Class Reflection September 11 2008

Building upon what Kaleigh had said, I think that it is important to acknowledge the disconnect that exists between (wo)man and nature. We have been living under the false pretense that nature is at our disposal to be poked and prodded. Our relationship with nature consists of a lot of take and not enough give, we are now beginning to see the consequences of this mentality, our glaciers are melting and 1/3 of our wildlife species are dying. We will soon no longer have the option to think of the natural environment as separate from our day-to-day experience, instead, we will look to nature to dictate our designs.

This being said, I do not feel that our reliance on technology or, “machines”, to drive our day to day existence needs to be called into question. Technology has allowed us to progress in ways that would have been unthinkable even 25 years ago. Perhaps much of our existence is being shaped by machines, but if we are able to find a way to work these machines into the natural fabric of our ecosystems than we will really prove our human intelligence.

Class 1 September 11, 2008

Humans Today as Cyborgs

Many questions were raised in the first lecture about if humans today are more machine than natural. Upon reflection of my own life and my day to day activities, I would have to agree that I am more machine. Everything manufactured in my home was created by machines; food processed by machines, the clothes I wear sewn together with the use of machines. Instead of trying to fight against this identity of cyborg and trying to relinquish our practical needs (where in the end we end up feeling guilty about the way we live). There should be an acceptance of the idea so that we can move forward to seek solutions that are adaptive to our lifestyle. We need to seek solutions that are beyond the bare minimum of sustaining, solutions that can sustain our culture as well.

-Judith

Class Reflections: September 11, 2008

A point that I found particularly significant was that of the separation between the human landscape and the natural landscape. Where does the human realm begin and where does nature end, and further, why consider the two as separate from one another at all? The separation that I am referring to is both a psychological one and a physical one, where humans have become so far disconnected from nature that instead of supporting it, we have adopted this sense of ownership over it. There is no boundary or limit as to what we can conquer, we infiltrate and transform the natural landscapes in order to support our own ever-growing needs while losing sight of the interconnectedness that both human and natural systems possess. A shift in how we perceive these natural spaces is needed, while abandoning the idea of "non-human" spaces so to acknowledge them as they really are. There is so much that we can learn from the earth simply by being aware of it's presence amongst us, and if we are to even come close to touching on the notion of sustainability, we must do so collectively with the planet.