Ablism has always been part of our culture. It was more than discrimination or prejudice. Disability was seen as a collective conundrum that the ancient civilizations had to overcome with brute force. It was inseparable from the cultural-social development. It is often easy to critique the immorality of the antecedents from a modern perspective without acknowledging the nuanced reasons and backgrounds of the time. The poor conditions in the past gave natural survival disadvantage the the ones disabled. In the Oligocene epoch, it is a reality that the apes blind or deaf will die due to food shortage or predators. Aristotle says that “those born deaf become senseless and incapable of reason.” In the past when there were no hearing aids, being deaf naturally hindered a person from debating or learning orally. It is therefore unsurprising that in the New Testament, there is an emphasis on cure and healing, as disabled people become the focus of Christ’s miracles. In a sense, it was the “natural selection” that defined what was able and what was disabled in the ante-modern era.
In this way, Ableism in its basics, is the “fit” to the society. The completeness of the body is often seen as the suitable body that suits society. This was the reason why disabled people were discriminated against. They were unfit. However, now, in an era where technology melds seamlessly with human faculties, the binary distinction between 'abled' and 'disabled' dissolves, revealing a tapestry of human interaction that defies conventional classifications. Drawing upon Marshall McLuhan's conceptualization of technology as an extension of human senses and functions—where wheels augment our mobility, books extend our vision, and computers amplify our cognitive capacities—the traditional paradigm of 'fixing' individuals based on a presumed normative standard is not only outdated but fundamentally flawed. We are in a world enriched with prostheses, where abilities arrive from mechanical, machinery. The orientation of the organic flesh is replaced by the kaleidoscopic use of the artificial. In this light, the very notion of being 'equipped' or 'unequipped' becomes an archaic relic of a bygone era.
The Prosthetic Culture - Posthumanism
At the heart of understanding the intersection between technology and disability lies Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan's seminal idea that "the medium is the massage." “Massage” here originally was a typo as to “message” but McLuhan left it like thus as a metaphorical meaning that the media is physically massaging our natural senses to the world of reality. This concept implies that the form of the medium itself - the television, the internet, or social media - has a profound influence on the culture and message we deliver, and even transcends the message itself. The medium molds the information and our sensory engagement with the world, shaping the interaction between us and reality. For instance, the shift from print to television altered not just how information was consumed but also the pace, pattern, and emotional engagement with that information, encouraging a more passive and visually oriented consumption. Similarly, the advent of the internet and social media has transformed the scale of information exchange and the nature of social interactions, creating a more interconnected yet potentially fragmented digital landscape. In summary, the medium “massages” our neural sensory apparatus, molding the way we see, hear, and feel - our abilities.
The discourse of “the medium is the massage” extends to which the additional medium becomes our prosthetics or extended organs. The purpose of our organs is our pristine medium for access to reality. As the insurgence of technologies reestablish our senses, or even become our senses, they become extended organs of ours. “The wheel… is an extension of the foot. The book… is an extension of the eye… Clothing, an extension of the skin… Electric circuitry, an extension of the central nervous system.” The technologies have changed our cultural sensory system so far that it has become our new sensory system. They are coherently embedded in our daily lives and transcend merely disposable objects. The removable nature of these technologies establishes an era of prosthetics.
Prosthetics are becoming our new flesh. Traditionally, prosthetics served as functional enhancements, distinctly distinct from the organic body, purposed to augment human abilities. However, this clear demarcation between the flesh and the artificial is becoming increasingly blurred. Drawing from French Philosopher Jean Baudrillard’s concept of simulacra, wherein replicas no longer simply represent reality but start to constitute and replace it, prosthetics now are becoming the simulacra of human flesh. For instance, eyeglasses, once mere tools for vision correction, now become our vision of this world, embodying a new layer of reality that supersedes the biological function of eyes. With the advent of VR or AR technologies, along with prospective neural enhancements, the definition of organs is no longer situated within the traditional sense, ushering in a posthuman epoch characterized by an inseparable fusion of biology and technology.
In the age of posthumanism, prosthetics become a culture, and we become prosthetics. The seminal concept of posthumanism was first coincided with by postmodern theorist Ihab Hassan in an article entitled “Prometheus as Performer: Towards a Posthumanist Culture?”. One key idea in the domain of posthumanism is the metaphor of the cyborg. Illustrated by Donna Haraway, the posthuman condition of the machine-human symbiosis is different from the ones in science fiction. The cyborg in science fiction is in the realm of transhuman which refers to a condition that extends from the humanism ideals rather than redefining humanism. On the other hand, posthumanism in its foundation is a deconstruction of humanism. It spontaneously rejects anthropocentric and cartesian dualism and recognizes the diversity of the prosthetics. The cyborg machine-human symbiosis becomes the new culture.
Ubiquitousness of Disabilities
The prosthetic culture fundamentally changed the distinction between the “abled” and “disabled” groups. The abled group utilizes technological prosthetics to enhance their capabilities. Since the Industrial Revolution, new advances in technologies have improved human conditions significantly. Not only limited to the physical sense, but it has also enhanced human culture and and cognitives through the advent of social media or iPhones. In parallel, since the invention of glasses, prosthetics also improved disabled people and drastically changed their social conditions. The difference between the prosthetics used for disabilities and those used for enhancing beyond abilities has become increasingly elusive. For instance, glasses are not only used by the myopia but could also be by the abled in movies for 3d purposes. It ultimately questions the disabilities’ nature.
Disability is the unextended. Traditionally, disabilities have been perceived as the natural counterpart to abilities, creating a dichotomy between what is considered 'normal' and 'impaired.' However, the rapid development and integration of advanced technologies, particularly in the realm of prosthetics, are challenging and reshaping our conventional perceptions of disability and ability. Modern prosthetics not only extend the functional capabilities of the human body but also blur the lines between biological and artificial, making the distinction between 'natural' body parts and 'engineered' enhancements increasingly ambiguous. As these prosthetic devices become more sophisticated and seamlessly integrated, resembling and functioning like natural limbs, the concept of disability shifts. It is no longer merely the absence or limitation in physical capability but is redefined by the extent to which one's body has not been augmented or extended by technology. In this new context, the 'unextended' or non-augmented parts of the body are viewed through a lens of potential enhancement, and thus, the traditional concept of disability transforms into a discussion about the boundaries of human augmentation.
Disability is universally embedded in our society. In the era of the posthuman, where humans are becoming cyborgs, there is always the possibility to be extended further. More extensions are unextended from us either physically or chronically. Thus, everyone is essentially unextended. This concept of extension and its limitations is poignantly illustrated through the life and work of Jillian Weise, a vanguard in the discourse on disability and technology. Weise, who embraces the identity of a cyborg, exemplifies the nuanced interplay between technology and the human body. Her prosthetic leg, a marvel of modern engineering, serves as a tangible extension of her physical self, much akin to the way bicycles and automobiles extend our innate capacity for mobility. It signifies the collective anthropological effort to break the speed limit of organic nature. The presence of Weise is indistinguishable not physically but culturally. Her entanglement with the physical prosthetics unequivocally manifests the same kind of cyborg as the society. She herself before extended, therefore, is as disabled as the others before stepping onto bicycles or cars. Fundamentally, both types utilized additional fragments to enhance their capabilities, approximating the posthuman, making disability ubiquitous in society.
The omnipresence of disability extirpates its presence. Posthumanism has brought a new form of culture to us and nullifies the concept of disability. The narratives in Ghost in the Shell, for instance, explore the complex interactions between humans and non-humans without necessarily seeking to resolve these interactions but rather to highlight the diverse possibilities they represent. The anime explores the ultimate posthumanism that our society is evolving into. In its world view, prosthetics aren’t limited to the cultural sense, but instead evolved toward the physical sense. For example, the protagonist, Major Motoko Kusanagi replaced her organic “abled” body with physical prosthetics, illustrating the complete abandonment of ability defined by the natural organic flesh. The film further delves into the nuances of this posthuman reality by exploring the implications of 'cyber brains'—artificial yet functional brains that allow individuals to connect to networks and other beings seamlessly. Along with the idea of “Ghost Hacking,” the film demonstrates that ultimately, in the world of the cyborg, all human natural abilities, including the brain, are universally disabled in comparison to the vast potency of the prosthetics.
Conclusion
The culture of prosthetics creates the momentum dragging our society toward the posthuman. Although currently we are not precisely physically simulated to artificial cyborgs, we are culturally indistinguishable from the artificials. Projecting to the future, it is only a matter of time before we are also physically simulated by the machinery. In 2024, Elon Musk’s Neuralink had its first patient, and its ambition is way beyond just helping disabled groups. Neuralink aims to establish the direct control of the prosthetics from the brain, and it signals an entering into posthumanism.
In conclusion, the “fix” to disabilities is the same as the use of technology. When one incorporates the idea of “fix” to the disabled group, it applies to everyone in our society. To fix an unextended person, it is to extend that person, which is also the introduction of technology, and the transformation to the posthuman. Directionally speaking, the dichotomy of the abled and the disabled has been replaced by the collective effort or momentum toward the endless extensions of human capabilities. The result of the civil rights movement today is an inevitable epistemological deconstruction that derived from the evolution of the anthropological natural selection toward artificial selection. It is an O’Henry Ending for the millennial mankind Saga.
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