week 6 lecture questions

 
QUESTIONS FOR DAI227 WEEK 6 LECTURE

1) Steve Mann describes his wearable computer invention as a form of ________ for one person (fill in the blank)
(see youtube link to Mann interview in web resource page)

Inverse surveillance.

2) Steve Mann's concept of opposing camera surveillance with "Sousveillance" is described as a form of “reflectionism”. What is meant by this?
(in ReadingsF)

Reflectionism is a term coined by Steve Mann. Reflectionism is the practice of surveilling those who practice surveillance, or to mirror the behavior of bureaucratic institutions that regularly surveil everyone passing through their buildings.


3) In the section of "Sousveillance" called "Performance Two" Steve Mann describes how wearing his concealed device becomes more complex when used in what type of spaces?

Wearing the wearable computer with video camera glasses becomes more complex for Steve Mann in spaces such as a shopping mall which he defines as a semi-public space. The potential for confrontation increases relative to the amount the area is being surveilled.

4) The final paragraph sums up what Mann considers the benefits of "sousveillance" and "coveillance". What are they?
(ReadingsF)

Mann feels that “sousveillance” is a liberating act that disrupts the power relationship of surveillance, restoring a balance that levels the surveillance playing field.

5) In William J Mitchell's 1995 book "City of Bits" in the chapter "Cyborg Citizens", he puts forth the idea that electronic organs as they shrink and become more part of the body will eventually resemble what types of familiar items?
(ReadingsF)

Pieces of clothing.





6) From the same book/chapter, list two of the things that a vehicle that 'knows where it is' might afford the driver & passengers.
(ReadingsF)

1. Could calculate efficient routes from origin to destination.
2. Could keep driver appraised of current traffic conditions.

7) Mitchell tells the story of Samuel Morse's first Washington-to-Baltimore telegraph message. What was it?
(ReadingsF)

The message was “What hath God wrought?”

8) Donna Harroway in "A Cyborg Manifesto" argues that women should take the "battle to the border". What does she say are the stakes in this border war?
(in ReadingsF)

The territories of production, reproduction, and imagination.

9) Harroway posits the notion that:
"We require regeneration, not rebirth, and the possibilities for our reconstitution include the utopian dream"
What is this dream?
(in ReadingsF)

The hope for a monstrous world without gender.

10) Many have argued that 'we are already cyborgs' as we use devices such as glasses to improve our vision, bikes to extend the mobility function of our legs/bodies etc, computers and networks to extend the nervous system etc. What do you think? Are we cyborgs?
(one paragraph)

My definition of cyborg is an organic life form with some internal synthetic parts. External synthetic parts I would define as tools, made by man for the use of man. Man with pacemaker - maybe he’s a cyborg. Man with bicycle - a man riding a machine.