I know that with new technologies and as Hayles noted, machines are taking place of human work, it is easy to get excited about the notion of the posthuman. What Hayles fails to mention in this particular reading, though, is that of the heart, emotion and mind. I find it discerning and a little scary, frankly, that someone is excited about the prospext of being replaces by something mechanic. The one thing that has remained consistent in my mind is a pulse. Living, breathing. When we talk of cybernetics, sure, we can talk about where the mind can take us, but what about our hearts? I’d rather have a big heart than be able to complete every task in the world as quickly and efficiently as possible. Maybe that’s just because that is the kind of person I am now.

When Hayles does mention feeling, it is in reference to desire. I live for desire. Is she saying that if we are one day machines we will lack desire and therefore never feel empty? Touch any machine and tell me whether or not you can feel warmth…not the kind emanating from a hot battery. This actually reminds me of a machine that I heard about where you can hook it up to your computer, and it sexually stimulates you. Like a vibrator that the person on the other side of the computer, the person you are talking to, has control over. One could argue that there is a machine separating what two minds want the other to feel. Somehow this might be gratifying but in the end, it’s only fantasy, and it’s still just a machine. You can’t lay down with the machine and cuddle with it. You’re left still fantasizing. So even if we did advance into being machines or living solely through machines or depending on machines…I think we would lose touch with the reality of our selves and the real human beings around us.

There is no “workable” solution for extreme feelings, for hurt, pain, and those linked to romance and sexuality. Not everything can be fixed with equations, not everything is that simple. Machines can’t tell us everything. There are a lot of people out there who think that there is an answer to everything, that there is always a solution. But sometimes you have to just deal with what is going on. This reminds me of how trapped I feel when I am in Second Life. Even when I have feelings of discomfort or unease, I feel trapped because I can’t express that to the person who is there. The can’t see the real look on my face…this is also the case with any sort of machine that mediates conversation, such as a telephone, a cell phone, text messaging…Text messaging in particular because we try to use smilie faces and punctuations to get feelings across That wink, right there one who I reading this may have had a change of heart about my reading from, “Wow, this girl is taking this way too seriously” to “oh, she is just messing around. If however, I ended it with ! my audience would think that I was pissed. So, instead, I’ll keep it frank and honest without too much feeling and end it with a .

Back to the posthuman…Hayles says that the posthuman is not the end of humanity, it doesn’t have to be the antihuman, but I guess that is the way that I take it.  And why should anyone be excited about that? I am all for continuing with developing technologies, and progressing forward, even to make life a bit easier, but to suggest that machines will completely take over is a bit extreme. I also acknowledge that thinking can be shared by both human and computer…but feelings and answers to what happens in our hearts cannot.