I think the most interesting body would be Armitage and whether or not he can be considered a body, if that’s just what it is, a body. We’ve briefed on what makes a human, whether it’s a body with no knowledge/desires/feeling or having those three things and not a physical body. Armitage seems to have the first, a physical body but that’s all he has. It’s machine like, there are no thoughts or feelings behind that body. Throughout this semester we’ve discussed the definition of body and compared and contrast bodies that are physically different. These bodies that we’ve looked at have physically different appearances because of their belief system, whatever it may be. Whether they desired to get a modification to follow a trend, be different, or abstain from them all together. But in Neuromancer we see the idea of having a body without that belief system, so does that still qualify as a body??
I would say that the relationship of body and technology isn’t necessarily a good one. Yes it allows for bodies to do something they’ve never been able to do before and by modified in ways never imaginable, but that’s when the already skewed line of what is considered “normal” because virtually invisible. It becomes kind of chaotic as we see in the book, people being in more than one body and place at a time. Technology does liberate the body, allowing this “out of body” experience to escape from the worries of the real world. But doing this through technology isn’t any different from how people do it today with drugs, alcohol or any other addictive substance. I feel that whether technology or another substance, they are all basically doing the same thing of having an out of mind/out of body experience.
2 comments:
I never thought about the modifications in such a way, but I really like your point. Your point can actually be made with Case. He seems to constantly be seeing to get rid of his body or escape his body. His first solution was Cyberspace, he wanted to be jacked in for hours at a time and got annoyed when he had to use the restroom or eat. Pretty much, he got annoyed with the needs of his body. But now that Cyberspace is no longer an escape for him, and he can now feel in Cyberspace which creates a virtual body, he jacks out and seeks drugs. He likes not having to be bothered with his body and his alternatives has always been Cyberspace or drugs. This rises the question are the two interchangeable?
I agree with the idea of Armitage as an interesting link between human and technology. I think Armitage, being the body with little thoughts, feelings, or emotions, as well as Wintermute, being the contrary, both show the negative sides to technology. I think one of the arguments being made is that you need the combination of the two in order to use technology successfully. Wintermute is dangerous because he has massive amounts of technology and intelligence; however, he lacks morals, feelings, and an actual human body. Armitage is dangerous because he lacks the kind of intelligence disposable to Wintermute, yet he still has the body which makes him human. Therefore, he can be controlled by other intelligences, letting Wintermute gain a body as well as intelligence. It makes all forms of intelligence and definitions of what is technology and what is human blurry.
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