Author: Maliyah A.

Cyborg Manifesto and Dirty Computer

Maliyah A.
Reading Time: < 1 minute

Identity

Monáe’s album Dirty Compute and Donna Haraway’s “Cyborg Manifesto” share a common theme of identity. In Cyborg Manifesto Haraway did not have a firm stand of identity. Harraway allowed no restriction between the categories such as gender, race, or species. In the Monáe’s album there was also no restriction too. Monáe’s had a dystopian world where the lines were blurred between gender, race, and species. Monáe’s had express this in her songs PYNK and Make Me Feel.

Community

In Donna Haraway’s “Cyborg Manifesto” community was a big aspect in the book. Haraway talks about how building a community was important because it could be used to challenged power structures. The community becomes really important especially within the marginalized groups. Monáe’s album Dirty Compute talks about the important of community too. In the songs I Like That and Americans she talks about how communities should embrace unique identity. She also mentions in the songs that the community should fight against systemic oppression. In Monáe’s album Dirty Compute she talks more about celebrating and embracing the different communities.

The Digital Divide: What It Means to Be Human in Blade Runner and Neuromancer

Maliyah A.
Reading Time: 2 minutes

Blade Runner what it means to be human through its depiction of replicants, while Neuromancer explores similar themes through its characters’ interactions with artificial intelligences and cyberspace.

This statement is what we are going to explore throughout this blog. Although Blade Runner and Neuromancer take different narrative approaches, both challenge conventional notions of consciousness, identity, and humanity. In Blade Runner, the replicants were designed to serve humanity. The main replicants in the movie were Roy Batty and Rachel. The replicants had physical human appearance, but they were denied basic human rights and emotions because they were just machines. The replicants had development traits that were similar to humans. Roy was able to feel fear, desires, and longing. The replicants were programmed not to have these traits, but Roy had them. Roy expresses these emotions during the ending of the movie. He talks about his past moments and past memories. Which shows a bit concerning because it shows how the replicants and humans are very similar. The question arises: how different are the replicants and humans? The line between human and replicant blurs. Which leads to another important question: what constitutes being human: our biological makeup or the ability to feel and connect with others? 


In Neuromancer, artificial intelligences and cyberspace are used to explore human identity and consciousness. The lead case is a hacker, and he interacts and navigates cyberspace. In that world, there were no boundaries between humans and replicants. Because Case is dependent on cyberspace, his consciousness appears to be his most essential characteristic, as his physical body is secondary to his digital presence. To become human, AI Wintermute wants to merge with its counterpart. Wintermute shows throughout the novel that he wants to become more human than artificial intelligence. Wintermute’s desire for freedom, happiness, and emotion is very similar to the replicas in Blade Runner. But in Neuromancer, this desire plays out in a realm where human and machine identities are increasingly intertwined. Although Blade Runner and Neuromancer take different narrative approaches, both challenge conventional notions of consciousness, identity, and humanity.