Tyson Siddle's Preface
If technology develops in the near future that allows for the invention of thinking, feeling machines than the contents of this (Fe)Man/ual may become of sudden importance. Too often science and its products are viewed as existing in a hermetically sealed bubble in which they are capable of being free from being affected by the culture and society in which they are situated. If a cyborg were to be created in this atmosphere it is unlikely that much concern would be placed in its socialization and its relationship to (and effect upon) the multiple networks of meaning that exist within the culture(s) in which it will have to interact. In a sense this (Fe)Man/ual is a utopian document, not so much in that it prescribes a specific model for the future, but in that it is written for a future in which scientists are prepared to acknowledge the complexities of their relationship to culture which will hopefully motivate them to act responsibly and reflect critically while creating new intellegences. |
