Posthuman

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How We Became Posthuman Review
Katherine Hayles advances a critique of the idea of humanism and the outrageous believe in posthumanism. Posthumanism theorists hold a view that our human capacities such as conscious ness can be developed through safe and ethical technological methodologies to achieve fantastically desirable values that can make our lives modest. Hayles is against this believe, since, it may result in a disembodied view of subjectivity. She detests the idea that the human brain can be installed in a machine, she even states that “How was it possible for someone of Moravec’s intelligence to believe that mind could be separated from the body” (Hayles, 1).
Basing her argument on homeostasis, subjectivity, and virtuality, she argues that it is impossible to remove information from one medium to another. As such, she is against the idealized perception of information scientists and virtual technologists that the human body is the original prosthesis that we can manipulate at will and develop a medium that embodies our identity as humans (Hayles, 7). She is sounding a warning to this generation of our race on the repercussions that might arise from cybernetics.
Similarly, Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake shares the same message as Hayles novel. Atwood advances a relevant and timely message that we cannot entrust scientists who are motivated by profit to run the world. In Oryx and Crake, there is a fictional representation of the consequences of a biological disaster.

Crake, an over-ambitious scientist, designs pigoons (pig + human genes), wolvogs (wolf + dog genes), and snuts (snake and rat genes) that later develop undesired mutations, hence, they start killing people (Atwood, 89). Moreover, Crake designs ‘perfect’ humans that are immune from attack by ultraviolet rays that can cause cancer and have no interest in sex and violence. However, these humans turn out with a big deficit in human consciousness and are far from normal.
In conclusion, it is clear that both Hayles and Atwood are airing their concern about the dangers and consequences of engaging in scientific technology with the aim of creating a modern or better life. As in 2001’s Dolly ship case, scientific innovations only turn out with undesirable consequences. Therefore, humans should cease seeking perfection through computing and technological advancements; since this will take away our humanity or kill us faster than any dangerous disease.
Works Cited
Atwood, Margaret. Oryx and Crake. Anchor, 2004.
Hayles, N. Katherine. How we became posthuman: Virtual bodies in cybernetics, literature, and informatics. University of Chicago Press, 2008.