Military Cyborg

Lester D. Stone, EL 65, The Cyborg Self, Brown University, 2006

 

Lester D. Stone, EL 65, The Cyborg Self, Brown University, 2006

The military cyborg takes form as the operator becoming a virtual cyborg in real-time, man-machine interface which structures military weapons systems. In addition a new cyborg soldier is constructed and programmed to fit integrally into weapon systems. By disciplining his mindware and acting on the world of computer simulations, as the cyborg handbook points out, the soldier can remain all the more removed becoming a killer without emotion. War is a cyborg's world feeling, removed from seeing. Countless humans kill each other in battles and through this brings a mechanical presence. The immersion whether real or fiction occurs in both video games and televised war. When the Gulf War was broadcasted it brought the audience of watching killing in real time while the video game simulates it. Both the game and televised war have a strong way of manipulating the viewer. The viewer becomes this mindless drone. In addition, the viewer becomes an infant when given a good vs evil perspective when watching a televised war such as the Gullf War. As for video games, it allows the person to fulfill their fantasies while being afraid of the consequences coming to life. Video games have been described as a paranoiac environment that induces a sense of paranoia by dissolving any distinction between the player and the viewer. Baudrillard haunts this domain because the television is the epicenter of simulacra, Watching the television, lurks the social cyborg.

History of the Cyborg: Index


Course Website cyborg Body & Self

Last modified 30 December 2006