In Canton today, I got to go to one of Marky’s basketball games. It was quite a nail-biter, so I forgot to take pictures. Then, Katie went to trick-or-treat and the rest of us went to the Winking Lizard for a late lunch for Julie’s birthday. It was fun. Here are Julie, me and my mom:

Happy Birthday/Halloween
Dan and I got home around 7 and I tried to read some for class, but could not keep my eyes open. I took a nap and then woke up to read a bit more. I read an interesting chapter on “the machine.” I thought I was nothing for Halloween, turns out, I’m a cyborg* (and every day is Halloween). I talked about this once before, but what the heck, it’s interesting to me. Not only is technology sort of messing with our notions of time (synchronous, asynchronous, what?) and space (where is my blog anyway?), but also our beingness in the world. The computer (connected to the internet) extends (some might say constrains) my capacity to read, write, learn, communicate, think, be, etc. etc. I go nowhere without at least my iPhone (though laptop is preferable), which I use to constantly check email, update facebook, record thoughts, check wikipedia, oh, and sometimes answer phone calls. My laptop makes me exponentially smarter. I remember learning to read difficult texts in high school and how inefficient I was at it. If I didn’t know a word, I would rely on context clues or maybe, possibly, go find that collegiate dictionary on the bookshelf in the living room to look it up (but only if the sentence was nonsense without the word, and okay, sometimes not even then). But, if I didn’t know a literary reference, I just allowed myself to be confused and not understand the passage (I mean, really what was I going to do, go to the card catalogue at the library? And do you remember how terrible the internet was in 1996?). Sometimes a teacher would elaborate on the reference in class, which would sometimes clear it up and sometimes not. Reading now, with my laptop, is a completely different experience. I look up words instantly and then tweet them to keep a log of words I am learning. I look up references to philosophers and read the wikipedia page to help me understand (and sometimes several subpages that leads to a veritable labyrinth of information). I understand what I am reading in ways not possible without my handy extension of the mind/body. Even in class, if some big name theorist or book or article comes up that I don’t know, I don’t have to try to look contemplative to avoid the suspicion of my ignorance (though suspicion abounds I am sure), I just look it up right then and there, and am able to follow a conversation I might not have been able to follow otherwise. In a way, this is sort of an old idea. I mean, even the seemingly insignificant invention of lenses, eventually used to make glasses, extends our sight. Cars extend our motility. Technology has been changing the way humans function for a long time, but I still lean toward the idea that computer technology has made changes that rock our assumptions of reality in ways not imagined before. I mean, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, cyborgs? This is the stuff of science fiction. I belong in a science fiction novel. Here I am constructing my life in this virtual space, which is everywhere and nowhere all at the same time and at different times, any time. It’s mind boggling. And for those who read this and don’t know me in real life, this is all I am. This little box with words and photographs. It doesn’t even matter if I “really” exist. All I am for them is what is on this website. What’s the difference between the “real” me and the website? Or am I both? I say both, I think, because I’m a cyborg.
*I like Donna Haraway and her Cyborg Manifesto.