Main ideas
Difference of identification between cyborg and people
- In the physical world, we are identified by our body, although it may be complex to understand the real self. In the virtual world, we are identified by data such as bank account number, IC number, student number, etc
- People who accessed the Internet are also considered as cyborg. They are identified in the virtual world by digital information such as their email address, login ID, etc.
How to identify cyborg?
- "Cyborg personal and social identity manifests itself not in blood and physical appearance but in choices and attractions." [2] This means that cyborg can be identified in other aspects besides physical appearance or even by blood.
Can cyborg be identifiable by gender?
- In a virtual world, nobody knows if you are a male or a female. Sometimes, you can be a male who is talking dirty jokes in IRC (Internet Relay Chat, an online chatline). And sometimes, you can be a female, who describes herself how beautiful she looks or which big female movie star she looks like in the IRC. Hence, we are unable to determine if you are a male or a female in the Internet.
- IRC is a good example where chatters who chat here are unable to hear or see the other chatters, hence they are living in doubt as to the person they chat with is a male or a female. Another good example is MUD (Multi User Domain), which is a good example of how computer-mediated communication is served as a reconstruction of identity.
- First Class is another example of how cyborgs can interact. Most of the students would post their discussions in the First Class and later, their discussions are seen by other students. Each student is identified by their login name and by using the "Who's online" facility in the First Class, we know who are the students online and hence, we can form a discussion here.
Themes
Can cyborg be identified in a group?
- Cyborgs are able to work in groups. They are given their roles and responsiblities too, just like the human.
- "Within groups individuals can have different roles, and hold role expectations about their responsibilities. Benne and Sheats (1948) outlined a number of roles under three headings: group task roles; group building and maintenance roles; and self-centred roles. Group task roles included that of initiator/contributor – a person who recommends new ideas about a problem; information-giver – a person who contributes relevant information to help with decision-making; and elaborator – a person who expands on the points made by others. Examples of group building roles were encourager, harmoniser, compromiser, follower. Self-centred roles included aggressor – a person who tries to promote his or her own status in the group; blocker – a person who attempts to stymie group action; playboy – a person who engages in humour and irrelevant acts to divert the group focus away from the tasks in hand; and help-seeker – a person who tries to gain sympathy by expressing insecurity or inadequacy."[3]
Issues
Is it safe if cyborg identity is not clear in the virtual world?
- It would be very confusing and also disturbing to anyone in the IRC or MUD who did not know the gender of the person they are talking to. Some people find that it's easier to speak to people this way without knowing that person. However, there are some, who is afraid to "meet" such people in the Internet. For fear, they may choose to meet these people face-to-face, and realise that they had all the time been talking to a male instead of a female or vice versa.
- This would also cause crimes to increase as there would be some people who goes into these chatlines to pick up innocent victims and do harm to them.
Go on to Conclusion
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