I am delighted to share with you a session titled “Cyborg Literacy for the 21st Century“. This session was part of  EPIC’s Learning & Networking Week and was led by two researchers, Professor Laura Forlano and Professor Danya Glabau.

This was an engaging discussion filled with intersecting perspectives. First, Laura and Danya introduced their unique concept of Critical Cyborg Literacy. This perspective examines cyborgs through the lenses of feminist and cultural theory. Feminist cyborg theory critiques and challenges the adoption of gender and sexuality norms in contexts where they usually don’t belong, such as in the design of technically impressive androids (Forlano and Glabau, 2024, p. 3).

Using Sophia as an example, Laura and Danya explained why they adopt a distinctive feminist perspective to study cyborg robots. Sophia is a “social robot” capable of mimicking social behavior and inducing feelings of affection in humans. This robot is known for its human-like appearance, which is modelled after three women: Ancient Egyptian Queen Nefertiti, Audrey Hepburn, and its inventor’s wife, Amanda Hanson (Hanson 2019; Greshko 2018). It is evident that, despite significant technological advancements, the assumptions about femininity in Sophia’s design—such as ‘subservience, politeness, attentiveness, beauty, and waiting one’s turn’ (Forlano and Glabau, 2024, p. 2)—reflect a perspective that is not ‘inclusive’ (Forlano and Glabau, 2024, p. 2). The authors believe these social markers should not be embedded in new technologies in this manner (Forlano and Glabau, 2024, p. 2). Therefore, this perspective encourages us to re-examine the relationship between humans and machines, helping to reveal oppression and inequality rather than reinscribe them in the future.

The live audience for this session consisted of over 40 people from various industries, spread across different regions worldwide. Initially, people’s attitudes were both positive and perplexed. Many wondered, what exactly is a cyborg? Or, can we even talk about cyborgs today? It seemed that cyborgs were a concept of a distant future. However, as Danya and Laura imply in their book, cyborgs are already a part of everyday life in the real world, and viewing cyborgs as a futuristic concept overlooks the real-world struggles people face (Forlano and Glabau, 2024, p. 170-171).

Using feminist cyborg theory as a framework, Laura and Danya also presented the 10 points of critical cyborg literacy. These literacies guide people to reframe the challenges they encounter daily, from the ways that social and cultural factors such as gender, race, and disability (as well as their intersections) shape the kinds of technologies that are imagined, developed, used, and resisted (Forlano and Glabau, 2024, p. 6). Inspired by these dimensions, attendees began to redefine issues based on their actual experiences. For instance, many mentioned the loss of human autonomy. This includes the surveillance of people by AI tools in the retail industry and the pressure to use AI tools in response to customer demands. Under the principles Laura and Danya propose, such as “Cyborgs live in the real world” and “Cyborgs are infrastructural”, this challenge prompted people to consider the technological networks behind cyborgs along with human and nonhuman relations.

In conclusion, this was a very enlightening session, inviting people to reflect on familiar issues and question unjust assumptions. I encourage those interested to read Laura and Danya’s new book, “Cyborg”, for more insights. I would like to close with their words: together we can build a better cyborg world! 

References:

Forlano, L. & D. GLABAU 2024. Cyborg. (The MIT Press essential knowledge series). Cambridge, Massachusetts ; London, England: The MIT Press.

Greshko, Michael. 2018. “Meet Sophia, the Robot That Looks Almost Human.” National Geographic. Photographs by Giulio Di Sturco. Archived from the original on March 13, 2020. Retrieved April 29, 2020.

Hanson, David. 2019. “On Humanoid Robots: Relationships, Rights, Risks and Responsibilities.” The Ethics Incubator. Interview by Susan Liautaud, Stanford University. Archived from the original on January 28, 2020. Retrieved January 28, 2020.

EPIC Learning & Networking Week is our annual festival of virtual learning, career development, and networking events for EPIC Members. Join EPIC to watch full videos of 2024 sessions in the EPIC Library, including the entire cyborg anthropology session!