Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine: Thesis Manuscript Development Plan

Arts Computation Engineering Program, University of California Irvine

GARNET HERTZ - 26 JAN 2005

Overview

Committee members Thesis/Project Summaries

THESIS (MANUSCRIPT SUMMARY)

In 1948, Norbert Wiener coined the term "cybernetics" to describe the science of transmitting messages between humans and machines, or from machine to machine. Wiener saw human communication as a model for human-machine and machine-to-machine interactions, and that the quality of these communications influenced one's inner well-being: especially in a society in which people increasingly interact with and are reliant on machines. As the term cybernetics stems from the Greek kybernetis meaning "steersman", the process of designing machines that effectively respond to us is important and has direct impact on our social condition.

However, as technology continues to ubiquitously permeate contemporary postindustrial society and - in the claim of posthumanism - that it has supplanted physical embodiment as the key reference point of the human mind, it is still useful to reconsider the early foundations of control, communication, animals and machines within our present age. Intelligence, embodiment, information and technology are foundational concepts that strike the core of personal experience and social meaning. As we remain physical beings within the realm of technology, ruminations of hybridity between these concepts brings greater clarity to the concept of what it means to be conscious, alive, and human.

This text will explore 20th century creations in hybrid life, taking cybernetic-inspired forms as an origin to analyze contemporary developments in "cyborg" existence: artificial life, body modification, biorobotics and genetic engineering. Within this framework, embodiment and virtuality will be closely examined, with information technology interpreted as - among other things - a tool for the abstraction of physical violence, intelligence and immortality.

An introduction will lead off the written document, and will give an overview of several key concepts within the text: the document title in respect to Norbert Weiner's "Cybernetics, or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine", a description of the practical project and how it relates to written thesis, and an introduction to biorobotics, animal-machine hybrids, and posthumanism.

The second chapter - "The Emergence of Cybernetics" - will provide an overview of first order cybernetics, as originated by Norbert Wiener, and will attempt to analyze historical factors in the formation of cybernetic theory. It will be proposed that cybernetics was not invented: it emerged as a result of historical, personal and interdisciplinary factors.

Next, "The Differences Between Machines and Animals" will provide an overview of the changing concepts and relationships between machines and animals through the writings of Marx, Norbert Wiener and Deleuze & Gauttari.

"The Animal-Machine: Technology, Between Muscle and Language" takes a look at how animals and machines have combined. Within this chapter, two concepts will be described: technology that is haunted by the spirits of animals, and the role of language within the context of cyborg soldiers and biomimetic weapons.

The fifth chapter, titled "Chess, Violence and Embodiment: Pervasive Computing and DARPA's Dream of the Cyborg Soldier" is as follows: Weapon and defense technologies throughout the history of war have been used to enhance the soldier's embodied capacities and cognitive limitations. Technology abstracts physical violence according to the system of war, often aiming to produce humans as super-human fighting machines. Contemporary research, as funded by the American military, continues to develop this dream of the cyborg soldier. This chapter analyzes contemporary work, funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and pays special attention to ubiquitous computing technologies which extend computationalism into pervasive, subdermal applications. Embedded computing and interaction design take on new meaning within this context: ubiquity is much more complicated within the context of a world-as-interface that is political, economic, international and violent. The cyborg soldier is only a dream, however: the human fighting machine speaks of an age-old trope wherein a human/machine hybridity unrealistically simplifies the interface to the visceral mess of war.

The sixth chapter, "Preflexes, Munitions Targeting and Remote Controlled Insects" provides a survey of how cockroaches and contemporary robotics are intricately linked. In the navigation of irregular and difficult terrain, cockroaches clearly inspire engineers that strive to build mobile robots to traverse variable, rugged landscapes. Neural network research used in the control of robots draws on cockroach neural models to build machines that accurately and quickly navigate complicated, variable environments. Actual living cockroaches are also used in hybrid robotic contexts. From leg kinematics to neural responses, the entire cockroach is embraced by the field of robotics: a field that holds the lowly cockroach in high regard. This chapter is designed to provide a clear overview of existing research in robotics that intertwines with cockroaches. A total of fifteen robot/cockroach papers or projects are reviewed, and are organized in the following categories: Cockroach Mobility Observations for Biomimetic Robotics, Cockroach-mimetic Mobile Robot Implementations, Cockroach-mimetic Neural Networks in Robotics, and Living Cockroaches in Hybrid Robotic Systems.

The seventh section of the text is "Cyborg Embodiment and Hybrid Biomechatronic Devices" looks at current research in actin-myosin robotics, as explored through the Muscle-Powered Fish Robot of Robert G. Dennis (UMich) and Hugh Herr (MIT). This text describes Actin-Myosin Robotics, the team's B1 Biomechatronic Fish, related research in biological (synthetic) prosthetics, and a conclusion that considers living tissues as tools of technology.

"Skeuomorphs of Virtuality: Contemporary Embodiment Beyond Posthumanism" takes aim at key concepts of posthumanism in the eighth chapter. It interprets contemporary views of posthumanism - as described by Katherine Hayles, for example - as being overly influenced by theories of virtuality. This influence impacts contemporary thought on embodiment: the concept that technology has supplanted the human form as the reflective core of the human self is misguided and reminiscent of dotcom dreams of virtual existence. Instead, a view is put forth that sees humans as being consistently hybrid through the course of history: contemporary technology only adds a twist to the age-old narrative of drawing existential meaning from the externally referent.

Ninth, "Beyond Flickering Signifiers: Frissonic Value and Shifting Boundaries in the Context of Contemporary Hybridity" integrates the concept of hybridity into a philosophical context. Within the age of posthumanism - with shifting and abstracted boundaries of humanness - how is one to draw existential value from uncertain hybridity? This chapter continues in assuming that human hybridity is constant, and looks at the psychodynamics of encountering the uncanny. This theory continues from the work of Japanese robotics theorist Mori, who proposed an "uncanny valley" in relation to anthropomorphic robot design, but - this theory is extended to include the region of the posthuman. Out of this a new term is identified - "frissonic value" - which looks at the simultaneous fear/attraction dynamic when encountering hybrid forms of humanity within culture, physical space, our minds.

The text will conclude with a summary and re-integration of key concepts of the chapters.

The end of the document will five appendices: Frequently Asked Questions, Visual Documentation, a "Bookwork" Document, Technical Schematics, and a Video Documentation DVD. The FAQ will provide answers to common questions that arise when demoing the cockroach-controlled robot. Visual Documentation will include high resolution still images, photographic documentation of robot demos, and scanned copies of printed press about the project. The "Bookwork" Document will be a mini-thesis of sorts, and will be produced as a black-and-white hardcopy brochure to accompany robot during demonstration or exhibition. Technical Schematics will provide circuit diagrams of different iterations of the machine, and the DVD will provide a simple narrated overview of the machine, its development and its operation.


THESIS (MANUSCRIPT OUTLINE / TABLE OF CONTENTS - WITH DEADLINES)

THESIS (MANUSCRIPT BIBLIOGRAPHY, IN PROGRESS)

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Lisa Yaszek, The Self Wired: Technology and Subjectivity in Contemporary Narrative (Routledge, 2002).



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