Socializing the Cyborg Self Review

Socializing the Cyborg Self talks about modern technologies used in the Gulf War, and how they have desensitized the soldiers (and even the civilians) to killing. Because the modern soldier only sees the enemy on a computer screen and can kill them with the push of a button, warfare is becoming more and more impersonal. When in the past you looked your enemy in the eye as you gutted him with your sword or shoot him with your flint-lock rifle from a few meters away, it is now possible to kill someone without them even knowing it until it is too late. This becomes even more apparent when seen through the context of digital entertainment, especially through video and computer games. Not only do today's soldiers deliver death with a joystick at home, they do the same at work, albeit with more permanent results. The similarity between actual warfare and entertainment warfare on the computer becomes especially apparent in the best selling shooter game Modern Warfare, specifically the mission "Death from Above." In this particular assignment, you play the gunner of an AC-130 gunship, a large jet airplane equipped with long range cannons. The player sees the world below through a grainy black and white heat filter, where all targets stand out as white silhouettes from a darker background,visually indistinguishable from an actual airplane targeting screen. Your only objective in this mission is to quite literally deliver "death from above." As you blow up house after house and see the little silhouettes flying through the air, you hear the other occupants of the plane remarking on your shooting with comments along the lines of "Nice shot!", "You got five on one hit," and "Did you see that car get blown up?" When I played this mission, I could almost hear real soldiers flying above a real battlefield say those exact same things as they indiscriminately kill dozens of people by pushing a button thousands of meters away. Killing is no longer a humanizing business. Everyone can do it these days without even knowing the difference between shooting at an AI in a game and shooting a human being in a real conflict.