In this week’s topics we are looking the views of cyberspace and its inhabitants during the 1980s to the 2000s and beyond. In these topics the relevance of a technological world and its constant alteration on the world we live in is discussed.
Looking at William Gibson’s ‘Johnny Mnemonic’ (1988), Gibson stresses in his story the idea of identity. Gibson does this through a portrayal of Johnny’s pride in the fact that he is technical. However despite this at second thought Gibson (1988) makes note that Johnny becomes disappointed with himself as a result that his ‘technophilic self’ life has become altered. This has come through a change, brought about by a very real technological existence in his life. Johnny notices that there has been a change in his life away from the interaction with people but rather with the ‘technics’ of life.
“And it came to me that I had no idea at all of what was really happening, or of what was supposed to happen. And that was the nature of my game, because I’d spent most of my life as a blind receptacle to be filled with other people’s knowledge and then drained, spouting synthetic languages I’d never understand. A very technical boy”. (Gibson 1988)
While Johnny stresses his concerns, Tomas (2000) in ‘The Technophilc Body’ draws on Gibson’s (1988) story in Johnny Mnemonic to make note that this fictional world Johnny worries about now has a very real contemporary existence. To Tomas (2000) the ‘technophilic body’ is quickly becoming apparent as he confirms that “given recent advances in information technology, genetic engineering, and nanotechnology, these changes will encompass the human body and its sensorial architecture”.
After reading all this, the question lies in what are the threats which are posed into the future as the ‘technophilic body’ expands further? As we will undoubtedly see an expansion in the amount of digital devices and their capabilities, these will go on to even further encompass the already existing ‘technophilic body’ which we pertain. If Johnny was worried in 1988 and Tomas in 2000 stated that we should “expect to see ongoing changes which will produce new domains of domination, contestation and resistance”, you can only wonder what does the ‘technophilic body’ pose for society and the individual beyond this decade.
References
Gibson, W. 1984 “Johnny Mnemonic.” Burning Chrome.
Tomas, D. 2000, “The Technophilic Body: On Technicity in William Gibson’s Cyborg Culture.” The Cybercultures Reader. Ed. David Bell and Barbara Kennedy. London: Routledge. 175-89.
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