Cyborgs, robotics, AI, and the future of gender, the fact that it does have a body with which it can interact with the world

In “Is the post-human a post-woman” defines posthumanism as post-humanism and post-anthropocentrism. Similarly, post-genderism “refers to a hypothetical phase of the future during which the human sexual difference might be voluntarily overcome through the application of advanced biotechnologies.” it is concerned with how epistemological approaches “adopted in the fields of cyborg, robotics, AI, and the futures of gender.”

In particular, it was addressed the question of whether gender notions have become obsolete in the face of  Cyborgs, robotics, AI, and the future of gender which operates outside of the “sexual paradigm.” The methodology has a distinct futures history flavor; following in the tradition “visions make it possible to create a future that is different from the present although its seeds are in the present. To think about the futures might contribute to their emergence.”

The target for these scenarios is feminist epistemology. Grist for the paper comes in the form of interview and questionnaire responses according to which, for example, cyborgs are typically thought of as genderless or male, and never as female, by the majority of respondents.

The worry is, even in a society expunged of the biological or physiological relevance of sex, the “hermeneutical” role of gender will still have a relevant legacy. This could be expressed through the identity formation of artificial intelligence, and the relationship of humans to machines.

Its field of interest stretches from the critique of humanism and anthropocentrism, Cyborgs, robotics, AI, and the future of gender and the evolution of the species, as it necessarily relates to Futures Studies. Informed by Social Constructivism and Feminist Epistemology, among other reflective frames, Posthumanism is aware of how science is a constitutive aspect of the human cultural domain, and shares its situated beliefs and inherited biases.

The perception of knowledge as a performative process constantly reshaping itself radically differs from a fixed notion based on an objective reality that only needs to be discovered. Such a processual perception of knowledge production was emphasized in the humanities through the postmodern shift and has been differently engaged upon by the “hard” sciences.

The relation between gender, technology, embodiment, and possible futures. One could argue that a major input for such a reformulation came from the field of Physics, starting with the theory of general relativity, passing through Quantum Mechanics. However, at present, scientists and philosophers generally work separately on related subjects, only to meet each other on the battlefield of bioethics.

 Reflecting on Cyborgs, robotics, AI, and the future of gender within a posthuman paradigm, the need to create a dialogue with the researchers directly involved in designing some of the technological futures. Such a move generated a highly productive exchange. Presenting the results of the investigation, the work of Kevin Warwick, to better comprehend why it was decided to focus in this specific direction.

Kevin Warwick:

Kevin Warwick is known to be the first human being to have a microchip inserted in his body; he has also been considered the first cyborg, robotics, AI, and the future of gender because he used the technologies currently available not only to restore lost human functions (such as sight, hearing, or motor action of a limb) but to enable new capacities that no human had previously experienced. Warwick gained worldwide notoriety through the series of experiments known as “Project Cyborg” (1998–2002). In the first one “Cyborg I” (1998), he inserted a microchip under the skin.

The signal was picked up by a computer on his arrival at the building of Cybernetics, it was set to open doors, turn on the lights and read his e-mails. The second and most famous experiment dates back to 2002 when a one hundred electrode array was surgically implanted into the median nerve fibers of his left arm. The implant connected Warwick’s nervous system to the internet, producing a series of groundbreaking results.