[ExI] Wrestling with Embodiment

[natasha at natasha.cc]

   What the heck is Hayles (How We Became Posthuman) talking about  
when she says that posthumans are disembodied?  I had thought that she  
meant that posthumans will forgo a body to be Moravecean robots.  That  
transhumanists don't give a rat's behind about having any body, not  
even a series of codes that might be interpreted as a platform or  
system.  But when I look at the concept of embodiment it is most  
definitely not Cartesian.  Does it mean that our bodies form us?  That  
our minds are the product of the body?  Certainly this can't be --  
unless one is more artistic and defends perceptions and sensorial  
interpretations of the world far above other cognitive processes  
performed by the brain.

   Embodiment is a big term in the area of human enhancement.  Can  
someone unpack it for me and give me a clear understanding of just  
what it is?  Where did it originate?  Psychology or philosophy?

   Thanks, I am indebted to your cleverness, as I certainly don't have  
any on this.

   Natasha



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