The distance between the real and the virtual is becoming increasingly small with the emergence of new technologies.
Digital pets allow interaction with simulated life which the user is in control of. I believe this form of virtual life is as popular as the user is in the position of ultimate control (for example, being God). The user will be responsible for feeding the virtual pet, giving affection, playtime and cleaning up after the animal. Further manipulation of virtual life is from the Sims video game in which the player is responsible for nurturing human life, relationships, basic hygiene, ambitions, career decisions, aspirations and even decorating residences.
Virtual life on the internet allows people to reinvent or even create new identities for themselves. As liberating this may be, the darker side of virtual reality occurs when virtual meets reality. Paedophiles and serial killers meet many victims via this method of interaction.
http://www.met.police.uk/computercrime
Man can now become anything his heart desires in the digital realm. The internet is the most powerful of those new medias with many obscure desires being catered for. As the distance between technology and the body has diminished with mobile telephones and hearing aides, there are many philosophers who would enjoy this phenomenon to progress further into cyborgism. Efficiency is a key factor in the philosophy of cyborgism. PDA's and mobile telephones allow unprecedented access to information and communication making the working day anything up to 24 hours a day, but allowing the office to now also be mobile and flexible. However, there is evidence to suggest the world is full of cyborgs already. If the definition of a cyborg is an enhanced human body through bio-mechanical alterations, then surely there are many cyborgs walking amongst us.
Transplant patients, people with pacemakers, metal plates and rods for reconstructive surgeries, contraceptive implants and coils, breast augmentations and hearing aid users are already altered in order for their bodies to work more effectively or towards a more suitable purpose. A popular fascinating technology is plastic surgery, allowing implants to many areas of the body in pursuit in aesthetic perfection, or the removal of unsuitable parts to obtain the perfect look. A French performance artist by the name of Orlan began recreating herself in the digital image of perfection via live plastic surgery. This is a fascinating attempt at destroying beliefs and attempting to become something completely unique, and her own vision of what is beautiful. Her modernist view of challenging boundaries is refreshing from contemporary’s society and obsession with aesthetic beauty. Virginia Wolf comments that women strive for perfection and to such a high level of effort not only to captivate men, but to be respected and surpass the beauty of other women.
Stelarc is a performance artist who believes the human body is obsolete and plants function on a better level of efficiency. He performs with metal appendages which he can move with his nervous system. This could be seen as a modernist movement of the body into a new realm of possibility and greater sense of achievement. With machines functioning on a higher level of efficiency, there is stress on man to evolve with those machines and also to compete within the world to secure domination. Images of Stelarc are similar to the subculture phenomenon of cyber-goths, with bio-mechanical tattoos, piercing implants and futuristic dress. Perhaps the change in the pace of the world and the need for evolution is being felt right down to teenagers and/or clubbers who believe they just want to be unique and have fun with their friends on a night out. To become part man and part machine may well raise questions about the ethics of such controversial surgeries for the sake of performance rather than replacing what we humans already have.
A fear of the unknown will also inhibit growth of this new media. As scientists have already unravelled the secret to human DNA and begin to manipulate this, public opinion halts stem cell research and cloning due to ethical issues. But what if we become part machine... do we become less human and more cold like the metal facilities we embody? How much human tissue do you require to still receive human rights and not be treated like a piece of scrap metal? Also, what about the cells that starts off life as human to be later disregarded as a failed experiment, don’t they count?
With all those questions posed, it is unrealistic to believe that human cloning will play a part in today’s society. Moral issues and human rights influence everyone, whether at work, school or in the home. Protecting fundamental human rights have created political correctness in order not to offend ethnic minorities, women and those living with disabilities. To create a human life, whether replicated or conceptually in the uterus, this will be protected as highly as possible. In my opinion, the film The 6th Day was far removed from the conscience of humanity. The government in the film suggested that any cloned human would be destroyed. However within western culture, particularly within the UK where we do not conduct capital punishment, all life is sacred. We care for our animals, protect our children, and whether someone we meet started life as a foetus or replicated cells, we shall hold their life in high regard. We are all flesh and blood, and joined together by the force of life we share.
Concerning developments within medicine and food science are actually allowing genetically modified products into supermarket produce. Soon, shoppers will not know whether the milk or meat they consume comes from a natural or cloned animal. Without knowing the potential risks of cloning, this could be risky business! Genetically modified crops already feed our country – crops are enhanced to resist frosts, tomatoes so they do not mould so quickly, but there is something unnerving about ingesting genetically modified flesh.
How about splicing human and animal DNA? Are we cultivating a new species or race which will live along side us in society? What about their human right to life without suffering? Medicine is already experimenting with pig DNA mixed with human DNA in many areas of research, particularly organ transplants. If these hybrid look more human, will they obtain greater rights? Will it likely rely upon the use of reason, as Kant believes this separates man from the other animals? The sceptic within me believes we should not undo God’s work. Not that I am religious, but I feel that this will not enrich our lives but create new problems, new monsters to run from. Whether the monsters are what humans become or what becomes human.
Looking throughout history there is evidence for how brutal human force can be and how little disregard Nazi Germany for example held for its own citizens. Contemporary society puts human welfare at the forefront of domestic policy to protect those who are unable to protect themselves. Even animals are treat with respect with laws to protect them from inhumane treatment... but what happens within medical labs often remains secretive until some scientific wonder is unveiled and everyone believes the painful experiments were worth the suffering as mankind grows stronger against disease.
