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Queering Cognition: Extended Minds and Sociotechnologically Hybridized Gender Michele Merritt University of South Florida

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Queering Cognition: Extended Minds and Sociotechnologically Hybridized Gender Michele Merritt University of South Florida University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 10-14-2010 Queering Cognition: Extended Minds and Sociotechnologically Hybridized Gender Michele Merritt University of South Florida Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the American Studies Commons Scholar Commons Citation Merritt, Michele, "Queering Cognition: Extended Minds and Sociotechnologically Hybridized Gender" (2010). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/3627 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Queering Cognition: Extended Minds and Sociotechnologically Hybridized Gender by Michele Merritt A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Philosophy College of Arts and Sciences University of South Florida Co-Major Professor: Rebecca Kukla, Ph.D. Co-Major Professor: Shaun Gallagher, Ph.D. Alex Levine, Ph.D. Thomas Williams, Ph.D. Andy Clark, Ph.D. Date of Approval: October 14, 2010 Keywords: Embodied Cognition, Extended Cognition, Embodiment, Queer Theory, Technology, Cyborgs, Feminist Theory Copyright © 2010, Michele Merritt Dedication I dedicate this dissertation to Ellen Wagner, my mentor and friend, who continues to show me what it means to persevere in the face of adversity. Thank you for believing in me all those many years ago and for remaining one of my biggest fans. I would also like to thank my committee members, both for their academic and emotional support. Without all of your insights, criticism, and most importantly, your belief in my project, I could never have accomplished this. In addition to those in academia for whom I am grateful, I would also like to thank my family. There is no way on earth I would have had the courage and strength to undertake all of this work without your love, and on many occasions, your financial support. And to all of my friends – a.k.a. my ―extended family‖ – it has meant so much to me to have you in my life. I never have and never will underestimate the value of ―down time.‖ If one must procrastinate and goof off from time to time, I can think of no other people with whom I‘d rather engage in such silliness. Last, I want to thank anyone who did not believe in me. Without you, I would have no one to prove wrong. Table of Contents List of Figures .................................................................................................................... iii Abstract .................................................................................................................... iv Introduction ......................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1: From Encapsulated to Extended: Situating Cognition over the Last Fifty Years .......................................................12 1.1 Introduction ..........................................................................................12 1.2 Something on the State of the Parts .....................................................14 1.3 The Virtues (and Vices) of Token Physicalism ...................................24 1.4 Embodiment, Cognition and Artificial Intelligence.............................36 1.5 Conclusion: On the Path to Extended Minds .......................................48 Chapter 2: A Decade of Dissent: Defending and Re-Defending the Extended Mind.................................................54 2.1 Introduction ..........................................................................................54 2.2 Non-Derived Content ...........................................................................58 2.3 Kinds of Causes ...................................................................................65 2.4 HOC: Moderate Resolution or Hasty Retreat? ....................................74 2.5 Conclusion: Problematizing Subjectivity is Everybody‟s Concern .....................................................................78 Chapter 3: Not Just Anybody: Bodies, Embodiment, Embodied Subjectivity ......................................................81 3.1 Introduction ..........................................................................................81 3.2 Having Anybody, Being Somebody ....................................................83 3.3 Bodily Breakdowns ..............................................................................92 3.3.1 Deafferentation: The Story of Ian Waterman .......................93 3.3.2 Phantom Limbs .....................................................................98 3.3.3 Somatoparaphrenia .............................................................103 3.3.4 Anarchic Hand (or Limb) Syndrome ..................................106 3.3.5 Möbius Syndrome ...............................................................107 3.4 Toward a Phenomenology of Bodily Having ....................................109 3.5 Ownership and Agency at the Reflective and Pre-reflective Levels ............................................110 3.6 Conclusion: Soft-Assembled Subjects ...............................................115 i Chapter 4: Sexing Embodiment: The Phenomenology of Gender, Sex, and Sexuality ...........................................119 4.1 Introduction ........................................................................................119 4.2 Lived Bodies and Lifeworlds .............................................................123 4.3 Girl Bodies .........................................................................................130 4.4 Sexed Schemas? .................................................................................147 Chapter 5: Transgressed Binaries: Body Image and Subjectivity in Transgender Embodiment ................................157 5.1 Introduction ........................................................................................157 5.2 Inner Selves, Outer Bodies, and the Construction of a Disorder ...........................................................161 5.3 Queer Theory and the Figure of the Transgender Body ....................171 5.4 Imagining the Transgender Body.......................................................183 Chapter 6: The Technology of Queered Cognition..........................................................195 6.1 Introduction ........................................................................................195 6.2 (Ex)Change Artists and Bodily Queering ..........................................198 6.3 Hard and Soft, Opaque and Transparent: Technology Above and Below the Radar ....................................206 6.4 The Ultimate Artifact .........................................................................213 6.5 When One is Too Few and Two is Too Many: Haraway‘s Cyborg .......................................................................218 6.6 The Sociotechnological Hybridization of Gender and the Construction of Human Nature .......................................223 Conclusion: Post Cyborgs? ..............................................................................................230 Works Cited ......................................................................................................233 ii List of Figures Figure 1.1: Depiction of Heider and Simmel Experiment .................................................20 Figure 1.2: Rodney Brooks and Cog..................................................................................41 Figure 1.3: Cog‘s Hand Prototype .....................................................................................41 Figure 1.4: Kismet ........................................................................................................43 Figure 1.5 Leonardo ........................................................................................................43 Figure 1.6: Boston Dynamics ―Big Dog‖ ..........................................................................45 Figure 6.1: The Many Faces of Orlan ..............................................................................198 Figure 6.2: Stelarc‘s Third Ear.........................................................................................202 Figure 6.3 MIT‘s ―Sixth Sense‖.......................................................................................202 iii Abstract In the last forty years, significant developments in neuroscience, psychology, and robotic technology have been cause for major trend changes in the philosophy of mind. One such shift has been the reallocation of focus from entirely brain-centered theories of mind to more embodied, embedded, and even extended answers to the questions, what are cognitive processes and where do we find such phenomena? Given that hypotheses such as Clark and Chalmers‘ (1998) Extended Mind or Hutto‘s (2006) Radical Enactivism, systematically undermine the organism-bound, internal, and static pictures of minds and allow instead for the distribution of cognitive processes among brains, bodies, and worlds, a worry that arises is that the very subject of cognitive science, the ‗cognizer‘ will be hopelessly opaque, its mind leaking out into the world all over the place, thereby making it impossible to rein in and properly study. A seemingly unrelated
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