间的物质性与象征性，挑战了将网络空间视为非物质化、象征性区域的传统观点。演讲者批判了西方父权文化中逃离肉体、追求非物质状态的长期梦想，并指出网络空间实际上增强了这种梦想，但最终无法摆脱肉体的束缚。讨论还涉及了女性与机器的联系，以及在数字化时代，身份认同的转变和流动性，暗示女性可能在技术发展中扮演着先前被低估的角色。

Takeaways

• 🌐 讨论了网络空间（cyberspace）并非是无形的隐喻或象征性区域，而是实际影响现实世界的物质存在。
• 🚀 指出了西方文化中长久以来试图逃离物质世界，追求非物质状态的理想主义倾向。
• 🤖 探讨了赛博朋克（cyberpunk）作品中体现的对逃离肉体（meat）的渴望，及其与西方父权文化的关系。
• 👩‍💻 对于女性在网络空间中的身份和角色进行了讨论，质疑了将网络空间女性化（feminized）的必要性。
• 🔧 强调了技术发展，特别是数字化和网络空间，如何与所谓的“女性化”过程相联系，挑战了传统的男性身份。
• 🧬 讨论了身份认同的转变，特别是在技术影响下，身份认同如何从统一的自我向分散的、非中心化的自我转变。
• 💊 描述了药物、性、网络性爱等如何作为文化现象，反映出身体与技术融合的现实。
• 🤝 提出了女性与机器之间可能存在的内在联系，并探讨了女性在技术领域的活跃参与。
• 🌐 指出了网络空间实质上是物质性的，与身体紧密相连，反驳了网络空间是逃离肉体的非物质领域的观念。
• 🔄 强调了在赛博朋克文化中，身体和机器的界限变得模糊，身体本身变成了一个复杂的、动态的系统。
• 🔮 对于未来，提出了女性可能在技术发展中扮演的角色，以及这可能如何影响我们对性别、身份和物质世界的理解。

Q & A

什么是赛博空间(cyberspace)，为什么作者认为它不仅仅是一个隐喻或象征性区域？

赛博空间通常被理解为一个由计算机和网络技术构成的虚拟领域。作者认为，将其仅视为隐喻或象征性区域是一种重复西方理想主义的做法，这种做法试图将人类从物质世界中解放出来，进入一个非物质的领域。作者反对这种观点，认为赛博空间实际上是物质世界的一部分，与我们的身体和现实紧密相连。

作者为什么反对将赛博空间女性化？

作者认为赛博空间本身已经对男性身份构成挑战，没有必要按照女性化的传统观念去改变它。作者提出，赛博空间的发展可能自然地削弱了男性身份的某些方面，而不是需要我们主动去女性化它。

为什么作者认为西方文化一直试图逃离物质世界？

作者指出，西方文化，特别是自苏格拉底以来，一直有一个梦想，即通过灵魂的净化来逃离身体，达到一种纯粹的知识状态。这种思想贯穿了西方文化的历史，赛博空间被视为实现这一梦想的终极机会。

作者如何描述赛博朋克文化中的身体观念？

在赛博朋克文化中，身体并没有被抛弃，而是以一种新的形式回归，成为一种能够自我解放和重新组织的存在。这种身体观念与苏格拉底时代的身体观念形成鲜明对比，后者将身体视为灵魂净化的障碍。

作者提到的“女性化”( feminization)是什么，它与数字化有什么关系？

作者所说的“女性化”是指一系列过程，这些过程正在改变传统的男性身份和权力结构。数字化是这一过程的一部分，因为它促进了信息和通信技术的普及，这些技术不再受传统性别角色的限制，为女性提供了新的机会和力量。

为什么作者认为女性与机器有某种内在的联系？

作者认为，女性由于历史上一直被排除在技术之外，她们被迫发展出多种角色和身份，这种多元化和非中心化的身份与机器和系统的自组织特性相呼应。因此，女性可能更自然地适应了与机器和技术的融合。

作者如何看待女性在技术发展中的角色变化？

作者认为，随着技术的发展，特别是数字化和赛博空间的出现，女性的角色正在发生变化。她们不再仅仅是技术的使用者或服务者，而是成为了技术创新和发展的推动者。

为什么作者认为传统的男性身份在当前社会中面临危机？

作者认为，随着技术的发展和社会结构的变化，传统的男性身份，特别是那种以控制和自主为特征的身份，正在失去其稳定性和权威性。这种危机是男性对失去控制和定义能力的反应。

作者提到的“赛博格”(cyborg)概念是什么，它如何影响我们对身份的理解？

赛博格是一种混合了有机生命和机器元件的生物，它挑战了传统的人类身份概念。赛博格的出现表明，身份不再是一个固定和统一的概念，而是一个可以被重新编程和改变的动态实体。

作者如何看待技术发展对人类自我认知的影响？

作者认为，技术发展，特别是赛博空间和赛博格的概念，正在改变人类的自我认知。我们不再将自己视为独立的、有明确界限的实体，而是开始认识到我们是与技术、信息和其他生命形式相互连接和交织的网络的一部分。

在作者看来，未来的性别角色和身份将如何发展？

作者认为，未来的性别角色和身份将变得更加流动和多样化。随着技术的发展和社会观念的变化，传统的性别界限将变得模糊，人们将有更多的自由去探索和表达自己的身份。

Outlines

00:00

🤖 网络空间的物质性与身份危机

第一段主要探讨了网络空间的物质性问题，挑战了将网络空间视为一种抽象、象征性或非物质空间的观点。演讲者质疑了西方文化中长期存在的逃离物质世界、追求非物质状态的理想主义传统，认为网络空间并非是这种传统的实现，而是被误解了。此外，还讨论了女性视角下对网络空间的性别化问题，认为网络空间已经对男性身份构成敌意，无需进一步女性化。

05:02

🧠 身份认同与技术发展的历史交织

第二段深入讨论了身份认同与技术发展之间的关系，指出虚拟世界和网络空间的概念是由人类对完全控制的渴望所塑造的。演讲者提出，尽管人们试图逃离物质世界，但身体从未被真正遗弃，反而开始学习如何摆脱传统的限制。此外，还提到了数字化和虚拟化过程中出现的文化现象，如智能商品、网络性爱等，这些现象表明身体以一种新的形式回归，挑战了传统观念。

10:03

🚀 技术进步与性别角色的演变

第三段讨论了技术进步如何影响性别角色和身份认同。演讲者指出，随着技术的发展，特别是数字化和网络空间的出现，传统的男性身份认同正面临危机。女性不再仅仅是男性的对立面或生物学上的固定角色，而是在文化和技术领域中展现出前所未有的力量。此外，还提到了女性与机器之间的历史联系，以及女性在技术发展中的新角色。

15:03

🌐 网络空间与身体的物质性

第四段进一步探讨了网络空间与身体的物质性，强调网络空间并非是逃离物质世界的手段，而是一个物质性的过程和领域。演讲者通过引用威廉·吉布森的作品，描述了网络空间中的身体体验，这些体验充满了物质性和感官性。同时，还讨论了神经化学重编程和身体与计算机之间的界限模糊，指出这种融合可能导致对传统身份认同的挑战。

20:03

🧬 后人类时代的性别与技术

第五段讨论了在数字化和网络空间的影响下，性别角色和身份认同的后人类视角。演讲者提出，随着技术的发展，传统的性别角色和身份认同正在发生变化，女性可能在这一过程中占据优势。同时，还探讨了女性与技术之间的特殊联系，以及女性在网络空间中的活跃角色。此外，还提到了女性在历史上的多重角色，以及这些角色如何为她们在技术领域的成功奠定基础。

25:04

🌟 女性在技术发展中的新兴角色

第六段强调了女性在技术发展中的新兴角色，特别是在网络空间和数字化领域。演讲者指出，女性在历史上被排除在技术之外，但现在她们在这些领域中展现出了先进的能力和无畏的精神。此外，还讨论了女性如何利用她们在历史上的多重角色和身份，以及她们与技术之间的特殊联系，来适应和引领技术发展的未来趋势。

30:06

💬 技术、性别与身份认同的讨论

第七段是一段关于技术、性别与身份认同的讨论，涉及了女性在技术领域的参与、身份认同的流动性以及技术发展对人类的影响。演讲者提出了一些关于女性与技术关系的悖论，包括女性在技术领域的活跃参与与历史排斥之间的矛盾，以及身份认同的不断变化是否真正可取的问题。此外，还提到了技术发展可能带来的社会和文化变革，以及这些变革对性别角色和身份认同的影响。

35:07

🌌 技术与灵魂的双重性

第八段探讨了技术与灵魂之间的双重性，讨论了即使在高度技术化的世界中，人类仍然寻求灵魂的满足和超自然的认可。演讲者通过电影《太空英雄》中的例子，说明了即使在技术最为发达的领域，人们仍然需要某种仪式或信仰来安抚灵魂。此外，还讨论了技术发展与人类精神需求之间的关系，以及这种关系如何影响我们对技术进步的看法和接受度。

40:08

🔮 技术决定论的反思

第九段对技术决定论进行了反思，讨论了技术是否能够决定社会变革，以及技术发展与人类意愿之间的关系。演讲者强调，技术是由人类创造的，并且是通过语言和对未来的设想来实现的，而不是单纯由技术本身决定的。同时，还提到了技术发展可能带来的物质约束，以及如何在这些约束中寻找平衡和进步。

Keywords

💡赛博空间

赛博空间在视频中被讨论为一种并非完全脱离物质世界的存在，而是与现实紧密相连的领域。它挑战了传统上将赛博空间视为一种象征性或隐喻性空间的观点。视频中提到，赛博空间实际上增强了对物质性的追求，与西方父权文化中逃离物质性的梦想相悖。

💡身份危机

视频中提到男性身份危机，这是由于技术发展和对物质性的重新理解所引起的。随着赛博空间和虚拟现实的发展，传统的男性角色和身份认同感受到了挑战。例如，视频中讨论了女性在赛博空间中的活跃参与，暗示了性别角色的转变和传统男性身份的危机。

💡女性化

女性化在视频中被提及为一个过程，其中男性在某种程度上被认为正在经历一种转变，这与技术发展和对物质性的理解有关。女性化不仅指的是性别角色的变化，也涉及到对传统男性角色和身份的重新评估，如视频中所讨论的，这种变化是与技术发展并行的。

💡虚拟现实

虚拟现实在视频中被探讨为一种技术，它模糊了物理世界和数字世界之间的界限。与赛博空间一样，虚拟现实被认为并非完全脱离物质性，而是与身体和物理现实有着深刻的联系。视频中提到，虚拟现实中的体验实际上增强了身体的感觉和物质性。

💡物质性

物质性在视频中是一个核心概念，指的是身体和物理世界的重要性。视频中批评了西方文化中试图逃离物质性的趋势，并强调了身体和物质性在现代技术发展中的重要性。物质性与赛博空间和虚拟现实紧密相连，表明技术并非逃离物质性，而是以新的方式与物质性互动。

💡控制

控制是视频中讨论的另一个关键概念，特别是在讨论赛博空间和虚拟现实时。技术被看作是实现控制和自主性的手段，但同时也揭示了对物质性的控制欲望。视频中提到，尽管技术提供了控制的可能性，但人类身份和身体并未因此而消失，反而以新的形式重新出现。

💡技术决定论

技术决定论在视频中被批判，因为它假设技术发展自动决定社会变化。演讲者提出，虽然技术有影响力，但社会变革也受到人类行为和决策的影响。例如，视频中提到女性在技术领域的参与和影响，这表明技术发展和社会变革是相互作用的。

💡身份认同

身份认同在视频中被探讨为一个流动和变化的概念，特别是在赛博空间和虚拟现实的背景下。传统的身份认同观念，如性别和种族，被挑战，因为这些技术领域提供了新的身份表现形式。视频中讨论了身份认同的多样性和复杂性，以及它如何受到技术发展的影响。

💡后现代性

后现代性在视频中被提及为一个时代特征，它与对传统身份和价值观的重新评估有关。后现代性被看作是对现代性的反思和超越，特别是在理解性别、技术和物质性方面。视频中提到，后现代性是对男性身份危机和传统价值观的一种反应。

💡网络

网络在视频中被用作一个比喻，描述了身份、信息和技术之间的相互连接。网络象征着复杂性和相互依存性，这与传统的自主和独立的个体观念相对立。视频中提到，网络是理解当代社会和技术发展的关键，它强调了连接性和互动性的重要性。

💡机器与人类

机器与人类的关系在视频中被深入探讨，特别是在讨论赛博空间和虚拟现实时。技术发展模糊了人类和机器之间的界限，提出了关于人类本质和机器智能的问题。视频中提到，人类可能开始理解自己更像是与机器相连的网络，而不是独立的实体。

Highlights

讨论了信息密度方法和不同观点，提出对赛博朋克作品中“逃离肉体”概念的质疑。

赛博空间被视为一种隐喻或象征性区域，但演讲者认为这是西方父权文化的一种延续。

对赛博空间的性别化讨论，提出没有必要按照传统女性观念去女性化赛博空间。

赛博朋克作品中对身体的重新关注，展现了技术发展中身体的新角色。

西方文化中长久以来对灵魂与身体分离的追求，以及赛博空间如何满足这一梦想。

赛博空间并非完全脱离物质，而是与身体紧密相连，这一点在文化反响中得到体现。

数字化和“女性化”过程的联系，以及这对男性身份认同的冲击。

女性与技术的关系正在经历变革，女性可能在技术发展中扮演前所未有的角色。

探讨了女性在历史进程中的地位，以及她们与机器的相似性。

女性与机器的共同点，以及它们如何共同经历和影响现代化进程。

对女性身份的重新定义，以及她们在后现代社会中的新角色。

赛博朋克小说中对身体和神经化学重编程的探索。

讨论了赛博朋克文化中对超越物质、达到精神层面的追求。

赛博空间中的身体经验，如何与物质性紧密相连。

对西方身份认同的挑战，特别是在面对身体和机器融合时。

女性在技术发展中的边缘地位，以及她们如何利用这一点获得新的力量。

对女性与机器之间关系的深入分析，以及这种关系如何塑造未来社会。

讨论了女性在技术领域的新兴角色，以及她们如何推动技术发展。

对赛博朋克作品中女性角色的分析，以及她们与虚拟世界的联系。

对女性身份的进一步探讨，包括她们在技术发展中的潜力和挑战。

Transcripts

[Music]

otherwise usual I've got too many pieces

of paper and not enough time so I'm

going to go through the information

density approach and so lots of things

like but as different I will be here all

weekend so I hope there's lots of time

for discussion both after I've finished

just now and also over the rest of the

weekend there's a couple of things which

has come up this morning which are

things and building ideas I wanted to

take issue with in this paper which is

basically about the the idea of getting

out of the meet a notion to which I'm

indebted to Pat Cadogan amongst other

cyberpunk writers and the whole question

of what the meet actually is in

cyberpunk and of course in real life the

two ideas that have came up this morning

that that I was particularly noticed

first of all this notion of cyberspace

and the virtual being something of a

metaphor or a symbolic zone or some has

some immaterial and space this is one

ideas that I really want to contest the

second is that there's some the notion

that it's somehow necessary from a

woman's point of view to go in and

somehow feminized cyberspace according

to some usually pre-existing notion of

the feminine and I want to suggest

readers and matrix if I hope you'll see

by the time I finished is already very

much hostile to masculine identity and

there's no great need for us to rush in

and somehow turn it into something

female but first of all on this question

of cyberspace itself being supposedly

immaterial massive symbolism metaphor an

imaginary zone this is really the

tendency to make cyberspace lust to make

many things into a matter of metaphor or

representation is really imagine

repeating the great idealist project

which is characterized Western

patriarchal culture which has always

been an attempt to somehow climb

ourselves matter to get into some

immaterial zone a zone it would be both

insubstantial and ineffectual those two

sense of the word immaterial and we can

see even with this in cyberpunk itself

that it even after there's been so much

said about the collapse between

of the distinction between social

reality and science fiction that people

still want to make science cyberpunk

itself into simply a matter of fiction

again a metaphor somehow for our times

and this even after we've seen the the

real effect in the world which cyberpunk

has obviously already had and even the

body finally in this high-tech world

somehow it gets back onto the agenda or

perhaps onto the agenda for the first

time but again it's a massive metaphor

is in this session today is called the

body of metaphor metaphor for what is

the question that I want to really be

asking and this tendency to turn

everything is that immateriality is

really as I say an old trick of Western

patriarchy and cyberspace can of course

always be seen and will have been seen

largely as the fulfillment of this great

dream again of getting out of the meet

getting out of matter as I say it's an

ancient dream it really goes back at

least as far as to the sort of sources

of Westerners lost see with Socrates who

himself says if every are to have pure

knowledge of everything anything we must

get rid of the body and contemplate

things by themselves with the soul by

itself so Socrates and consequently the

whole history of Western culture has

really dreamt of some notion of the soul

being separate and independent of the

body he says it seems as long as we are

alive will continue closest to knowledge

if we avoid as much as we can or

contacts an association with the body

expect when absolutely necessary and

instead of allowing ourselves to become

infected with its nature purify

ourselves from it until God Himself

gives us deliverance that is very much

this attempt to be purified to escape

from the body to escape its

contamination and I say it's inevitable

that cyberspace would of course been

welcomed into this sort of culture as

the ultimate chance to finally make this

escape from the meat or as I say to

become simply a symbolic zone an

immaterial zone finally we get to the

great dream of the Western of Western

culture as the body as metaphor finally

removed from all of its visceral

activity its blood and guts and all the

messy stuff that man would always rather

have left behind and so cyberspace does

really feed obviously this dream for

toes

control for autonomy for the perfect end

of the Great Western patriarchal project

the great resolution of the masculine

identity crisis the points at which the

soul would finally be united with itself

and of course all this has been

encouraged in fiction and in film and so

on by series like for example Oliver

Stone's while palms by the lawnmower man

again all these great dreams of the

immortality of becoming God are finally

making it the pure insubstantial

omnipotent sense of identity now of

course the whole notion of the virtual

and of cyberspace is is indeed apart and

wrong the human perspective it has

indeed been produced by this very desire

for total control the final autonomy

escape from the meat in that sense but

it to have also been programming the

human identity which has been seeking

this no one it turns out actually

escapes from the meat instead it's a

matter of getting caught up with it the

body it turns out is never left behind

instead it's the body itself which

begins to learn how to disentangle

itself from all either flies constrained

already we can see this in all the sort

of cultural fallout from cyberspace and

and VR drugs

cybersex prosthetic bondage starter

suits there's a convergence of all these

sort of outlaw channels on which the

body which Socrates was quite happy to

dismiss as merely some sort of vehicle

some carrier for man's great dreams sort

of the raw material for his own

adventures the body begins now to return

in a very different form to this empty

back wrist shell which was left behind

in the past and now we can see this

great dream as well of the whole of

Western patriarchal culture really

heading into crisis digitization it

seems is integral to a process of what

is now actually quite overtly and quite

frequently being named as feminization

there are a number of processes which

again are all converging which now find

man in his own words this is actually

creating jeremy paxman on a Newsnight

program quite recently oh it's not by my

adjusting to irrelevance or to quote

another recent paranoid responsiveness

the fact that man is becoming the

disposable

it seems it takes an irresponsible

feminism which may indeed not be any

sort of feminism at all to try and trace

all of the paths on which on the one

hand woman begins to assemble herself as

a new and unprecedented force in

contemporary culture and also subtract

these processes whereby masculine

identity and the figure of man in that

abstract sense is finally being

undermined and what I want to suggest is

that all of our notions or most of

feminism's previous notions of what

woman is and what woman may be and

consequently what women's relation to

technology may be are really fact to be

found wanting

the woman is neither man-made or somehow

man's other she's not biologically fixed

from a central point of view nor is she

sort of wholly absent and not there at

all with the Lacanian sand and the

deconstructionist instead she is

actually in the process in a process

which has been going on for some time

this process of feminization is also the

great Clarion cry which really seems to

again be coming from an old for the

sense of masculine identity is summed up

by again a guy who is on TV for about a

month ago on on the program about men

who again with a great tone of paranoia

said women and robots are taking our

jobs

and it's that fuel attack which clearly

suggests that there is some connection

made at least in the minds of this old

power center between women and

intelligent machines and indeed you can

look back over the whole history of

feminism and begin to see some sort of

emergent pattern whereby the status of

machinery in any sense particularly in

terms of a means of communication and

also the status of women have actually

developed concurrently and have

developed together it seems that there

is therefore some processes feminization

happening which as I say we can trace

back a long way there are 4 meses those

artifacts or scales the history which

begins folding on each other so for

example with the beginnings of Madonna

see we have Mary Wollstonecraft writing

about women as the first self-governing

systems turn on and by the first

self-governing systems I mean really

what steam engine and Adam Smith market

both of those steam into a modern age

which is already waiting for Mary

Shelley another crucial figure to dream

our future to dream a future mark by

cyborgs revenge then there's a certain

ways in effect with the bursts of

technical and economic activity

generated by the Second World War

Norbert Venus systems is a do to row

plane on which machines begin to learn

how to learn and Simone de Beauvoir

writes the second sex after that is the

third phase where it gets far more

complicated just as the course we could

expect an age of complexity to get more

complicated and it seems that it is with

digitization with which all the gaps in

the material Freud is famous for calling

women gaps in the material all the gaps

in the material begin to replicate

themselves by the time Luce Irigaray

who's a French feminist writer writes

her classic texts pecking them of the

other woman it seems that de Beauvoir

second sex has already began to turn on

to her own perspective effectively

scratching at the sill things behind her

glass leaking in through the holes and

have failed this is a time of emergent

self-organization the late 70s the 80s

until the present time is a period in

which all the substances of the world

grow dangerous to those who wanted to

claim it for themselves right across the

board you can see this happening

machines begin to learn how to learn

systems begin to access their own

controls and make contact with each

other they've been to hack into their

own functioning and explore their own

intelligence this happens amongst women

it happens amongst machines viral

infections creep out from the software

plane again stealing the future away

from those who thought it was promised

to them repeating pattern sweeps across

they want so simple screens as a reality

studio fracturing the scenery and

rigging up the plans systems begin to

assemble themselves on trade routes and

lines of communication which will never

of course designed to do their own thing

we see complex emergencies exciting

themselves in the banking systems the

weather systems of a global economy

which now begins to tip into its own

systemic active

see even the commodities the medicines

all of the go-betweens all of those

things want so well-behaved us good for

the benefit of man which is in fact the

dictionary definition of the commodity

even those commodities themselves get

smart it seems that every passion lineal

thread every straight line of history

begins to run onto a nonlinear plane and

it's hardly surprising therefore the

woman herself turns on she too has been

a means of communication for man and

they all effectively turn-on together

and now we find ourselves at the time as

I say we're masculine identity is of the

consequence of this long history in

serious crisis there's a feeling that

man is losing responsibility Authority

definition resolution memory you name it

he feels he is losing it post modernity

in fact we could almost described as

being man's hysterical reaction to all

these new lacks and privations the

wounds that he incurs as control

apparently migrate we look at those we

are as obviously a classic example

finding himself suddenly apparently at

the end of history at the end of the

history in which he himself had invested

so much suddenly seduced and abandoned

but I want to suggest that in fact the

Vosges out of this world will wish it

was indeed that simple it will be very

nice I think he'll end up thinking if he

was in fact in band and by all these

processes but in fact money is not

abandoned but hooked it turns out that

he to the machine component of the

processes which now threaten his

identity collapse seduction was not um a

pleasure but on a lonely a pleasure but

also a trap and suddenly after so many

years of it being woman who is one who

is lacking and somehow missing something

suddenly its masculinity is that strong

sense of identity which is becomes the

liability which becomes a lack but it

would be a big mistake to want to simply

turn the tables around and suggest that

the past somehow belong to man and now

the future will belong to a woman and we

simply have a role reversal here men who

are moving on soon they'll have a few

new wounds and a few new sockets in

place and neurochemical programming it

seems is already well underway

on this last point of course cyberpunk

is a great place again where you do get

this theme of neurochemical

reprogramming what bruce sterling is

called the theme of mind invasion

there's a course run through every

cyberpunk novel again always as an

attacker and a corruption of a solid

older sense of identity

so I've obtained he writes crunches

together neuro and physical chemistry

genetic biology structural linguistics

cybernetics biotechnology cyborgs

engineering into a fantastic series of

sections and I'm sure most of the

audience is familiar with the speed the

complexity the intensity the montage

scenes the cutout realities that you

tend to get across all cyberpunk novel

Larry McCaffrey another conversational

cyberpunk picks out certain common theme

between Punk and its older form and

today's cyberpunk

he says they share a variety of

aesthetic impulses and influences that

extend well beyond the bits Benzedrine

rushes there is ins and pacings as their

fascination with a Grossman server he

points to a fetishization of paranoia

sexual and psychic violation and

manipulation and what he defines some of

the desire to achieve transcendence

through drugs religion or the

computer-generated answer data and again

here we have cyberpunk characterize that

gain as this desire for transcendence

somehow to get out of matter out of

imminence and into some spiritual

transcendent plane now it is indeed true

that as another commentator has pointed

out the discourses of visual so

visionary virtual world builders is rife

with images of imaginal bodies again

freed from the constraints that flesh

imposes it seems however that those

seeking transcendence will probably be

better off reading mills and boons but

certainly be sorely disappointed in a

future marked by the actualization of

images the materialization of matter and

indeed the emergence of a new and

perhaps fatally constraining flesh when

drugs and sex and what different calls

the dance of bees begin to mutate across

the cyberpunk stage ecstasy is no longer

the state of escaping matter but instead

a matter of escaping the state because

of the art the nation or the mind itself

the state is the obstacle to

becomes the question of getting out of

order a flight away from the ideal away

from transcendent a way out from the

notion of identity and masculinity this

is never in cyberpunk novels even though

many cyberpunk commentators want to

suggest this it's never a transcendent

exit from the body instead it's a

headlong acceleration into his substance

and I quote Gibson on this score saying

he knew he remembered as she pulled him

down to the meat the flesh the Cowboys

mocked it was a vast thing beyond

knowing a sea of information coded in

spiral and cereno infinite intricacy

there's only the body in his strong

blind way could ever read or again you

can see this collision with materiality

in cadres book macrophage he tore open

one of the packs swapping gin on the

floor and pops a purple purple capsule

and his nose the Cobra toxin came on

like a slow burning volcano boiling

along the surface of his brain not

enough to kill him or cause permanent

damage

just enough to cop the killing euphoria

from the cobra venom his body was molten

glass and treacle no flesh no bones just

a sizzling mass of plasma fried eyes and

melting genitals 30 seconds later he

popped the modified atropine its

molecular wave constructed in the mirror

image of the Cobra toxin and as the

inside of his skull iced over the room

exploded into negative as white glacial

light blazed behind his eyes and shot

down his final comment column this it

would seem is why drugs the words

considered to be so dangerous they do in

fact bring the body back close to home

too close to home in fact for the whole

Western notion of identity to cope with

again base actually collapsed the body

onto what was conceived previously as

the mind or the spirit or the soul of

man and force its fluids into this soul

they wrapped with materiality tabs of

tactility chilling reminders again of

the blood and guts and all the visceral

matter from which man thought to extract

this pure and unadulterated soul which

Socrates spokes off again broke off

again and so clearly this is not the

body as metaphor we're not dealing with

here the body ask them immaterial zone

it's true that calories character finds

himself escaping

flesh and bones but what he encounters

is this sizzling massive plasma fried

ice melting genitals and so on there's

nothing immaterial about that likewise

the notion that the this notion of the

body as a sort of complex and melted out

system that you get to in a lot of

cyberpunk novels especially via this

line of thought and line of inquiry by a

neurochemical reprogramming is precisely

that which we meet on the other end

visibly

computers themselves and I want to

expand a few quotes first of all from

Marshall McLuhan who made this point

many years obviously before it was it

was widely taken up again on the theme

of of drugs particularly psychedelics it

is not he says uncommon uncommon for

people on these trips especially with

new chemical drugs as opposed to organic

one to develop the illusion that they

are themselves computers this he says is

not so much a hallucination as a

discovery the points been reinforced

recently by emmanuel de Landa here in an

interview says when you trip you liquefy

structures in your brain linguistic

structures intentional structures they

acquire a less viscous consistency and

your brain becomes a supercomputer

another quote from snow crash but for

hypercard I thought you said snow crash

was a drug hero says totally nonplussed

it is the guy says try it

does it suck up your brain hero say for

your computer both neither what's the

difference that's a mixture of fictional

and so-called theoretical observations

about this same point are certain

moments in which the notion of the body

and the computer begin to collapse on

each other my own slight experience of

LSD rights Bates and Gregory Bateson led

me to believe that Prospero is wrong

when he said we are such stuff as dreams

are made on it seem to me that the pure

dream was like your purpose rather

trivial it was not the stuff of which we

are made but only bits and pieces of

that stuff

of course conscious purposes again are

only bits and pieces the systemic view

is something else again

so we have the systemic view of the

organism which begins to emerge out of

this old

of body and soul being separated from

each other and from here the organism no

longer understands itself to be some

discrete physically bounded autonomous

entity of historical progress and social

security but as based on defined this it

becomes not the transcendent entity of

self is commonly supposed to be and what

we understand as its ideas are imminent

in a network of causal pathways which he

says is not bounded by the skin but

includes all external pathways along

which informations can travel but here

we have a very material notion of

communication systems and of information

systems of the body and the computer

collapsing onto each other now it seems

that this notion of a spread out sense

of of post self is be like that not

bounded by the skin but as Bateson says

taking into account all material

pathways is a notion of identity which

has previously never been acceptable or

even thinkable or conceivable to Western

patriarchal culture and it seems that

woman have always been somehow in

proximity to this in our emerging notion

of a dispersed decentered organism she

has after all never had a unified role

this is the one thing which women have

always been denied

she's been various things of course

mirrors green commodity means of

communications means of reproduction

carrier water weaver of the cloth carer

[ __ ] machine assemblage in other words

in the services of species a sort of

general purpose systems of simulation

and self simulation while she's always

of course been forced to marry into the

family of man and assume a so-called

human identity it seems that something

of her outlaw status has always remained

she too has had to adhere to Asimov's

laws wishes or a moment to get up on the

screen the machines and the women both

of them together have had to promise to

honor and obey and of course some have

done loads more happily than others but

certainly again if we look back over the

history of modernity we see a whole

history of very unhappy fitting into

this constraining notion of human

identity we can look at hysteria

so that that was effectively the 19th

century's expression of women's process

against the confines of a humanism which

on the one hand always demanded their

complicity but on the other hand refused

and full membership as a species that

they were supposed to be serving

hysteria of course literally is the

wandering womb the womb wandering the

machinery seeking an exit looking for a

way out of this organized one hunting

for the places to the plane it becomes

what Delors in Atari call the matrix his

colors are yet to come

and even if like Simone de Beauvoir

woman has wanted nothing more than to

lose this connection to this plane and

to become fully human to become a fourth

subject it seems that she's always at

least been beginning elsewhere even

Simone de Beauvoir described a woman's

subordination not to man but to the

species so it seems that we have now a

number of options being presented

through the work of donna haraway and

many other women working in the area

where women and technology come into

close proximity with each other and the

notion of the cyborg is of course one of

the most perhaps in the passwords one of

the most bootful ideas about how this

conjunction happened but Disciple

equally is in de always in danger of

things brought back into the answer to

Norfolk tale the game with the source

few moments ago the way in which robots

always answer four or five and the

cyborg itself is answered for Morpheus

it's the notion of the organism itself

which is the problem it's the organized

member of the species which has really

been the problem for women in the past

there are suggestions again emerging in

cyberpunk fiction and film especially

that woman somehow already had some

connection to the virtual a little quote

from Mona Lisa overdrive from William

Gibson her father long ago in Arizona

had cautioned her against jacking in you

don't need it he said and he hadn't

because she dreamed cyberspace as those

in Leon gridlines of the matrix waited

for her behind her eyelid if this is the

case if indeed woman does have some

implicit prior connection to the matrix

then it would be hardly surprising that

women have so quickly become such

advanced

and fearless practitioners a virtual

engineering and it does seem indeed that

most of the advanced and interesting the

work that's happening in the field is at

the moment being done by women it seems

that all of the things which will want

such a disadvantaged women in the past

are now with this process of

digitization is slow but now I was a

slow history of modernity but the

accelerating process at the end of

modernity are really nice speeding up

and as if all is fluidity for example

and women's ability to wear many hats

fulfill many roles and never to have a

strong sense of unified self has always

been configured as the master of

deprivation and disadvantage in the past

it now becomes a positive advantage for

a future in which identity is nothing

more than a liability its digitization

which is the process by which the

feminine learns how to replicate itself

and the masculine ends up finding itself

out on the limb the processes concurrent

across a number of zones everywhere we

can see structures being invaded by

systems states being captured governors

being ignored and conditions being

solved by their own strange and fatal

attractions women's escapes and

masculine control has not turned out to

be a consequence probability to somehow

transcend her economic functions

transcend her reproductive functions

their mutation has also has the

commodity is mutated into a smart

commodity mechanical reproduction visas

of species or the work of art has become

a matter of replication and lines of

communication again across the board

begin to organize themselves the matrix

that they become or cyberspace is simply

matter turned on the process and plane

from which there are hacks or central

controls and assembles itself across the

time intensity scales there's a

self-replicating pattern beginning to

emerge of all channels of communication

converge on the fiber spatial plane

commodities become self guiding calculus

all it seems is now leaving the western

lands for the ocean with the age the

Pacific the Pacific attractor and as in

the West here where they still set the

clocks the old world order is beginning

to fall behind the time machine

intelligence

converging with a sinking organism as

both get drawn onto this chemical plane

on which intelligence discovers its own

materiality and communication now has

visible effect transplants has learned

to get in touch hitting the plateau with

tantric precision invading the climax

picking up the move even the fake

mutates into simulation and makes

contact with its own arising machines

identity has become entranced and

enchanted at the limit of the organism

fascinated in fact similar to the point

at which the body tips over onto the

plain the entranced is the access the

possessed the body ridden by its own

network of potentialities is not a

matter of us going out from the meat but

also the matrix entering the organism so

if the history of cybernetics and this

history of modernity which is also

supposedly being the great goal the

great and final thrust if you like of

the Western patriarchal project it turns

out since it's also really been a story

of the feminization of man and if the

history of cybernetics is indeed this

history of feminization then of course

the great question is what happens to

those those women in other words all of

those who are considered never quite the

same as him in the first place those

were always systems of communication now

finding themselves increasingly able to

contact each other where they always

somehow in advance where they always in

touch with something that was somehow

out of sight that is now beginning to

emerge for the first time as the virtual

may be de Beauvoir was right in the end

after the first perhaps does come the

second sex not secondary but second as

an after the first post human

I think in view of the time constraints

all I'll just give you one last line

which is to say that woman's emergence

at the end of the millennium is man's

emergency the history was remembered but

the future no one's in control its

unmanned okay thank you if I could just

um try and shut the every flow of our

presentation this afternoon it seemed to

me that we started with a history of

women's exclusions from technology and

ended up with a claim that the history

of cybernetics was in fact the history

of feminization and of marking out of

woman's affinity with the machine and I

wanted to um perhaps throw down not so

much as kind of gauntlet but certainly

is kind of sum of questions to the

speakers a series of paradox paradoxes

which where we were ducked out by in

Christine's presentation and Helen's

presentations as noticing that here were

two instances two products a few lives

of women working in programming and

using and failing high tech instances of

very high tech equipment and technology

which precisely spoke about and discuss

women's historical exclusion from

technology and the second paradox is

this that in the notion of the

constantly shifting identities the

dissented self and the differences in

flux

if this is true is it desirable because

it seems to me that sometimes with a

breakdown of all difference that it

might mean that in the end there begins

to be so much of everything that in the

end there's nothing and it almost got to

invite some sort of calling a New Yorker

[ __ ] to take over from virtual reality

which might be a kind of a cornucopia of

the purity and thirdly the cyborg as a

hybrid figure escaping the oppression of

history escaping the oppressions of

difference or gender or race or class

offers us this prospect into which by

now are very desperate view tokenism

kind of rushes to claim and I just

wanted to find the founder kind of

warnings about the desperation of that

utopianism

and what is it that we're claiming so I

want to just simply to lay those and

paradoxes down but I know that people

here will have a multitude of questions

and to be a little bit unfair and the

people upstairs I'm sure of things join

in so I'll take a couple here and to

start with and then we'll take we'll go

straight into the people upstairs if

they could have their questions ready

by what's being most come on I was being

discussed this afternoon could kind of

merge into a kind of machine sort of

meld and lose its humanitarianism it

just becomes a machines that are focused

and it loses its elegance in its in its

beauteous I'm sorry

surely it would be rather pleasant to

live in a world where many where you

could be men and women and can enjoy

being minimum of their own sakes to

their own end and what you're proposing

is that women can actually sort of hide

away in cyberspace and become androgens

that don't actually sort of function in

a human way but just become rather

shallow and very very I must say very

sad thank you sir

alright it's like that's true then is it

desirable the reaction from the platform

would indicate that yes it is desirable

tell us why so well I think it defies

very fast but I mean my point really is

to say that you know women have

precisely always been in that machine

functional role for the male members of

species quite literally the members of

species and their women have really been

the servant for that for that species

and to say that women will be somehow

losing their humanitarianism I mean it's

that is precisely the extent which woman

has really on the one hand being I mean

living out that machine it's sort of

function but on the other hand and

expected to be proper humans as well but

of course caught in this double violent

you can never be fully human and you

can't quite be as good as the real

humans that is in a euro Manistee life

you know that this life is a portal that

we're about to or it certainly you know

I'm going to compare where did you hear

any of that good know can we can just

give other people a chance okay could I

says nothing about that for a minute um

Joey's got to get my two cents and you

know it's like when I first heard about

the feminization of cyberspace I thought

what do you think we're going to do is

like this immigrant community you know

this place needs a few plants

and then you know let's see like when I

get up in the morning I own things well

here I am it's morning and Here I am at

Cadogan woman I'm gettin up

you know it's depending on how hungover

I am you know it's like when I'm in here

you know it's like I'm just kind of

going around doing all the stuff that

you want to do you know or my version of

the stuff that you want to do you know

it's like I don't feel that different

from you you know and I see I don't

since I don't I can't see how beautiful

I am from the outside you know most of

the time I don't think about unless I

happen to pass reflective surface and

realize I'm having a bad hair day but

but do you see what I mean it's like it

doesn't feel that way and here we feel

in here just like you do fine I've got

to come in now because I'm leaping since

I have a chance to speak tomorrow but to

come in on this debate that's happening

at the moment I would want to innocently

sort of join up with Tanner in asking

that question as to what it's so

desirable or output even differently

what is actually radical different to

you know the quite oppressive way that

things are have been about this certain

some apparently liberating idea of you

know femininity being linked with the

robot or machines and so on I'd like to

just throw out to consider I think very

often that a fringe aspect of our

culture which seemed to be somehow

radical or different are very close to

the central bit that aren't on the

fringe and I would say that some of the

ideas that Sadie was putting forward as

liberating subtract me is actually very

similar but in a different guide to

things that are quite oppressive do we

live in a culture where most women than

most of their time trying to remove

themselves in some way all the moves

bits or parts of their bodies or make

their bodies be smaller than they really

are or somehow not to sort of fully

inhabit the space that they actually

physically in reality occupy

we live but you know in a world where

there I think is very little actual

material recognition touches on

something that Benjamin what he said at

the very beginning I do

the material world the material

recognition of if you like femininity or

I would just pay women and what women do

when work with brought up as being away

of being like a robot rocket also

physical it's essential physical

activity it may be tiring or it may be

exhilarating I don't see how these

things in any way in in actuality

transcended by this kind of metaphorical

apparently liberating idea of the

machine and I found it incredibly

similar to the things which I which are

present in the mainstream culture but

it's apparently meant to be liberation

from right well I've asked yeah I'd love

a lot of time points to come out to do

this is Winston's point which was about

this question of bands or the thing that

I really took firefighting without

engaging your questions is with you kept

saying this idea of us being like

machines or this metaphor of the Machine

or this metaphor that was ending

happening at all this is precisely my

point you know it's not a matter of a

thing else would choose whether or not

we are machine ik or complex between

that system you know if we are we are

and it's my question about that choosing

or again whether it's desirable or

whether we want this to happen etc and

if it if it's the emergent process it's

an emergent process and the complicates

that is that there's a notion of having

samples of unified soul and some unified

identity in this great quest for

autonomy which is really softened Massa

is precisely and has historically

precisely been so that man traditionally

can in fact make those decisions can say

is this desirable do I want this you

know what what identity has wanted has

been sole criteria the point now that's

happening is that all of you know all

matter that has been released previous

excluded from that notion of identity is

itself effectively having a safe is

excels turning on self-organizing

systems don't actually ask the man for

permission they don't say is it

desirable

you know thought for this to happen that

that is precise at the point that easily

is a conversation of this whole notion

of identity that suddenly isn't that's

why identity to define and choose

everything that happens on the planet

the point about the soul that was made

and I finally really about shamanism and

I like to see all of these things

exactly conversion processes but I do

disagree with you about that therefore

that means that the soul becomes

important I think the whole point about

it's a matter again is that it is very

much a materialist way of of not only

thinking and so again there were some

sort of thinking sold them or actually

acting and engineering effect that you

don't again really just go you know

metaphorically to some spiritual moment

you do go back materially because well I

think it's I'm reminded of the the

Faustian pact you know and a mess with

Berkeley taking Faust up to this high

place and saying I'll give you all of

this I think we have to be cautious

about being too much the technological

determination is I mean as the

technology in and of itself isn't going

to make anything happen I mean it I

think we have to remember that we

invented the technology and it's through

things like language and through

envisioning the future you know not in a

utopian sort of way but I mean that is

how things happen even though there are

lots of materialistic constraints can I

just say one thing that I could resist I

mean I took the point but by the same

token if you look at feminism's Bay and

the change that happens that happened

over miss would be very very recently

after two and a half thousand years

suddenly in the light for essentially

you do begin to get some sort of change

and we all know really that that is not

because man the one with the power

suddenly turned around to decides to be

both benign and to make that choice you

say is it desirable that women are

oppressed you know okay let's this thing

about it that's not how that person

happened live in fact it is you know

very much band equipment integral to the

emergence again of a whole gambit of

non-human compulsion happening machines

commodities trade routes they all start

together activity and size of the women

it's very much against you know what man

would desire you know I do think the

technology's a real planner

I don't well when I think about you know

the the soul you know and juxtaposed

with sort of the cold hard machinery

you know I think about you know that how

much that no matter how hardheaded ly

realistic we are the soul demands to be

appeased you know the soul demands its

satisfaction and the the one thing that

epitomizes this strange dualism and

human magic to me is is from a movie

called the right stuff in which Chuck

Yeager's is shown you know and he's a

test pilot he's getting into this cold

hard jet nice you know and the success

or failure but they hope not failure but

the success of this depends on the

engineering and the integrity of the of

the airplane and everything but every

time he gets into the plane is a little

ritual that he does where he has to

borrow some gum from his assistant 'no

sistent says okay and they say the same

thing to each other and this is a ritual

that he needs to perform not because

this will absolutely guarantee that the

plane won't crash it's because his soul

demands that satisfaction it demands

well at least that little while you know

an acknowledgement that there could be

supernatural and if there is this is a

little ritual that I performed too you

know and and yet this is a person who

must be you know very hard had very

realistic very you know in the world in

this moment whatever moment he happens

to be in you know and when you think of

us like sometimes I think like the more

technological we'll get the more we will

strain away from it

some part you know and reach for

something that is the antithesis of

technology you know that is you know

that and and that to me is what you know

you and yang has always been you know

it's like so the white that contains a

little seat of the dark and the dark

that contains a little seat of the light

you know it's like that's us you know

it's like we're a hard-headed realists

on this side and we are you know

worshipers of all gods and whatever on

the other side so we'll be spiritual

Rosa

to do it

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