lecture 9 Technologised bodies

about the spider like six legged performance of Stelarc

lecture 9 Technologised bodies

what do you think of Stelarc's work?

I find his work a bit scary and very shocked to me! It's because his work and performance often involve robotics or other relatively modern technology integrated with his body. By looking at this photo I think it' s hurt , really hurt! doesn't it?

In another performance he has hung himself in flesh hook suspension and he has also performed with a robotic third arm and a spider-like six legged walking machine .

It's a bit horrible to me and really shock! I am just amazed that how can he do these to himself and what's his aim of that? Is he want to shock the public? His actions make me to rethink that what's really art? and what's the function of art? Do they need to bring people amusement?

source from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stelarc

lecture 9 Technologised bodies

what are some pros and cons of becoming a cyborg?

pros:
-we can see better,or more far away
-can live longer
-can have a better physical bodies
-can reduce pain
-can extent the original human strength
-can improve our quality of life
eg.we can have higher productivity, better efficiency, brodern the limit of people to do the difficult work

cons:
-we might not know the potential negative impacts of the technologies
-people might abuse the technology
-less humanity
-less emotional in human world
-might produce the harmful weapons due to people 's extented strength

lecture 9 Technologised bodies

"To what extent are we already experiencing a man-machine symbiosis that has turned us into cyborgs [or posthuman bodies]?" Christiane Paul

yup, it's true to some extent as nowadays people depend much much more on technologies and machine when compared to the past. for example, when we are short-sighted, we depended on the glasses. when people lose their arms and legs in accident, we need a alternate mechanical arm or leg.It is all depends on our difinition of what is a posthuman bodies.

Lecture 8:Identity thief

source from:http://www.flickr.com/photos/scansnap/3640375450/ (accessed on 21 Oct 2009)

lecture 8:online identity

mine:
-4 emails: gmail, hotmail, yahoo, LN
-facebook

Alison Chau:
-4 emails : gmail, hotmail, yahoo, Lingnan University

Ching Ng:
-over 10 emails: at least 5 yahoo, other includes yahoo, hotmail, gmail, Lingnan University
-facebook
-xanga
-my space

carol shek:
-7 emails: gmail, hotmail, yahoo, LN, POLY U, Hello Kitty, my melody
-Xanga
-facebook

Lecture 4:Linus Torvalds

Linus Torvalds:

background
-born December 28, 1969 in Helsinki, Finland
-a Finnishsoftware engineer
-best known for having initiated the development of the Linux kernel
-the chief architect of the Linux kernel


Early life
-his family belongs to the Swedish-speaking minority (5.5%) of Finland's population
-Torvalds was named after Linus Pauling, the American Nobel Prize-winning chemist
-1988 to 1996: attended the University of Helsinki from
-graduating with a master's degree in computer science from NODES research group
-his academic career was interrupted when he joined the Finnish Army


His Interests
-interest in computers began with a Commodore VIC-20
-especially its operating system
-programmed an assembly language and a text editor for the QL
-programmed a few games
-known to have written a Pac-Man clone named Cool Man


Later life
-running introductory computer laboratory exercises for students
- instructed the course attendants
- 1997 to 1999 he was involved in 86open helping to choose the standard binary format for Linux and Unix

source from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Torvalds
( asscessed in 22,Oct 2009)