Cyborg She

I had found this movie about a week ago in a very popular movie site for Spanish speakers, the title; My Girlfriend is a Cyborg (also known as Cyborg She). I will not review the whole movie, although, I have to admit that it is hilarious and captivating with a touch of romance and hope. What I will do is make a comparison of the movie using the criteria for human/computer relationship set up by Deborah Lupton.

Before I start my comparison of Cyborg She, I need to talk a little bit about the criteria from which I will be comparing the movie. Deborah Lupton wrote a wonderful article about the human/computer relationship where she claims that computer users have become “disembodied” and that the computers themselves have become “humanized” (Lupton 422-432). Deborah also claims that while many people might be afraid of computers due to their complicated manuals and the security problems created by hackers and computer viruses, there are also those that have created very strong emotional relationships with their computers and now see their computer as part of themselves (Lupton 422-432).

The Cyborg She is a perfect example of what Lupton is taking about in her article. Cyborg She, is the story of a Japanese teenager named Jiro, who establishes a very strong relationship with a female cyborg that has no name (Lance). The cyborg from this movie fits the description for a cyborg that Lupton uses in her article. Cyborg she is “represented as the closest to this ideal that humans may attain, that is a ‘humanoid hybrid’ that melts together computer technology and human flesh” (Lupton 425), you see, this cyborg is “as perfect” as the “dream girl” that Jiro had in mind and is basically a computer (or should I say intelligent device) with organic flesh and titanium bones (Lance).  This female cyborg has a body that is “far stronger than the human body and far less susceptible to injury and pain” just as Lupton had portrayed the cyborg in her article (Lupton 425). The bottle line behind this female cyborg is that she is sent from the future to save and protect Jiro from all kinds of injuries and although she is not capable of repairing herself when she breaks apart in one of the scenes in the movie (as Lupton would have imagined) she is quite strong.

Contrary to what Lupton would have expected from this female cyborg, this female cyborg acts as human, eats as human, drinks as human, I am not sure if she also defecates as human, but I am sure that she also becomes tire as humans do, because every night, she shouts down in “sleeping mode”. She might resemble a human body and might act pretty human at times; however, she does not have a soul and does not have feelings. Jiro, spending so much time with “her” slowly becomes impressed with this “girl” and starts feeling a strong attraction to her, not only physically, but also emotionally. In her article, Lupton had mentioned that sometimes the human/computer relationship can become “romantic, sexual or marital,” however, in this movie this was not the case, not because Jiro didn’t wanted to, but because the cyborg didn’t allowed him to (Lupton 426).

Close the end of the film, Jiro becomes tired of waiting for the cyborg to have emotional feelings towards him and starts disliking the “super” human powers that his cyborg had, supporting Lupton’s idea that at times, technology is so impressive that it simply becomes scary.

Works Consulted

"Cyborg She (teaser 1) English Sub." YouTube. Web. 23 Sep 2010. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKPCBoCORj8>.

Lance . "Cyborg She (My Girlfriend is a Cyborg) Review." Amped Asia. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Sep 2010. <http://www.ampedasia.com/movies/Cyborg-She/>.

Lupton, Deborah. "The Embodied Computer/User.” The Cybercultures Reader. David Bell and Barbara M Kennedy. New York: Routledge, 2000. Print.

Part II: Digital Diversity and Me

I have learned quite a bit in this course, but since I am planning on becoming a teacher, the most useful thing that I have learned is about the digital divide and the effects we, future teachers, have on closing or increasing the gap. The phrase that has had a great impact on me and how I view the digital divide comes from the source Mind the Gap. In his article, Carving stated that “internet access in schools isn’t worth a hill of beans if teachers aren’t prepared to take full advantage of technology” and I could agree with him more. It doesn’t really matter if a school has access to impressive technologies if the teachers are not prepared or simply prefer not to use this technology to teach children. This ideology that access to technology solves the digital divide is wrong, because access does not help when pedagogy gets in the way. It reminds me of a video I saw a couple of years ago, tittled A Vision of K-12 Students Today, in which it mentions that teachers who prevent K-12 students from using technologies in the classroom, are preventing them from exploring and learning from a world that gives them tons of possibilities for self-growth.  

Works consulted

"A Vision of K-12 Students Today." YouTube. Web. 23 Sep 2010. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A-ZVCjfWf8>.

Carvin, Andy. "Mind the Gap: The Digital Divide as the Civil Rights Issue of the New Millennium." MultiMedia & Internet @ Schools. MultiMedia Schools, January/February 2000. Web. 23 Sep 2010. http://www.infotoday.com/MMSchools/Jan00/carvin.htm