Hello, everyone. This is Valerie, Ella and Kitty. Tomorrow we are going to discuss the topic “culture jamming in our daily life.”
Culture jamming is based on the CB slang word “jamming” in which one disrupts existing transmission. It is usually implies an interruption, hoax or prank of what are seen as the monolithic power structures governing cultural life. It is not hard to find the example in our society, such as the consumerism, political and the capitalism. Thus the relationship between the corporate and political is blurring.
Everyone can jam the society issues. People who understand how to get its agenda into newspaper and television broadcast. Besides, they know about media industry. They know what kinds of issues are attractive and how to present it to the audience. They tend to create fun, and not aim to oppose dominant modes of power.
The followings are the case studies, Chrissie Chow and $6000 will be used as an examples. It has created some noise in our society and people have used different kinds of methods to jam the issues. For instance, television advertisement, pictures or video are the normal ways they use.
We will have more details analysis in our presentation tomorrow.
These are the discussion questions:
1. Do you think the culture jamming affect our daily life?
2. Will you jam? Why prank?
Thank you for your attention.
Let’s discuss more about the questions tomorrow.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Summary of Presentation: Virtual Ethnic
Hello everyone, this is Rebecca and Henry. During our presentation, we’ve chosen the second reading “The Ethics of Porn on the net” by Kath Albury. As it is an interesting article, yet controversial.
The topic is about virtual ethic. Firstly, ethics is a social construct that operated as choices of moral acts by cultural meaning and value given by our beliefs and value system.
Internet porn industry has become one of the largest Industries on the internet. There are about 4.2 million porn websites and 68 million daily search engine request on cyberspace. The porn’s revenue is more than other virtual industry.
Pornography is a form of media text, people often addressed that pornography is indeed a male gaze industry, as the subject loses its autonomy by showing their body as sex appeal.
Moreover, people considered it is dehumanizes and objectifies women when women are being viewed as object (most of the time). Especially it is against of social norm, sex is a private matter that should not be shown in public. Hence, sex or pornography should be performed in private sphere traditionally.
But the Internet has changed the core of ethics, as the anonymity of the Internet has opened up people to search and share their different sexual preferences, which includes minorities that has generally been considered as “abnormal”. It becomes a platform for their communities, breaking the social constructed norms and thus, we will discuss how the Internet has blurred the boundaries between public and private sphere.
When people with different sexual preferences using the Internet to exercise their agencies, is it still considered as immoral?
In conclusion, ethics is based on perception of large group (power relation), the relativism has made it only pointing out people that are frequently disagree over what is the most “moral” course of action. It has become a power struggle between niches and majority. Hence, do we share the same ethics/moral in reality and virtually?
It is hard to given an absolute definition about moral of porn; there are different agencies behind different people’s action. The demand and supply in market, segmentation when only certain of group of people that are interested to be viewed and viewer are engaged in, by searching their own senses of sameness.
In our discussion part, there are some questions we would like to discuss with classmates.
1. Do you think that online porn is moral and ethics? Why and why not?
2. Do you think that online porn can show the inequality of female status? Is that changing the status of female?
3.Do you think that the online porn site is a platform for the people sharing the similarities? Is that really public sphere for the platform?
4. Do you agree that there is power relation included in the boundary of moral and ethics? And if there is power relation , is there any absolute truth about ethnicity?
by Chau Ka Leung Henry and Chen Yi Chen Rebecca
The topic is about virtual ethic. Firstly, ethics is a social construct that operated as choices of moral acts by cultural meaning and value given by our beliefs and value system.
Internet porn industry has become one of the largest Industries on the internet. There are about 4.2 million porn websites and 68 million daily search engine request on cyberspace. The porn’s revenue is more than other virtual industry.
Pornography is a form of media text, people often addressed that pornography is indeed a male gaze industry, as the subject loses its autonomy by showing their body as sex appeal.
Moreover, people considered it is dehumanizes and objectifies women when women are being viewed as object (most of the time). Especially it is against of social norm, sex is a private matter that should not be shown in public. Hence, sex or pornography should be performed in private sphere traditionally.
But the Internet has changed the core of ethics, as the anonymity of the Internet has opened up people to search and share their different sexual preferences, which includes minorities that has generally been considered as “abnormal”. It becomes a platform for their communities, breaking the social constructed norms and thus, we will discuss how the Internet has blurred the boundaries between public and private sphere.
When people with different sexual preferences using the Internet to exercise their agencies, is it still considered as immoral?
In conclusion, ethics is based on perception of large group (power relation), the relativism has made it only pointing out people that are frequently disagree over what is the most “moral” course of action. It has become a power struggle between niches and majority. Hence, do we share the same ethics/moral in reality and virtually?
It is hard to given an absolute definition about moral of porn; there are different agencies behind different people’s action. The demand and supply in market, segmentation when only certain of group of people that are interested to be viewed and viewer are engaged in, by searching their own senses of sameness.
In our discussion part, there are some questions we would like to discuss with classmates.
1. Do you think that online porn is moral and ethics? Why and why not?
2. Do you think that online porn can show the inequality of female status? Is that changing the status of female?
3.Do you think that the online porn site is a platform for the people sharing the similarities? Is that really public sphere for the platform?
4. Do you agree that there is power relation included in the boundary of moral and ethics? And if there is power relation , is there any absolute truth about ethnicity?
by Chau Ka Leung Henry and Chen Yi Chen Rebecca
Monday, March 21, 2011
Critical Annotated Webliography - Guiding Question 2
1. Neil Harbisson – World first official cyborg
Neil Harbisson is an artist, musician and performer and who is to be claimed as the first official cyborg in the world. He wears an eyeborg which help him available to “hear” colors.
Harbisson was born with the disability of achromatopsia, a condition that only allows him to see in black and white. The disability was a trouble to his art performing and therefore his early assignment in his fine art studying are only in black, white and gray.
Yet, Neil’s destiny changed in 2003 after he attended a lecture of cybernetics, particularly on sensory extensions via cybernetics, given by Adam Montandon, a Plymouth University student. He then found it interesting, soon two of them have became friends and started the eyeborg project. What they developed consists of a camera, mounted on Harbisson’s head, that picks up colors and converts them into sound waves
By memorizing the different frequencies, Harbisson became the first person in history to hear colors.
The eyeborg was further developed that allows Harbisson to perceive three hundred and sixty color hues through varying frequencies.
Harbisson is authorized as the first official cyborg as he can include with his eyeborg in his passport photo. Harbisson states that he became a cyborg when the union between his organism and cybernetics had created new neuronal tissue in his brain that allowed him to perceive color.
www.wix.com/eyeborg. 2011, neil-harbisson/about, 15 Mar2011, <http://www.wix.com/eyeborg/neil-harbisson#!about>
2. RoboCop
RoboCop was a movie in 1987 about a cyborg Detroit policeman. The robocop, Alex J. Murphy was formerly Detroit Police Officer then turned to a cyborg police after being murdered by crime gang.
Murphy lost all his memories after he had been turned into cyborg as his brain was combined with computer with programs and commands of defeating criminals. Furthermore, he was also rebuilt with certain weapons and “Data Spike”, a machine like mini-computer which available him to check opponents’ data and got updated from police stations’ database system.
The source below has given the brief description of the RoboCop and mainly examined the relation between human and machine. The last part of the source is most related to the topic which is discussing whether Murphy should be claimed to be a human or a robot.
Murphy was a cyborg which his organism (especially his brain) was turned into electronic and machines, acted under the control of programs and commons. Yet, finally he “decided” to get his memories back which the action is under his personnel wills. It was a kind of concept that human can control machine, believing that we can win to take control of machine even further development of cyborgs in the cyber age.
ww.ncu.edu.tw, National Central University, “Robocop”, 15 Mar 2011, <http://www.ncu.edu.tw/~eng/FilmCenter/database/art&ideology/robocop/robocop.htm>
3. Artificial Vision for the Blind
The article is about a new machine development can help blindness people to have vision by implanting into one’s brain. William Dobelle has designed a three-part system: a miniature video camera, a signal processor, and the brain implants. The camera, mounted on a pair of eyeglasses, captures the scene in front of the wearer. The processor translates the image into a series of signals that the brain can understand, then sends the information to the implant. The picture is fed into the brain and, if everything goes according to plan, the brain will "see" the image.
The system is called sensory substitution devices which offer user vision by capturing image into electronic signals and then transfer to the backside of the human brain which consist of visual cortex.
This new cybersense developed to help blindness to see which a new technology to help people with disability is again. That is new cyborg technology may help to solve the disable problems of human being which sounds good to the world. Yet, what coming up would be the moral issues brought by these latest development. Would these cyborg expansions besides from enhancing human’s abilities and bringing new threat to our life is difficult to be counted.
Meijer Peter, “Artificial Vision for the Blind”, seeingwithsound.com 2011, 15 Mar 2011, <http://www.seeingwithsound.com/etumble.htm>
4. Cyborg Soldiers
Just like what had discussed in the previous source of news, cyborg not only to solve disability problem but can also enhancing the personnel ability of soldiers. The source is sharing the idea of putting cyborg technology to military usage.
It firstly mentioned how cyborg and cybernetic organism are now being commonly used in our daily life, such as GPS tracking system inserted in human or animals. As our cyber development grows everyday and therefore putting it into the battlefield may no longer only happened in fictions or films.
The article has mentioned several programs or projects which are about cyborg soldiers under examination with possibility. One of it is similar to the system of robocop which is by implanting the new technology that contains CPU and sensors into armies’ brain, which can enhance the using of human’s brain, allow soldiers to update information from the controlling center and for tracking armies’ location.
The development and improvement of man-machine interface perhaps happened in everywhere which undoubtedly can enhance military power. Yet, it is again the question of moral issue, whether we need these advanced technologies in the age of asking for peace. Besides, the larger the power, the stronger the damage to our communities, that is uneasy to be estimated.
www.tacticalwarfightergear.com,” Cyborg Soldiers - Military Soldier Cyborgs - Digital destiny, or Prophetic Holocaust?” 15 Mar 2011, <http://www.tacticalwarfightergear.com/tacticalgear/catalog/Cyborg_Soldiers.php>
5. Cyborgs and Space
This article written by Manfred E. Clynes and Nathan S. Kline is to discuss how human being can explore more to the outside world with collaboration of the cyborg technology.
According to the paper, writers believe that man-machine development can break the upper limit of man’s survival in different area. They mentioned that living things in the Earth biologically consist of Homeostatic mechanisms which allow them to live in specific area like human would breath and living on lands; fish need water and therefore active in sea but not land. Here, the new technology can turn the trend that making us living in different field is no longer being insurmountable. Writers had discussed how human’s homeostatic mechanism can be ungraded through man-machinery system, normal biological organism no longer be the barrier of living in Space that human being willing to explore since past history. For example, human rely on respiration to survive, which is the difficulty in staying alive in the outer Space. Yet, cyborg can help and function well in the situation instead of living relies on natural organism.
Clynes, Manfred E. and Kline, Nathan S, “Cyborgs and Space”, www.scribd.com, 15 Mar 2011, <http://www.scribd.com/doc/2962194/Cyborgs-and-Space-Clynes-Kline?autodown=pdf>
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Critical Annotated Webliography ( Chan Chung Ming, Danny, 10380052)
Blogging is a practice that is mundane and yet radical in its potential to transform individual and collective agency and activism. Discuss.
1)
Brady, M. (2005) ‘Blogging, personal participation in public knowledge-building on the web’, Chimera Working Paper 2005-02>. Colchester . University of Essex 17 March 2011 . available from <http://www.essex.ac.uk/chimera/content/pubs/wps/CWP-2005-02-blogging-in-the-Knowledge-Society-MB.pdf>
At the beginning, it briefly introduces what is weblog, giving a concisely concept of the format of it, and the history of blog as well. Then it turns to the discussion of blogging, the mechanism that help blogs to collaborate to each other, share knowledge in an unprecedented rate, and its influence. The author argues that “three additions to the blog have had far-reaching effects in the way that the blog community operates”, that are permalinks (permanent links), comments and trackback, these innovations help blogs to form the “blogosphere” community crucially. They contributed to the maintain of the blogosphere and facilitate the networked discussion development, promote communication among different blogs. The number of internet users read blogs increased drastically, a 58% increase was recorded between 2004 and 2005. Blogers share common interest tend to link to each other and start discussion, forming a debate platform around particular subject. These communities can form quickly in response to certain subject, and achieve goals. Writer raises the example of George W. Bush’s military service, the discussing of bloggers greatly affect the result of it. Blogs also help to form a database of knowledge which easy to access, they provide gateways make people easy to find certain information. Blogs itself contain great number and variety of information, it not only facilitates sharing of knowledge, but also produces new knowledge.
2)
Schmidt Jan, “Blogging Practices: An Analytical Framework”, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, (Volume 12, Issue4, 2007), 1409-1427. accessed on 17 March 2011 . available from
This article tries to use a better and more precise framework to understand the blogs. Author lists and compares different model to analyze the format of blog, considers that “no concise and systematic formulation of an analytical model of blogging practices that can integrate the varying motives, routines, and consequences of appropriation and usage of this new communicative genre”. Making use of the sociological structuration theory, which frames individual usage by three structural dimensions, rules, relations and code, author tries to use this framework to analyze blogging practices. Since the forms of blogs are still changing, different blogging practices are emerging, they are not only aim at communication in the way of hypertextual networks, but also form social networks. The framework is used to integrate the previous research findings and as a base for further research of blogging practices. Further research is needed, like using ethnographic methods and discourse analysis to do more, also dimension of code analyze and comparative research among different media systems are need to take into account.
3)
Nardi A. Bonnie, Schiano J. Diane and Gumbrecht. “Blogging as Social Activity, or, Would You Let 900 Million People Read Your Diary? ”, Social and Behavioral, (Volume 6, Issue 3, 2004). accessed on 17 March 2011 . available from
This research article report the result of an ethnographic study of blogging. It wants to find out why so many people post their privacy on the web, discusses interactions among bloggers, as well as between audiences and authors, and make some recommendation to software of blogging based on the results. Results show, audiences always find out blogs through other blogs they used to read or are reading, or through friends and classmates telling them. Diverse posting frequency was found, some posted on blogs everyday and some less than once a month. Most of the bloggers started blogging because of it is a kind of social activities. When they start a blog, and invite friends to visit, they felt momentum when they recognize the blog really being read. And some make a blog due to ask by friends, and they would discuss contents of blogs and share topics they are interested in the way of comment. Also, blogging activity is object-oriented, bloggers start a blog for different reasons, like release emotional tension, express opinions and seek others’ opinions and feedback. But author thinks it is too early to precisely conceptualize blogs, since it is still developing.
4)
Miller R. Carolyn and Dawn Shepherd, “Blogging as Social Action: A Genre Analysis of the Weblog”, (North Carolina State University
Writers describes weblog as a “phenomenon”, since it has raised many questions that crossing public and private section of conventional definition. It is hard to say weblog should belong to which sector, it seems can be wholly public or private and the same time. Writers try to find out why blogging is so influential and what push blogger to start a blog. The term “rhetorical work” was used to describe what blogs perform, through analyzing the rhetorical work of blogs, it may possible to find out the answers of the questions raised above. Also, the method genre analysis was used, intend to examine previous genres to find out rhetorical patterns, to help deeper understand to question of blogging. When analyzing the content of blogs, “…the ability to combine the immediately real and the genuinely personal, a combination that represents a refreshing contrast with the commercial point of view of so much internet content.” , the expression of personality of bloggers was important, it give bloggers the right to select the topics and the form to present, may be these are the most attracting thing of blogging.
5)
Jonathan Schler, Moshe Koppel, Shlomo Argamon and James Pennebaker. “Effect of Age and Gender on Blogging”, (American Association for Artificial Intelligence, 2005). accessed on 17 March 2011 . available from https://www.aaai.org/Papers/Symposia/Spring/2006/SS-06-03/SS06-03-039.pdf
A study reviewed blogs accessible in “blogger.com”, to evaluate the differences in writing style and content between genders and ages. The research examine over 71000 blogs, over 200 common English words were record, to count the frequency they were used. The research got some valuable information which very helpful in blogging practice research, like the demographic attribution of bloggers. According to the result, bloggers aged up to 17 were mostly female, while others aged group were dominated by male, totally the numbers of bloggers were largely under 30. The wording and blogging styles between male and female were very different. When male mainly interested in politics, technology and commercial topics, female would prefer write down their personal life. The style of wording also changes along with age. Older bloggers writing styles become more male despite of gender, which is apparently differ to the case of teenage, so through the wording, we can easily identify the author’s age. But the authors admit that, they ignore the problem of bogus profile information, which is quite common on the internet, and this is also important to research of blogging.
Kenji Leung, 10461362
3. If science fiction is a genre that imagines our future, what happens to gender and race?
To a larger extant, science fiction is an imagination of future. Although it does not real, it shows the expectation of human. As we can see that, there are many cyborgs in the future life of science fiction. In the science fiction, cyborgs are still made by human, but they are having their mind. If they have their mind, how do they define themselves on gender and race? Moreover, if a human using mechanical body is he or she remains he or she? If there are no national bloods, what will they belong to? In science fiction, we can see two views; having or have not concept on gender and race.
1. Pimley Daniel, Cyborg Futures: Cyborgs, Cyberpunk and the future of the body, 15-3-2011.
http://www.pimley.net/documents/cyborgfutures.pdf
To divide how the science fiction show the changes on gender and race in the future. Gender is a characteristic of person. Biologically, sexual organs are also one of the methods to make a divide on gender. Moreover, we are also having different expectations on males and females. If a person who are masculinity, we will say he is male. It will be the same if people who are femininity. In the reality life, we only need to divide males and females. But in the science fiction, there are many cyborgs in the society. Those cyborgs are made by human. Biologically, they have not sexual organs. They are not masculinity or even femininity. But as Daniel Pimley finally says, the cyborg offers us hope not as a ‘thing’, but as a ‘he’ or a ‘she’. As a result, they are not one of the genders in our traditional concept.
2. Bell David, Barbara M. Kennedy, The cybercultures reader, chapter 29, Sadie Plant, Coming across the future. 15-3-2011.
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=MKtr_svfY1kC&oi=fnd&pg=PA291&dq=cyborg+race+gender&ots=9eryoQY7EG&sig=ullXP2HO0Y4__wxnZIzusIXs8vM#v=onepage&q=cyborg%20race%20gender&f=false
Race is a group with same nationality, culture, language, or even religion. The people who are same race, they will group together or overthrow the original authority usually. Similar with gender, those cyborgs are made by human; which nations are they belong to. Different with human, race is born. It base on blood and lineage. We cannot choose our race because of blood and lineage. But cyborgs do not have their blood and lineage, they are machines only. As Sadie Plant said, “The cyborg has no history, but that of the human is rewritten as its past.” If the cyborgs do not have their own mind, they belong to their owner. If they have their emotion, they belong to themselves like many science fictions.
3. A Critical Analysis of Mamoru Oshii's Ghost in the Shell, 6-3-2008, 12-3-2011.
http://jprokay.blogspot.com/2008/03/critical-analysis-of-mamoru-oshiis.html
“Ghost in the Shell” is a very famous Japanese cartoon in Asia. “Ghost” represents the soul of human, and “Shell” means the body which made by machine. The story of “Ghost in the Shell” happens in 2030. There have been many biochemical people and network a new type of hacker crime so directly under the Prime Minister set up the “Public Class Nine” to fight against crime. In the story of “Ghost in the Shell”, science and technology is better than now. At that time technology has advanced most of the human body can be replaced with chemical and biological body, and buried in the brain through the lines, human consciousness can enter the digital network. The main character of the story, Kusanagi is filled with artificial limbs since childhood. Not only the main character; the members of “Public Class Nine” are also filled with artificial limbs. But different of the characters are having their own mind on gender. Like Kusanagi, she is not only look like female, having sexy body sharp, long hair; but also having personal identity. She knows she is Japanese and she is used to protect Japanese society. But it is possibly because she is still having human brain and having her own mind. There are many scenes showing her sexy body sharp which focus on her buttocks and breasts. Similar with the writer said, “Kusanagi seems to still be attached to certain gender stereotypes and ideals”. Even the body of Kusanagi is machine, she was still considered as a female. And it is the first kind of science fiction view on gender and race.
4. Aitken Joan E., The role of language and gender in The Transformers; An analysis of message in cartoon for children, 10-1986, 12-3-2011, http://eric.ed.gov:80/PDFS/ED293187.pdf
Different with “Ghost in the Shell”, “Transformer” is another kind of cyborgs in the science fiction. Transformers is not a reformed human, they are aliens with high technology. They have they own place to live. To find new resources, they come to earth. The “Transformers” are also different with other cyborys, they have not smooth skin. All the machines are show out. But same as the author think, “The Transformers uses nearly all male characters”. Even they are having males’ sound. In the movie version “Transformers” in 2007, the main character Optimus Prime said, “Fight like a man”. They are wearing suit of armours and carrying guns in not only the movie versions, but also the cartoons. This kind of appearance would be makes us think they are male. Similar with “Ghost in the Shell”, Kusanagi is having a female’s body sharp. We will sure Kusanagi is a female. Moreover in “Transformers”, people always think about their race. Before they know they come from their hometown, Cybertron, people thought they come Japan, China or others else. The place they were made become their race or which nations they belong to. Similar with other science fictions, cyborgs belong to where they are made. Although it does not mean race, it show the ownership of the cyborg.
5. Brayton Sean, The Post-White Imaginary in Alex Proyas’s I, Robot, 14-3-2011.
http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/backissues/104/Brayton104.htm
“I, Robot” is another kind of view about cyborgs. “I, Robot” is a fiction which wrote by Isaac Asimov before. In this fiction, it talks about the moral issues between human and robot. And it became movie later. Different with “Ghost in the Shell”, the robots in “I, Robot” are made by human and used to service human. As the view of Sean Brayton, he thinks the cyborgs in the film are slave. Moreover, the robots in the fiction are having mathematical analysis and traditional psychology; just like human being. In this situation, the robots are seeking their identity. Like the movie version of “I, Robot”, although the robots are made by human, they have their own mind. They think they are not belonging by human, they belong to themselves. They fight against human and want to independence from human, like slaves fight against owners. These kind of robots are not male or females, they are only robots. And they are not under any nation, they are only robots. They are not belonging to any one or social rules. As a result a new gender, “Robot”; and new race, “Robot” come out in these kind of science fiction.
Annotated Webliography (Cho Ka Ian, Christy, 10381371)
question 5: Blogging is a practice that is mundane and yet radical in its potential to transform individual and collective agency and activism. Discuss.
1. Boetcher, Sue, Heather Duggan and Nancy White (2002) ‘What is a Virtual Community and Why Would You Ever Need One.’
http://www.fullcirc.com/community/communitywhatwhy.htm (accessed 10 March 2011)
This online journal discusses two main points which include what a virtual community is and the effect of virtual community in offline lives. Authors gave a simple explanation about virtual community. They defined that virtual community is used to gather people to the cyberspace and players use the cyberspace to “communicate, connect and get to know each other better over time.” BBS, electronic bulletin boards, chat rooms and online forum are examples of virtual communities. Users can interact with others through the cyberspace. Most of the time, users work, interact and share the common interest with others in virtual communities. Internet is well-developed, however, digital divide is an important problem which deserves our concern. Authors interviewed some people about the relationship between online and offline lives. Some argued that online or virtual communities can affect offline lives while the others held the opposite views. Authors pointed out the main question which is how to integrate our online experience with and the offline one.
We can thus find that users in the Cyberspace can overcome the constraints of time and space as users can interact and exchange information with others. It is possible to do so without any geographical boundaries.
2. Papadakis, Maria C. (2003) ‘People Can Create a Sense of Community in Cyberspace.’
http://www.sri.com/policy/csted/reports/sandt/it/Papadakis_IT_virtual_communities_issue_brief.pdf (accessed 10 March 2011)
The author, Papadakis, discussed whether virtual communities were real or not. In America, 84 percent of the Internet users responded that they had interacted with others in the cyberspace. Internet is not only a tool for seeking information, but also a social interaction tool which enhances personal tie with others. She argued that there are evidence supporting that sociological characteristics of offline communities can also be shared in virtual communities. There are many similarities in both online and offline communities, for instance, both communities have regulations, interactions, some form of governance. People who share common interest are grouped together in the virtual communities. Moreover, group norms can also be found in both online and offline communities. ‘Players’ are expected to follow those group norms. There are social controls in the virtual communities so as to promote civil discourse and curb anti-social behavior. People always rebuild their ‘real-life’ or offline social status in the cyberspace. Therefore, ‘social status’ can still be found in the virtual communities. Users can then have community cohesion in the virtual context.
There are a sense of community in a virtual context and many connections between online and offline world. The boundaries between online and offline communities are blur. Hence, online world may change people’s agency and activism.
3. Guo, Yi Maggie and Chung-Tzer Liu (2010) ‘Loyalty of Web 2.0 Sites: The Role of Sense of Belonging.’
http://www.pacis-net.org/file/2010/S24-01.pdf (accessed 10 March 2011)
The authors discussed the user loyalty of Web 2.0 in this research essay. They used Taiwan as a place for case study. Many netizens are using Web 2.0 as a tool to interact, participate, share and collaborate in blogs, forums and some sharing websites. Web 2.0 website is different from some traditional websites which do not simply provide information, but also have the communal sense and social interaction. Authors used “Wretch” which is the largest community website in Taiwan. The main feature of this website is blogging and the function of sharing photos and videos. This research shows that youngsters and students are the typical users of this website. Service quality, trust and sense of belonging are the three main elements of the loyalty. However, the sense of belonging is composed of both service quality and trust.
Loyalty is a very important element for the website. People maintain their loyalty in the blogging with their service quality, trust and sense of belonging. People are not passive in the Web 2.0 era, they can participate in it. Blogging provides a platform for audience to express themselves and may have the influence to the society.
4. Blood, Rebecca (2004) ‘How Blogging Software Reshapes the Online Community.’
http://siti-server01.siti.disco.unimib.it/itislab/uploads/2007/11/how-blogging-software-reshapes-the-online-community.pdf (accessed 11 March 2011)
The author, Blood, is an early blog user. This article is about the history of weblogs and the blogging software’s development. Weblogs mean the ‘personal web site’. Weblog is different from other media formats like Web journals and e-zines. Weblog contains a simple design. The content of weblog is generally short and has personal views. Rebecca argued that “Weblogs could become an important new form of alternate media, bring together information from many sources, revealing media bias, and perhaps influencing opinion on a wide scale”. When Blogger was founded in late 1999, it changed the culture of weblog. Blogger provides a platform to bloggers to post whatever they want. Permalink is a new function introduced by Blogger. Bloggers can refer to other blogs or other online resources. The web of Blogger plays an important role in the history of weblogs. Moreover, Crossblog talk, comments and trackback are also new blogging software to develop weblogs. The function of comment on weblogs makes readers visible.
The blogging software helps connect and interact with the other bloggers. Weblogs keep on developing and innovating the weblog software. Bloggers try to combine the new features into the weblogs and hope to make the weblogs more mature.
5. Thorne, Justin (2008) ‘Online Community Interaction – Revolution or Revulsion?’
http://www.iiisci.org/journal/CV$/sci/pdfs/I600ZG.pdf (accessed 10 March 2011)
This research essay discussed the influence of the virtual community and how it affects the netizens’ decisions on buying. The author, Thorne, used blogs and forums for the case study. After the emergence of the Internet, most people trust the views of netizens more than the product advertisements. Thorne quoted a sentence from Wellman, “[n]etworks of interpersonal ties that provide sociability, support, information, a sense of belonging, and social identity.” The finding of this research essay shows that the majority of the respondents claim that interacting with others who share the common interest, discussing and getting recommendations are the purposes of visiting the forums. When comparing the influence on the purchases decision between forums and blogs, it is found that forums have much more influence than blogs. Recommendations are the very important element for netizens, especially for something they do not really familiar with. Even if they have already decided, many people still seek recommendations from the virtual community to verify if their decision is right, while sometimes these recommendations may sway their decision.
It can find that most people are influenced by the virtual community. There are close relationship between online and offline lives. The effect on the virtual community can never be ignored and neglected.
Overall
Cyberspace has been well-developed in the recent decade. We cannot avoid connecting it which is related to our everyday life. Blogging is not mundane but revolutionize the public’s action.
1. Boetcher, Sue, Heather Duggan and Nancy White (2002) ‘What is a Virtual Community and Why Would You Ever Need One.’
http://www.fullcirc.com/community/communitywhatwhy.htm (accessed 10 March 2011)
This online journal discusses two main points which include what a virtual community is and the effect of virtual community in offline lives. Authors gave a simple explanation about virtual community. They defined that virtual community is used to gather people to the cyberspace and players use the cyberspace to “communicate, connect and get to know each other better over time.” BBS, electronic bulletin boards, chat rooms and online forum are examples of virtual communities. Users can interact with others through the cyberspace. Most of the time, users work, interact and share the common interest with others in virtual communities. Internet is well-developed, however, digital divide is an important problem which deserves our concern. Authors interviewed some people about the relationship between online and offline lives. Some argued that online or virtual communities can affect offline lives while the others held the opposite views. Authors pointed out the main question which is how to integrate our online experience with and the offline one.
We can thus find that users in the Cyberspace can overcome the constraints of time and space as users can interact and exchange information with others. It is possible to do so without any geographical boundaries.
2. Papadakis, Maria C. (2003) ‘People Can Create a Sense of Community in Cyberspace.’
http://www.sri.com/policy/csted/reports/sandt/it/Papadakis_IT_virtual_communities_issue_brief.pdf (accessed 10 March 2011)
The author, Papadakis, discussed whether virtual communities were real or not. In America, 84 percent of the Internet users responded that they had interacted with others in the cyberspace. Internet is not only a tool for seeking information, but also a social interaction tool which enhances personal tie with others. She argued that there are evidence supporting that sociological characteristics of offline communities can also be shared in virtual communities. There are many similarities in both online and offline communities, for instance, both communities have regulations, interactions, some form of governance. People who share common interest are grouped together in the virtual communities. Moreover, group norms can also be found in both online and offline communities. ‘Players’ are expected to follow those group norms. There are social controls in the virtual communities so as to promote civil discourse and curb anti-social behavior. People always rebuild their ‘real-life’ or offline social status in the cyberspace. Therefore, ‘social status’ can still be found in the virtual communities. Users can then have community cohesion in the virtual context.
There are a sense of community in a virtual context and many connections between online and offline world. The boundaries between online and offline communities are blur. Hence, online world may change people’s agency and activism.
3. Guo, Yi Maggie and Chung-Tzer Liu (2010) ‘Loyalty of Web 2.0 Sites: The Role of Sense of Belonging.’
http://www.pacis-net.org/file/2010/S24-01.pdf (accessed 10 March 2011)
The authors discussed the user loyalty of Web 2.0 in this research essay. They used Taiwan as a place for case study. Many netizens are using Web 2.0 as a tool to interact, participate, share and collaborate in blogs, forums and some sharing websites. Web 2.0 website is different from some traditional websites which do not simply provide information, but also have the communal sense and social interaction. Authors used “Wretch” which is the largest community website in Taiwan. The main feature of this website is blogging and the function of sharing photos and videos. This research shows that youngsters and students are the typical users of this website. Service quality, trust and sense of belonging are the three main elements of the loyalty. However, the sense of belonging is composed of both service quality and trust.
Loyalty is a very important element for the website. People maintain their loyalty in the blogging with their service quality, trust and sense of belonging. People are not passive in the Web 2.0 era, they can participate in it. Blogging provides a platform for audience to express themselves and may have the influence to the society.
4. Blood, Rebecca (2004) ‘How Blogging Software Reshapes the Online Community.’
http://siti-server01.siti.disco.unimib.it/itislab/uploads/2007/11/how-blogging-software-reshapes-the-online-community.pdf (accessed 11 March 2011)
The author, Blood, is an early blog user. This article is about the history of weblogs and the blogging software’s development. Weblogs mean the ‘personal web site’. Weblog is different from other media formats like Web journals and e-zines. Weblog contains a simple design. The content of weblog is generally short and has personal views. Rebecca argued that “Weblogs could become an important new form of alternate media, bring together information from many sources, revealing media bias, and perhaps influencing opinion on a wide scale”. When Blogger was founded in late 1999, it changed the culture of weblog. Blogger provides a platform to bloggers to post whatever they want. Permalink is a new function introduced by Blogger. Bloggers can refer to other blogs or other online resources. The web of Blogger plays an important role in the history of weblogs. Moreover, Crossblog talk, comments and trackback are also new blogging software to develop weblogs. The function of comment on weblogs makes readers visible.
The blogging software helps connect and interact with the other bloggers. Weblogs keep on developing and innovating the weblog software. Bloggers try to combine the new features into the weblogs and hope to make the weblogs more mature.
5. Thorne, Justin (2008) ‘Online Community Interaction – Revolution or Revulsion?’
http://www.iiisci.org/journal/CV$/sci/pdfs/I600ZG.pdf (accessed 10 March 2011)
This research essay discussed the influence of the virtual community and how it affects the netizens’ decisions on buying. The author, Thorne, used blogs and forums for the case study. After the emergence of the Internet, most people trust the views of netizens more than the product advertisements. Thorne quoted a sentence from Wellman, “[n]etworks of interpersonal ties that provide sociability, support, information, a sense of belonging, and social identity.” The finding of this research essay shows that the majority of the respondents claim that interacting with others who share the common interest, discussing and getting recommendations are the purposes of visiting the forums. When comparing the influence on the purchases decision between forums and blogs, it is found that forums have much more influence than blogs. Recommendations are the very important element for netizens, especially for something they do not really familiar with. Even if they have already decided, many people still seek recommendations from the virtual community to verify if their decision is right, while sometimes these recommendations may sway their decision.
It can find that most people are influenced by the virtual community. There are close relationship between online and offline lives. The effect on the virtual community can never be ignored and neglected.
Overall
Cyberspace has been well-developed in the recent decade. We cannot avoid connecting it which is related to our everyday life. Blogging is not mundane but revolutionize the public’s action.
Critical Annotated Webliography Question 4
Wong Lok Ting, Lottie 10451467
Guiding Question No.4
1. Sex and the Body in TechnologyBoyle, Jen. "Sex and the Body in Technology - Extensions and Interfaces, Technological Power and Sexuality, Technology of Shifting Scales, speculum, virtual reality, artificial intelligence ." Science Encyclopedia. Web. 15 Mar. 2011.
Guiding Question No.4
1. Sex and the Body in TechnologyBoyle, Jen. "Sex and the Body in Technology - Extensions and Interfaces, Technological Power and Sexuality, Technology of Shifting Scales, speculum, virtual reality, artificial intelligence ." Science Encyclopedia. Web. 15 Mar. 2011.
In a traditional view, body and technology are two separate aspects. When the development of technology grew rapidly, people started to treat the relationship of body and technology as an inextricably thing. The boundary between human and technology became blurred. We all believed that technology can help human to improve lives, to cure some diseases that is incurable in the past. By the great development of DNA study, doctors can predict healthiness of the embryo. Furthermore, there is eugenics which can let people select breeding. Of course, it can prevent the babies suffer from some incurable diseases or hereditary diseases. More deeply, it can foresee that parent may request the gender selection. It may cause gender imbalance and it involve the problem of ethic and go against the regular pattern of reproduction. In the later part of the article mentioned about the idea which cyborg can change the traditional thoughts of reproduction. That is “test tube reproduction”. As the normative heterosexuality, the sex is aim for reproduction. Test tube reproduction can help those couples who are infertility. Moreover, this technique can also help queer couple. Since reproduction became not a problem to them, pressure from outside factor can be released.
2. So You Wanna Be A Cyborg Mommy? Tania, Kupczak. "So You Wanna Be A Cyborg Mommy? Queer Identity and the New Reproductive Technologies " refugia.net. Web. 17 Mar. 2011 <http://www.refugia.net/domainerrors/DE2g_queer.pdf >
2. So You Wanna Be A Cyborg Mommy? Tania, Kupczak. "So You Wanna Be A Cyborg Mommy? Queer Identity and the New Reproductive Technologies " refugia.net. Web. 17 Mar. 2011 <http://www.refugia.net/domainerrors/DE2g_queer.pdf >
Article is focusing on the reproduction issue. Like the previous article, it is about the relationship of technology and reproduction. But writer had discussed this aspect more deeply. Assisted reproductive technologies (ART) help people who do not want to form kinship. Also ART can also fulfill those queer couple desire, having babies. As I mentioned before traditional people only accept normative heterosexuality because the hidden aim is continuing the family line. Women are seemed as a tool to breed babies. So Gay or Lesbian will not be accepted in traditional family. The reason is very easy, two homosexuals cannot have reproduction. By the help of ART, even queer also can have their own babies. Family and queer can no more mutually exclusive. Family factor is one of the reasons that encourage queer couple to have ART for reproduction. If they can solve the reproduction problem, there are less pressure on them to put the accusation of unfilial bear on the shoulder. Surely, reproduction though ART would have some problems. In the later part of the article, writer also brought up some risks of using ART. The healthiness or the uncertainty of HIV status prohibits of the donor both are the existed risks.
3. My, is that Cyborg a little bit Queer?Miyake, Esperanza. “My, is that Cyborg a little bit Queer?”. Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, Massachusetts . March, 2004. Web. 15 Mar. 2011.< http://www.bridgew.edu/SoAS/jiws/Mar04/Miyake.pdf >
This article mentioned several aspects of cyborg and the feminist issues by using Haraway’s Cyborg Manifesto(1984) and the queer theory of Stein and Plummer (1996). It also mentioned the three boundaries that Haraway’s bring up. The boundary of Human and Animal, Human and Machine, physical and non physical. There is an idea which is important to me. It is cyborg wear “women” skin, it will be treated as a women. However, the cyborg without skin is only an unengendered machine. Haraway claimed that the boundaries between human and technology are blurred. But we are still affected by the traditional thoughts; women are always subordinate to men. When cyborg wear skin, it fall into the existed gender category. Conversely, without the inherent gender category cyborgs can bring a “no genders” world. There is no more gender identities, everyone are equal. The class of men and women will no longer exist. If they wear skin they are still suffering from the masculinity society. It is not a real freedom.
4. Are Cyborgs Queer?
Lykke, Nina. “ARE CYBORGS QUEER? biological determinism and feminist theory in the age of new reproductive technologies and reprogenetics.” Web. 15 Mar. 2011.<http://www.women.it/quarta/workshops/epistemological4/ninalykke.htm >
As title said, it is about cyborg and the queer. By the technology development, technology can help queer to do the things which is heterosexuality can do. Since the primary purpose for human to have sex is to breed the next generation. The article talked a lot of the new reproductive technologies. To have a look how technology can bring a new page for the idea of reproduction which is so bred in the bone in everyone’s mind? I also agree that cannot treat the idea of sex as a natural theme. Sex and sexuality are constructed basing on histortical and social culture. People normally believed that normative sexuality is heterosexuality which can have reproduction while those sexuality with non-reproductive people will defined as queer. Such as homosexuality and some preversions. Compare with Queer, Cyborg can show the diversity of sexual performances. Article take a feminist cyborg as an example. The initially focus are not the performances of existing bodies. In contrast, she focus on the production of new bodies though fusions of organism and machine.
5. Cyborg Babies and Cybergods: The Baby Makers' New Origin Stories
Mette, Bryld. "Cyborg Babies and Cybergods." Odense University. Sep 2000. Web. 15 Mar. 2011< http://www.women.it/cyberarchive/files/bryld.htm >
This article is focus more on the babies who “create” though new technology. At the beginning, this technology served some infertility couples. There are more and more test tube babies being “created”. Article quoted an extreme example of this approach is Lee M. Silver's Remaking Eden (1998) which deliberately renders normal every individual desire within the field of human reproduction. Writer also talked about two cases of test tube babies by books which are written by someone who want to get their own child. That two books are trying to normalise their cyborg babies. But it also involve the ethics problem. There are still have to discuss a lot about the problem of Cyborg babies.
Critical Annotated Webliography Question 3
1. Fancher, Patricia Jean (2009) “Life Through the Lens: Cyborg Subjectivity in Cinema.” http://gradworks.umi.com/14/64/1464731.html (accessed on 11 March, 2011)
In this study, Fancher mentioned that cyborg has deconstructed the dichotomies, for example subject and object, real and fantasy, technology and culture, which made them hard to separate. Fancher used a female cyborg in science fiction films to focus on cyborg’s significance in film discourse and feminist discourse. Laura Mulvey's argument presupposed that “object indicates passive and repressed while subject indicates active and powerful”. Women were passive because they were framed as spectacles or objects. Fancher illustrated that the cyborg, as a subject of film, did not totally disrupt this filmic code, but it had presented an active spectacle. The cyborg revealed that object and subject are false distinctions, and, empowerment and victimization were not opposites. The power relations between them materialized through the cyborg’s gender performance, the representation of the body, and the context of the mise-en-scene. Analyzing the discourse with the female character in science fiction like Tomb Raider, she was undoubtedly an object according to the notion of gender. However, she was definitely not a passive woman who continuously adventured and completed tasks. Generally, female may be viewed as victims as they were gazed by the men. If it was this case, Raider showed that she had embraced the empowerment and victimization. However, with social and technological shifts, the dynamic between empowered gender performance and victimized performance will change. Instead, both positive and negative trends come into focus through the cyborg as a lens thereby creating a two dimensional perspective of gender performance. Thus, it is hard to confirm the gender world but it will be a plenty of rooms for people to imagine it.
2. Griffith, Nicola (1994) “The New Aliens of Science Fiction” http://nicolagriffith.com/aliens.html (accessed on 11 March, 2011)
Griffith in her essay firstly suggested that American and British science fiction reflects American and British culture. For examples: 1996 was an election year, the rights of lesbians and gay men will be one of the most intensely fought over and intently watched battlegrounds. As the war hosted up, much more SF with queer protagonists had rolled off the presses. Besides, in California and Florida, there were growing fear and resentment of immigrants. Then there might have some science fiction about immigrating aliens. Another hot spot was the discussions about whether or not to take away set-asides and other help for racial minorities and those with disabilities. Griffith believed that the aliens in the genre were the particular group of people who was disturbing the rest of society. However, it may not always true. It is a grievous error for a reader to assume anything about a writer’s mind. For one thing, we can never tell which bits are "true" and which bits are "fiction," for another, to assume that some particular part of the fiction is autobiographical is to belittle the writer's imagination. So, when a science fiction includes a story of the Black and the White living harmony, it may be the writer’s own thought rather than the reality. But owning to the supports Griffith has given, genre reflects culture may sometimes happen. Thus, science fiction cannot exactly foresee our future and it has already blurred the fantasy and reality.
3. Summerhawk, Barbara (1998) “He, She and It: The Cyborg De-Constructs Gender in Post Modern Science Fiction.”
http://www.davidmswitzer.com/slonczewski/summerhawk.html (accessed on 11 March, 2011)
Summerhawk in her text explained “Cyborgs” which were imagined by science fiction writers before there existed the possibility for them to be products of our material reality. The cyborgs revolted and took the first steps to reconstructing a new, more tolerant society. At the end of He, She and It text, Yod programmed a bomb to destroy Avram and his lab so that never again. Then it contributes us to think that in the far future, with the head of the union of planets a woman, where there are matriarchal cultures meeting with patriarchal cultures on a planet where a race of all-women live in perfect harmony with the natural world, a "she" machine learning compassion from a gay immortal, a happier resolution becomes possible. Then comes to the boundaries between human and machine, masculine and feminine, life and non-life become blur, not just in fiction but in our late twentieth century reality. Besides, if we can share with emerging Artificial Life new ways of being or we can submit to the imposition of the old, narrow definitions of our possibilities based on class, race and gender, we can give birth to new, nearly infinite possibilities for shaping our realities. And it may also help reshaping our mythologies.
4. Slonczewski, Joan (2000) “Octavia Butler’s Xenogenesis Trilogy: A Biologist’s Response.”
http://biology.kenyon.edu/slonc/books/butler1.html (accessed on 11 March, 2011)
Butler drew a broader message that humans need to embrace "otherness" in ethnicities and cultures foreign to our own, even if at first they seem to violate our own values. In one of Butle's stories evokes the experience of an African woman swept into slavery in the eighteenth century. A Black woman travelled back through time to rescue a white man who became her ancestor. Struggling was the fact that she owed her own existence as an individual to the oppressive cultural system in which Black women could bear children only by submitting to the advances of their white masters. This indicated the racism, identities and the power-relations concerns. People are always encouraged to accept the others and live in a peaceful world. However, sense of identity has already developed. Therefore, if there is anything happens, people of the same nation will unite together. Instead of human, aliens or robots in the science fictions do the same. Although they might be made by human beings, those aliens or robots would also take revenge may because of the genetic problem. Therefore, it will be hard to predict the degree of acceptant and the definition of otherness, too.
5. Mahrouse, Gada (2009) “Locating Race: Global Sites of Post-Colonial Citizenship Malini Johar Schueller.” http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/cpi/article/viewFile/9135/7297 (accessed on 11 March, 2011)
Gada commented on Schueller’s book about the citizenship problem which we sometimes call the racial problem. For those whose motherland is colonized by another or those who are nationally or geographically cross-nation, some of the cases of identities are quite completed. For example of Rachel Corrie, a young American member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) who was run over by an Israeli military bulldozer in Palestine while she was trying to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian home. Schueller explained that because Corrie was represented as having ‘crossed over’ to being on the side of Palestinians, her death failed to incite empathy in the USA. Suller further explored that the use of the “post” in postcolonialism did not imply that colonialism was no longer a daily reality for indigenous populations. The potential of what she calls “post-colonial citizenship” to capture and invoke the possibilities for activism “in ways that purely national conceptions of citizenship or postcolonial solidarities do not. Sueller’s ambitious project succeeded at highlighting the dangers of postmodernist disavowals of racial hierarchies, and defended the utility of continuing to think of race as a central axis in contemporary societies. In the real world, the race, gender or identities are quite complex nowadays, is it still wise to reject others and practice hierarchical system? If those science fiction’s writers’ stories come true, we may construct a group call “cyborg”. However, it may leads to another “cyber-citizen” problem. Schuller’s has made a good statement that “race was not transcended though it, but rather points towards the precariousness of trading with race privilege in an era of fiercelyracialized nationalisms.”
In this study, Fancher mentioned that cyborg has deconstructed the dichotomies, for example subject and object, real and fantasy, technology and culture, which made them hard to separate. Fancher used a female cyborg in science fiction films to focus on cyborg’s significance in film discourse and feminist discourse. Laura Mulvey's argument presupposed that “object indicates passive and repressed while subject indicates active and powerful”. Women were passive because they were framed as spectacles or objects. Fancher illustrated that the cyborg, as a subject of film, did not totally disrupt this filmic code, but it had presented an active spectacle. The cyborg revealed that object and subject are false distinctions, and, empowerment and victimization were not opposites. The power relations between them materialized through the cyborg’s gender performance, the representation of the body, and the context of the mise-en-scene. Analyzing the discourse with the female character in science fiction like Tomb Raider, she was undoubtedly an object according to the notion of gender. However, she was definitely not a passive woman who continuously adventured and completed tasks. Generally, female may be viewed as victims as they were gazed by the men. If it was this case, Raider showed that she had embraced the empowerment and victimization. However, with social and technological shifts, the dynamic between empowered gender performance and victimized performance will change. Instead, both positive and negative trends come into focus through the cyborg as a lens thereby creating a two dimensional perspective of gender performance. Thus, it is hard to confirm the gender world but it will be a plenty of rooms for people to imagine it.
2. Griffith, Nicola (1994) “The New Aliens of Science Fiction” http://nicolagriffith.com/aliens.html (accessed on 11 March, 2011)
Griffith in her essay firstly suggested that American and British science fiction reflects American and British culture. For examples: 1996 was an election year, the rights of lesbians and gay men will be one of the most intensely fought over and intently watched battlegrounds. As the war hosted up, much more SF with queer protagonists had rolled off the presses. Besides, in California and Florida, there were growing fear and resentment of immigrants. Then there might have some science fiction about immigrating aliens. Another hot spot was the discussions about whether or not to take away set-asides and other help for racial minorities and those with disabilities. Griffith believed that the aliens in the genre were the particular group of people who was disturbing the rest of society. However, it may not always true. It is a grievous error for a reader to assume anything about a writer’s mind. For one thing, we can never tell which bits are "true" and which bits are "fiction," for another, to assume that some particular part of the fiction is autobiographical is to belittle the writer's imagination. So, when a science fiction includes a story of the Black and the White living harmony, it may be the writer’s own thought rather than the reality. But owning to the supports Griffith has given, genre reflects culture may sometimes happen. Thus, science fiction cannot exactly foresee our future and it has already blurred the fantasy and reality.
3. Summerhawk, Barbara (1998) “He, She and It: The Cyborg De-Constructs Gender in Post Modern Science Fiction.”
http://www.davidmswitzer.com/slonczewski/summerhawk.html (accessed on 11 March, 2011)
Summerhawk in her text explained “Cyborgs” which were imagined by science fiction writers before there existed the possibility for them to be products of our material reality. The cyborgs revolted and took the first steps to reconstructing a new, more tolerant society. At the end of He, She and It text, Yod programmed a bomb to destroy Avram and his lab so that never again. Then it contributes us to think that in the far future, with the head of the union of planets a woman, where there are matriarchal cultures meeting with patriarchal cultures on a planet where a race of all-women live in perfect harmony with the natural world, a "she" machine learning compassion from a gay immortal, a happier resolution becomes possible. Then comes to the boundaries between human and machine, masculine and feminine, life and non-life become blur, not just in fiction but in our late twentieth century reality. Besides, if we can share with emerging Artificial Life new ways of being or we can submit to the imposition of the old, narrow definitions of our possibilities based on class, race and gender, we can give birth to new, nearly infinite possibilities for shaping our realities. And it may also help reshaping our mythologies.
4. Slonczewski, Joan (2000) “Octavia Butler’s Xenogenesis Trilogy: A Biologist’s Response.”
http://biology.kenyon.edu/slonc/books/butler1.html (accessed on 11 March, 2011)
Butler drew a broader message that humans need to embrace "otherness" in ethnicities and cultures foreign to our own, even if at first they seem to violate our own values. In one of Butle's stories evokes the experience of an African woman swept into slavery in the eighteenth century. A Black woman travelled back through time to rescue a white man who became her ancestor. Struggling was the fact that she owed her own existence as an individual to the oppressive cultural system in which Black women could bear children only by submitting to the advances of their white masters. This indicated the racism, identities and the power-relations concerns. People are always encouraged to accept the others and live in a peaceful world. However, sense of identity has already developed. Therefore, if there is anything happens, people of the same nation will unite together. Instead of human, aliens or robots in the science fictions do the same. Although they might be made by human beings, those aliens or robots would also take revenge may because of the genetic problem. Therefore, it will be hard to predict the degree of acceptant and the definition of otherness, too.
5. Mahrouse, Gada (2009) “Locating Race: Global Sites of Post-Colonial Citizenship Malini Johar Schueller.” http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/cpi/article/viewFile/9135/7297 (accessed on 11 March, 2011)
Gada commented on Schueller’s book about the citizenship problem which we sometimes call the racial problem. For those whose motherland is colonized by another or those who are nationally or geographically cross-nation, some of the cases of identities are quite completed. For example of Rachel Corrie, a young American member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) who was run over by an Israeli military bulldozer in Palestine while she was trying to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian home. Schueller explained that because Corrie was represented as having ‘crossed over’ to being on the side of Palestinians, her death failed to incite empathy in the USA. Suller further explored that the use of the “post” in postcolonialism did not imply that colonialism was no longer a daily reality for indigenous populations. The potential of what she calls “post-colonial citizenship” to capture and invoke the possibilities for activism “in ways that purely national conceptions of citizenship or postcolonial solidarities do not. Sueller’s ambitious project succeeded at highlighting the dangers of postmodernist disavowals of racial hierarchies, and defended the utility of continuing to think of race as a central axis in contemporary societies. In the real world, the race, gender or identities are quite complex nowadays, is it still wise to reject others and practice hierarchical system? If those science fiction’s writers’ stories come true, we may construct a group call “cyborg”. However, it may leads to another “cyber-citizen” problem. Schuller’s has made a good statement that “race was not transcended though it, but rather points towards the precariousness of trading with race privilege in an era of fiercelyracialized nationalisms.”
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