SelfhelpMagazine

by Marlene M. Maheu, Ph.D.

As technology advances and more people become familiar with the Internet, interactions between humans and technology will become more complex. Cyborg theory examines this interesting phenomenon from the perspective of sociology. It is a powerful tool for considering the future of relationships and sexuality in a wider society.

Cyborgs are combinations of people and animals or machines. Donna Haraway's influential work, A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology, and Social Feminism in the 1980s, defined cyborgs as "a cybernetic organism, a hybrid of machine and organism, a creature of social reality as well as a creature of fiction." People are cyborgs when pieces of them are undeniably tied to the computer as an extension of themselves.

We see a meshing of technology and man in healthcare when humans and technology function as one, such as with man surviving with a pacemaker, or a woman surviving with a respirator. Cosmologist Stephan Hawkings , the famous scientist and author who suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's Disease), has a computer-generated voice. In these cases, technology assists individuals to overcome health problems. They represent solutions rather than situations created by technology.

Robin Hamman has discussed problematic interactions between humans and computers in Cyborgasms: Cyber-sex Amongst Multiple-Selves and Cyborgs in the Narrow-Bandwidth Space of America Online Chat Rooms. He details the experience of a young woman named Rebecca, who he believes, "may be becoming a cyborg because her sex life is undeniably tied to and dependent upon AOL chat rooms. All her sexual activities involving partners are online."

Rebecca is not sexually active other than with men she meets online. Although she has had cyber-sex and telephone sex with many men through AOL, Rebecca has not physically had sex with a partner since she began using the service. Rebecca does not practice casual sex in the real world because she does not believe it to be moral or safe.

"Rebecca's sex life is undeniably tied to her computer and the telecommunications system it is connected to." He concludes, "The boundary between the human and the machine has blurred. Rebecca has become a cyborg." Will new technologies cause people to have sex lives inseparable from technology?

Technology is forcing us to step out of the context that has lulled and comforted humanity since the dawn of time. People are forming relationships and communities in places that exist only in cyberspace. They are engaging in sex and infidelity in ways that are not reflected in our common understandings of relationship commitment and loyalty.

Technology is requiring new responses to old dynamics, as they are experienced in new environments. As glimpsed in our brief discussion of cyborg theory, we have only begun to see the artificial worlds that people can construct, where through a melding of biology and technology, they can extend themselves to engage in meaningful as well unfaithful relationships.

References:

Hamman, R. (1996). Cyborgasms: Cybersex amongst multiple-selves and cyborgs in the narrow-bandwidth space of America Online chat rooms. Retrieved February 5, 2001 from the World Wide Web: www.socio.demon.co.uk/

Haraway, D. (1985). A manifesto for cyborgs: Science, technology, and social feminism in the 1980s. Socialist Review, 80, 65-107.

Much gratitude is extended to those who helped clarify, amplify and edit the material used in this article:
Michael Erickson, Ph.D.; Les Posen, Ph.D.; Rona Subotnik, MFT; and John Suler, Ph.D.

About the Author:

Dr. Maheu is an author, speaker, and researcher. She is the lead author of "E-Health, Telehealth & Telemedicine: A Guide to Program Startup and Success" co-written with Pamela Whitten and Ace Allen, published by Jossey-Bass: San Francisco.

She has also been the lead author on these two books: "Infidelity on the Internet" and "The Mental Health Professional and the New Technologies."