.

tA

6
Donna J. Haraway 7
A CyborgManifesto d

9
(1985;1991) 40
I

LiterarytheoristDonnaHaraway(b. 1944)berongsto a schoolof thought

knownas post-structuralism,
a philosophical
and literarytheorydatingfrom A
T

5
6
6. PPEP is an acronlrmfor smallestgap, or "plus petit €cart possible-,'[Trans.] AA
 M A s _ 5 0 15 x- 0 4 - ch 2 3 p 1 9 4 - 4 7 5 - v2 .q xd 9/6/Og 3:30 AM P age 456

456 . Ar t if ic ial Lif e: C r i t i c a l C o n t e x t s

I seetraditionalWesternrationalistphilosophy
the late 1960s.Post-structuralists
z as a flawedsystembasedon dichotomies - pairedsetsof oppositeconcepts
3 suchasWhite/Black, male/female, andhuman/machine - that arepresented
+ asnaturaltruthsbut that arein factfictionaloppositions that serveto heighten
5 the statusof one termoverthe other,Post-structuralist theoryseeksto under-
o mineoppressive powerrelationsby showinghow thesedichotomies arefalse
7 and alwaysbreakdown undercloseexamination. ln thisinfluentialessay,
B Harawayproposes the ideaof the cyborg- an amalgamof humanand
9 machine, biologicalandmechanical-asthe modelfor a newform of con-
l0 sciousness and politicalactivism.Thecyborgfor Harawayrepresents a hybrid,
I or mixed,stateof being- a morecomplex, ambiguous, andfluididentitythat
z canfreeusfrom the tyrannyof binaryoppositions in our politicaland personal
5 relationships.Likemanypost-structuralist critics,Harawayusesa denseand
4 challenging prosestylethat mayseemdauntingat first,but readerswho are
5 willingto suspenddisbelief will soonbeginto enjoythe audacityand evocative
6 forceof her metaphors andwill discover,as her keytermsgraduallygainreso-
7 nanceand poweroverthe courseof the text,that sheis a poetas muchas a
B philosopher.
9 Theinterplayof textualreferences is an essential elementof Haraway's
20 writing,but canbe dauntingfor the generalreader. Accordingly,someof
I Haraway's footnoteshavebeeneditedfor thisedition,with the intentof keep-
2 ing the focuson Haraway's own argumentwhilestillconveying a senseof the
5 richcounterpoint thesereferences provide.
4
AN IRONIC DREAM OF A COMMON LANGUAGE FOR WOMEN
6
IN THE INTEGRATEDCIRCUIT
7
a This chapteris an efTortto build an ironic political myth faithful to femi-
o nism, socialism,and materialism,Perhapsmore faithful as blasphemyis
30 faithful, than asreverentworshipand identification.Blasphemyhasalways
I seemedto require taking thingsvery seriously.I know no better stanceto
1
adopt from within the secular-religious, evangelicaltraditions of United
Statespolitics,includingthe politicsof socialistfeminism.Blasphemy pro-
4 tects one from the moral majoritywithin, while still insistingon the need
for community.Blasphemyis not apostasy.Irony is about contradictions
that do not resolveinto largerwholes,evendialectically,about the tension
7 of holding incompatiblethings togetherbecauseboth or all are necessary
8 and true. Irony is abouthumor and seriousplay.It is alsoa rhetoricalstrat-
9 egy and a political method, one I would like to see more honoredwithin
40 socialist-feminism. At the center of my ironic faith, my blasphemy,is the
I imageof the cyborg.
2 A cyborgis a cyberneticorganism,a hybrid of machine and organism,
a creatureof socialreality as well as a creatureof fiction. Socialreality is
4 lived socialrelations,oui most important political construction,,
5 changingfiction. The internationa]women'smovementshave constructed -oild-
6 "women'sexperience,"as well as uncoveredor discoveredthis crucial col-
47 lective object. This experienceis a fiction and fact of the most crucial,
M A S _ 5 0 1 5 X_ 0 4 _ ch 2 4 p 7 9 4 _ 4 1 5 _ v2 .q xd 9/6/0A 3:30 AM P ase 45?

Haraway: A Cyborg Manifesto . 457

political kind. Liberationrests on the constructionof the consciousness, I

the imaginativeapprehension,of oppression,and so of possibility.The 2
cyborgis a matter of fiction and lived experiencethat changeswhat counts a
-)
aswomen'sexperiencein the late twentiethcentury.This is a struggleover 4
life and death,but the boundarybetweensciencefiction and socialreality 5
is an optical illusion. 6
Contemporarysciencefiction is full of cyborgs- creaturessimulta- 7
neouslyanimal and machine,who populate worlds ambiguouslynatural B
and crafted.Modem medicineis alsofull of cyborgs,of couplingsbetween 9
organismand machine,each conceivedas coded devices,in an intimacy t0
and with a power that wasnot generatedin the historyof sexuality.Cyborg I
"sex"restoressomeof the lovelyreplicativebaroqueof fems and inverte- z
brates (such nice organic prophylacticsagainst heterosexism).Cyborg 3
replicationis uncoupledfrom organicreproduction.Modern production 4
seemslike a dream of cyborgcolonizationwork, a dream that makesthe 5
nightmare of Taylorismseem idyllic. And modern war is a cyborg orgy, 6
codedby C3l, command-control-communication-intelligence, an $84 bil- 7
lion item in l9B4's U.S. defensebudget.I am makingan argumentfor the B
cyborgas a fiction mappingour socialand bodily reality and as an imagi- 9
nativeresourcesuggesting someveryfruitful couplings.Michael Foucault's 2A
biopoliticsis a flaccid premonitionof cyborgpolitics,a very open field. I
By the late twentieth century our time, a mythic time, we are all 2
chimeras,theorizedand fabricatedhybrids of machine and organism;in 5
short, we are cyborgs.The cyborgis our ontolory; it givesus our politics. 4
The cyborgis a condensedimageof both imaginationand materialreality, 5
the two joined centersstructuringany possibilityof historicaltransforma- 6
tion. In the traditionsof "Western"scienceand politics- the tradition of 7
racist,male-dominantcapitalism;the traditionof progress;the tradition of B
the appropriationof natureas resourcefor the productionsof culture; the 9
traditionof reproductionof the self from the reflectionsof the other - the 30
relationbetweenorganismand machinehasbeen a borderwar.The stakes I
in the border war have been the territoriesof production,reproduction, 2
and imagination.This chapteris an argumentfor pleasurein the confusion J

of boundariesand for responsibility in their construction.It is alsoan effort 4

to contribute to socialist-feministculture and theory in a postmodernist, 5
non-naturalistmode and in the utopian tradition of imagining a world 6
without gender,which is perhapsa world without genesis,but maybealso 7
a world without end. The cyborgincamation is outside salvationhistory. B
Nor doesit mark time on an oedipalcalendar,attemptingto heal the ter- 9
rible cleavagesof genderin an oral symbioticutopia or post-oedipalapoc- 40
alypse.AsZne Sofoulisarguesin her unpublishedmanuscripton Jacques I
Lacan,Melanie Klein, and nuclearculture,Laclzlein,the most terribleand 2
perhapsthe most promisingmonstersin cyborgworlds are embodiedin 5
non-oedipalnarrativeswith a different logic of repression,which we need .}
n

to understandfor our survival. 5

The cyborgis a creaturein a post-genderworld; it has no truck with 6
bisexuality,pre-oedipalsymbiosis,unalienatedlabor,or other seductionsto 47
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4 5B . Ar t if ic ial Liie: C r i t i c a l C o n t e x t s

I organicwholenessthrough a final appropriationof all the powers of the

2 parts into a higher unity. In a sense,the cyborghas no origin story in the
1
J Western sense- a "final" irony since the cyborgis also the awful apoca-
A
a lyptic telosof the "West's"escalatingdominationsof abstractindividuation,
5 an ultimate self untied at lastfrom all dependency, a man in space.An ori-
6 gin story in the "Western," humanist sense depends on the myth of origi-
7 nal unity, fullness,bliss,and terro! representedby the phallic mother from
B whom all humansmust separate,the task of individual developmentand
q
of history the twin potent myths inscribedmost powerfullyfor us in psy-
l0 choanalysisand Marxism.Hilary Klein has arguedthat both Marxism and
I psychoanalysis, in their conceptsof labor and of individuationand gender
z formation, dependon the plot of original unity out of which difference
must be producedand enlisted in a drama of escalatingdomination of
4 woman/nature.The cyborgskipsthe step of originalunity,of identification
5 with nature in the Western sense.This is its illegitimatepromise that
6 might lead to subversionof its teleologyas StarWars.
7 The cyborgis resolutelycommitted to partiality,irony,intimacy,and
B perversity.It is oppositional,utopian,and completelywithout innocence.
9 No longer structuredby the polarity of public and private, the cyborg
20 definesa technologicalpolis basedpartly on a revolutionof socialrelations
I in the oikos,the household.Nature and culture are reworked;the one can
2 no longerbe the resourcefor appropriationor incorporationby the other.
3 The relationshipsfor formingwholesfrom parts,including thoseof polar-
A
T ity and hierarchicaldomination,are at issuein the cyborgworld. Unlike
5 the hopesof Frankenstein's monster,the cyborgdoesnot expectits father
6 to saveit througha restorationof the garden;that is, throughthe fabrica-
7 tion of a heterosexual mate, throughits completionin a finishedwhole, a
d city and cosmos.The cyborgdoesnot dreamof communityon the model
q
of the organicf'amily,this time without the oedipal project. The cyborg
30 would not recognize the Gardenof Eden;it is not madeof mud and can-
I
I not dreamof returningto dust. Perhapsthat is why I want to seeif cyborgs
can subvert the apocalypseof retuming to nuclear dust in the manic
compulsionto name the Enemy.Cyborgsare not reverent;they do not re-
+^ memberthe cosmos.They arewaryof holism,but needyf61ssnng6ll6n-
they seemto have a natural feel for united front politics, but without the
b vanguardparty.The main troublewith cyborgs,of course,is that they are
7 the illegitimateoffspringof militarism and patriarchalcapitalism,not to
B mention state socialism.But illegitimateoffspringare often exceedingly
9 unfaithful to their origins.Their fathers,after all, are inessential.
40 I will return to the sciencefiction of cyborgsat the end of this chap-
I ter, but now I want to signalthreecrucialboundarybreakdownsthat make
a
the following pohtlcal-fictional(political-scientific)analysispossible.By
the late twentieth century in United Statesscientificculture, the bound-
A
a ary betweenhuman and animal is thoroughlybreached.The last beach-
5 heads of uniquenesshave been polluted if not turned into amusement
6 parks - language,tool use, social behavior,mental events,nothing really
47 convincinglysettles the separationof human and anima]- And many
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Haraway: A Cyborg Manifesto r 459

peopleno longerfeel the need for such a separation;indeed,many branches I

of feminist culture affirm the pleasureof connectionof human and other 2
Iiving creatures.Movementsfor animal rights are not irrationaldenialsof 3
human uniqueness;they are a clear-sightedrecognition of connection A
T

acrossthe discreditedbreachofnature and culture. Biologyand evolution- 5

ary theory overthe last two centurieshavesimultaneouslyproducedmod- 6
ern organismsas objects of knowledgeand reduced ti,e line between 7
humans and animalsto a faint trace re-etchedin ideologicalstruggleor B
professionaldisputesbetweenlife and social science.Within this frame- 9
work, teachingmodern Christian creationismshould be fought as a form l0
of child abuse. '|
Biological-deterministideologyis only one positionopenedup in scien- 2
tific culture for arguingthe meaningsof human animality.There is much 3
room for radical political people to contest the meaningsof the breached 4
boundary.l The cyborg appears in myth precisely where the boundary 5
betweenhuman and animal is transgressed. Far from signallinga walling off 6
of peoplefrom other living beings,cyborgssignaldisturbinglyand pleasurably 7
tight coupling.Bestialityhasa new statusin this cycleof marriageexchange. 8
The secondleakydistinctionis betweenanimal-human(organism)and 9
machine.Pre-cybernetic machinescould be haunted;therewasalwaysthe 20
spectreof the ghostin the machine.This dualismsrructuredthe dialogue I
betweenmaterialismand idealismthat was settledby a dialecticalprogeny, )
calledspirit or history accordingto taste.But basicallymachineswere not J

self-moving,self-designing,autonomous.They could not achieve man's i

T

dream,only mock it. They were not man, an author to himself, but only a 5
6
7
l. Research was funded bv an Academic Senate Faculty Research Grant from the University of B
Califomia, Santa Cruz. An earlier version of the paper on genetic engineering appeared as "Lieber 9
Kyborg als Gottin: fiir eine sozialistisch-feministische Unterwanderungder Gentechnologie,"in
Bernd-PeterLange and Anna Marie Stuby eds, Berlin: Argument-sonderband105, I 984, pp 66-84.
30
-l-hecyborg manifesto grew from my "New machines, new bodies, new communities: political dilem- I
mas of a cyborg feminist" "The Scholar and the Feminist X: The Question of Technology," 2
Conference, BarnardCollege,April 1983.
-l
The people associatedwith the History of ConsciousnessBoard of UCSC havehad an enormous
influence on this paper, so that it feels collectively authored more than most, although those I cite
4
may not recognizethejr ideas.In particular,membersof graduateand undergraduatefeminist theory 5
science, and politics, and theory and methods courses contributed to the cyborg manifesto. 6
Particular debts here are due Hilary Klein, Paul Edwards, Lisa Lowe, and James Clifford. 7
Parts of the paper were my contribution to a collectively developed session, "Poetic Tools and
Political Bodies: Feminist Approaches to High Technology Culture," I984 Californja American
8
StudiesAssociation,with History of ConsciousnessgraduatestudentsZoe Sofoulis,'Jupiter space"; 9
Katie King, 'The pleasures of repetition and the limits of identification in feminist science fiction: 40
reimaginationsof the body after the cyborg'; and Chela Sandoval,"The constructionof subjectivity
I
and oppositionalconsciousnessin feminist film and video."
Barbara Epstein, Jeff Escoffiea Rusten Hogness, and Jaye Miler gave extensive discussion and 2
editorial help. Members of the Silicon Valley Research Project of UCSC and parricipants in SVRP 3
conf'erencesand workshopswere very important, especiallyRick Gordon, Linda Kimball, Nancy A
T
Snyder, Langdon winner, Judith stacey,Linda Lim, Patricia Femandez-Kelly,and Judith Gregory.
Finally I want to thank Nancy Hartsock for years of friendship and discussion on feminist thlory 5
and feminst science fiction. I also thank Elizabeth Bird for my favorite political button: 'Cyborgs for 6
EarLhlySurvival +/
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460 . Ar t if ic ial Lif e: C r i t i c a l C o n t e x t s

I caricatureof that masculinistreproductivedream.To think they were oth-

2 erwise was paranoid. Now we are not so sure. Late twentieth-century
2 machineshavemade thoroughlyambiguousthe differencebetweennaru-
A
ral and artificial,mind and body,self-developing and exrernallydesigned,
-
and manyotherdistinctionsthat usedto applyto organisms and machines.
o Our machinesare disturbinglylively,and we ourselvesfrighteninglyinert.
7 Technological determinationis only one ideologicalspaceopenedup
B by the reconceptionsof machine and organismas coded texts through
9 which we engage in the play of writing and reading the world,
l0 "Textualization"of everythingin poststructuralist,postmodernisttheory
I has been damnedby Marxistsand socialistfeministsfor its utopian disre-
z gardfor the lived relationsof dominationthat groundthe "play'of arbitrary
3 reading.2It is certainlytrue that postmodernisrstrategies,like my cyborg
A
..t myth, subvertmyriadorganicwholes(for example,the poem,the primitive
5 culture, the biologicalorganism).In short,the certaintyof what countsas
6 nature- a sourceof insight and promiseof innocence- is undermined,
7 probablyfatally.The transcendentauthorizationof interpretationis lost,
8 and with it the ontologygrounding"Wesrern"epistemology. But the alter-
9 native is not cynicism or faithlessness,that is, someversionof abstract
20 existence,like the accountsof technologicaldeterminismdestroying"man"
I by the "machine" or "meaningful political action" by the "text." Who
) cyborgswill be is a radicalquestion;the answersare a matter of survival.
5 Both chimpanzeesand artefactshave politics, so why shouldn't we (de
A
T Waal, 1982;Winner,l980)?3
5
6
7 2 A provocative,comprehensiveargument about the politics and theoriesof "postmodemism"is
8 made by FredricJameson(1984), ["Post-modernism, or the cukural Logic of Late capitalism." New
9 Lelt Re,tieut146: 53-92.1rvho arguesthat postmodemism is nor an oprion, a style among others, but
a.cultural donrinant requiring radical reinventionof left politics from within; there is no longer any
30 place fiom without that gives meaning to the comfortingfiction of critical distance.Jamesonalso
I makesclearwhy one cannot be tbr or againstpostmodernism,an essentiallymoralistmove. My posi-
2 tion is that feminists (and others)need continuouscultural reinvention,postmodernistcritique, and
? h isto r ica lm a r e r ia lismo: n ly a cyb o rgw oul d have a chance.The ol d domi nati onsof w hi te capi ral i sr
patriarchy seem nostalgicallyinnocent now: They normalizedheterogeneiryinto man and woman,
+
white and black, for example."Advancedcapitalism"and postmodernismreleaseheterogeneityr4'irh-
5 out a norm, and we are flattened, without subjectivity, which requires depth, even unfriendly and
o drowning depths. It is time to write The Deuth of the Clinic.The clinic's methods required bodies
7 and works; we have texts and surfaces. Our dominations don't work by medicalization and normal-
ization any rnore; they work by networking, communications redesign, stress managemenr.
Normalization gives way to auromation, utter redundancy.Michel Foucault'sBinh of thi Cllnlc
9 (1963) [NewYork:Mntage], Historyof sexaal;ty(1976)
[NewYork: Pantheon], andDisciplineand"
4A Punish (1975) [New York:Mntage] name a form of power at its moment of implosion.The discourse
of biopolitics gives way to technobabble,the languageof the spliced substantive;no noun is left
I
whole by the multinationals. These are their names, Iisted from one issue of Science: Tech-
z Knowledge, Genentech, Allergen, Hybritech, Compupro, Genen-cor, Syntex, Allelix, Agrigenetics
3 Corp., Syntro, Codon, Repligen, MicroAngelo from Scion Corp., Percom Data, Inter Syrt"-.,
4 cyborg- corp., Statcom corp., Intertec. If we are imprisoned by language, then escape from that
prison-houserequireslanguagepoets, a kind of cultural restrictionenzFne to cut the code; cyborg
5 heteroglossiais one form of radical cultural politics.
6 3 . d e wa a l,F r a n s( 1 9 8 2 ) .ch im p u nzeeP ol i ti cs:P w erandsaA mmgrheApes.N ew york:H arper&
47 Row; Winner, Langdon ( 1980)."Do Artifacts Have Polirics)"Dued.alas109 ( t ): | 2l-36. [Ed.]
MAS_5015X-04_ch2-Stpl94_475-v2.qxd.9/6/08 3:30 AM Pase 461

Haraway: A Cyborg Manifesto o 461

The third distinction is a subsetof the second:The boundarybetween I

physicaland non-physicalis very imprecisefor us. Popphysicsbookson the 2
consequencesof quantum theoryand the indeterminacyprinciple are a kind 3
of popular scientific equivalentto Harlequin romancesas a marker of radi- I
A

cal changein Americanwhite heterosexuality: They get it wrong,but they are 5

on the right subject. Modem machinesare quintessentiallymicroelectronic 6
devices:They are everywhereand they areinvisible.Modern machineryis an 7
irreverentupstartgod,mockingthe Father'subiquity and spiritualiry.The sil- 8
icon chip is a surfacefor writing; it is etchedin molecularscalesdisturbed 9
only by atomic noise,the ultimateinterferencefor nuc]earscores.Writing, l0
power,and technologyareold partnersin Westernstoriesof the origin of civ- I
ilization, but miniaturizationhas changedour experienceof mechanism. 2
Miniaturizationhas turned out to be about power; small is not so much 3
beautiful as pre-eminentlydangerous,asin cruise missiles.Contrast the TV 4
setsof the 1950sor the newscamerasof the 1970swith the TV wrist bands 5
or hand-sizedvideo camerasnow advertised.Our best machinesare madeof 6
sunshine;they are all light and cleanbecausethey are nothingbut signals, 7
electromagnetic waves,a sectionof a spectrum,and thesemachinesareemi- B
nently portable,mobile- a matterof immensehuman pain in Detroit and 9
Singapore.People are nowhere near so fluid, being both material and 20
opaque.Cyborgsare ether,quintessence. I
The ubiquity and invisibilityof cyborgsis preciselywhy thesesunshine- 2
belt machinesare so deadly.They are as hard to seepolitically as materially. 3
They are about consciousness - or its simulation.They are floatingsigni- +
fiers movingin pickup trucks acrossEurope,blocked more effectivelyby 5
the witch-weavingsof the displacedand so unnatura]Greenhamwomen, 6
who read the cyborgwebsof power so verywell, than by the militant labor 7
of older masculinistpolitics, whose natural constituencyneeds defense 8
jobs. Ultimatelythe "hardest"scienceis aboutthe realmof greatestbound- 9
ary confusion,the realmof pure number,pure spirit, C3l, cryptography, and 30
the preservation of potentsecrets. The are
new machines soclean and light. I

Their engineersare sun-worshippers mediatinga new scientificrevolution 2

associatedwith the night dream of post-industrialsociery.The diseases 3
evokedby theseclean machinesare "no more" than the minusculecoding 4
changesof an antigenin the immune system,"no more"than the experience 5
of stress.The nimble fingersof "Oriental"women,the old fascinationof lit- 6
tle Anglo-SaxonVictoriangirls with doll'shouses,women'senforcedatten- 7
tion to the small take on quite new dimensionsin this world. There might 8
be a cyborgAlice taking account of thesenew dimensions.Ironically,it 9
might be the unnaturalcyborgwomenmakingchips inAsia and spiraldanc- 40
ing in SantaRita iail4 whoseconstructedunities will guideeffectiveoppo- I

sitionalstrategies. Z

So my cyborgmyth is about transgressed boundaries,potent fusions, 3

and dangerouspossibilitieswhich progressive peoplemight exploreas one 4
5
4 . Ap r a ctice a to n ce b o th sp ir itu a l andpol i ti cal thatl i nkedguardsandarrestedanti nucl eardemon-
6
A1
srratorsin the Alameda Countv iail in Califomia in the earlv I980s.
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462 . Ar t if ic ial Lif e: C r i t i c a l C o n t e x t s

1
part of neededpolitical work. One of my premisesis that most American
2 socialistsand feministssee deepeneddualismsof mind and body,animal
and machine,idea]ismand materialismin the socialpractices,symbolic
A
T formulations,and physicalartefactsassociatedwith "high technology"and
5 scientific culture. From One-DimensionalMan (Marcuse, 1964) to The
6 Death of Nature (Merchant, l9B0),5 the analyticresourcesdevelopedby
7 progressives have insisted on the necessarydominationof technics and
B recalled us to an imagined organic body to integrate our resistance.
9 Another of my premisesis that the need for unity of peopletrying to resist
l0 world-wideintensification of dominationhas neverbeen moreacute.But
I a shghtlyperverseshift of perspectivemight better enableus to contestfor
meanings,as well as for other forms of power and pleasurein technologi-
5 callymediatedsocieties.
4 From one perspective,a cyborgworld is about the final impositionof
5 a grid of control on the planet, about the final abstractionembodiedin a
6 StarWarsapocalypse wagedin the nameof defense,about the final appro-
7 priation of women'sbodies in a masculinistorgy of war (Sofia, 1984).6
B From anotherperspective,a cyborgworld might be about lived socialand
9 bodily realitiesin which peopleare not afraid of their joint kinship with
20 animals and machines,not afraid of permanentlypartial identities and
I contradictorystandpoints.The political struggleis to see from both per-
2 spectivesat once becauseeachrevealsboth dominationsand possibilities
3 unimaginablefrom the other vantagepoint. Singlevision producesworse
A
illusionsthan doublevision or many-headedmonsters.Cyborgunities are
q
monstrousand illegitimate; in our present political circumstances,we
6 could hardly hope for more potent myths for resistanceand recoupling.I
7 Iike to imagineLAG, the LivermoreAction Group,asa kind of cyborgsoci-
B ety,dedicatedto realisticallyconvertingthe laboratoriesthat most fiercely
q
embodyand spewout the tools of technologicalapocalypse, and commit-
30 ted to building a political form that actually managesto hold together
I ivitches, engineers,elders, perverts,Christians,mothers, and Leninists
long enough to disarm the state. Fission Impossibleis the name of the
5 affinity groupin my town. (Affinity:relatednot by blood but by choice,the
4 appealof one chemicalnucleargroup for another,avidity.)7. . .
5
6 5. Marcuse, Herbert (1964). One-Dimensional Man: Studies in thz ldeology of Advanced Industiul
Society. Boston; Beacon; Merchant, Carolyn (1980). The Death of Natilte: Womzn, Ecolagt,and thc
7
Scimtifc Revobtion. New York: Harper & Row. [Ed.]
B 6. Sofra,Zoe(1984). "JupiterSpace."Paperdeliveredat theAmerican StudiesAssociation,Pomona,
9 cA. [Ed.]
40 7. Without explicit irony, adopting the spaceshipeartVwhole earth logo of the planet photographed
from space,set off by the slogan"Love Your Mother," the May 1987 Mothers and Others Day action
I
at the nuclear weapons testing facility in Nevada none the less took account of the tragic contradic-
a
tions of views of the earth. Demonstrators applied for offrcial permits to be on the land from officers
3 of the Westem Shoshone tribe, whose territory was invaded by the U.S. government when it built
4 the nuclear weapons test ground in the 1950s.Arrested for trespassing,the demonstrators argued
that the police and weapons facility personnel, without authorization from the proper officials, were
5 the trespassers.One affinity group at the women's action called themselves the Surrogate Others;
6 and in solidarity with the creatures forced to tunnel in the same gound with the bomb, they enacted
47 a cyborgian emergence from the constructed body of a large, non-heterosexualdesert worm.
MAS_50 1-5X_04_ch23p1 94_4?5_v2
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Haraway: A Cyborg Manifesto . 463

THE INFORMATICSOF DOMINATION

In this ar-rempl
;kerch
a picture
ar an episremorogicarand politicarposition,I wourdlike to
pi;;;; jndebtedto sociarisr. and fem-
l)
l3
inist principle,sof^of.possibre
".1ti,,
design.The
importanceof rearrangements
f.ame for my sketchit *, uv r#""t"rrt u'd
in world-wide social ,"i"rir"r"ri"a to sci-
ence a-ndtechnology.I argue for a politics
t;
mentalchangesin t-henatJreor.turi,-rr.",
tem of world order anarogous.inits.noveriy
rooted in claims about funda_
and g"nde,r^ sys- lt
industrialcapitalism:*",Ir" hv;ngrhrougf
,r,i r.op" ,o",ii,"l
"-".gtng
.r""t"a ny la
industrialsocietyto a porymorpho"us,
to all play, a deadlv gime. Srmurt"neo-urrf
" -ou"_"nt
infoLation
from an organic,
system- from ail work l,;
Ii
makriar and ideorogicar,the
dichotomiesmav b" I"pres.ed in the foldung
chart of transitionsfrom
the comfortableold hieiarchicalaornirrurion,
to rhe scarynew nerworksI
havecalledthe informaticsof dominurio",
Representation Simulation
t:
Bourgeoisnovel,realism
Organism
Sciencefiction, postmodernism
Biotic component lt
Depth, integrity
Heat
Biologyas clinicalpractice
Physiology
Surface,boundarv
Noise
Biologyas inscription
Uommunications engineering
l,i
lr
Smallgroup
Perfecdon
Eugenics
Subsvstem
Optimization li
l4
PopulationControl
Decadence,Magic Mountain
Hygiene
Microbiology,tuberculosis
Obsolescenc e, FutwreShoclz
StressManagement t:
l7
t;
Immunology,AIDS
Organicdivisionof labor Ergonomics/cybernetics of labor
Functionalspecialization Modular construction
Reproduction
Organicsexrole specialization
Biologicald"ter-inirm
Replicarion
Optimal geneticstraregies l'?
l2
Evolutionaryinertja,constraints
Communityecolosv
Racialchain of being
Ecosystem
Neo-imperialism, United Nadons
ll5t
humanism
Scientificmanagement
ractory
Family/Market/Factory
in home/ Clobal factory/Elecrronic couage
lt
B
Women in the IntegratedCircuit 9
Family wage Comparableworth
Public/Privare 40
Cyborgcitizenship I
Nature/Culture Fields of differenie
Co-operation 2
Communications enhancement 5
Freud Lacan A
Sex Geneticengineering
a

Labor Robotics
Mind o
Artifi cial Intellisence 47
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46 4 . Ar t if ic ial Lif e: C r i t i c a l C o n t e x t s

I SecondWorld War Star Wars

z White CapitalistPatriarchy Informaticsof Domination
5
A
a This list suggestsseveral interesting things. First, the objects on the right-
q
hand side cannot be coded as "natural," a realization that subverts natura-
6 listic coding for the left-hand side as well. We cannot go back ideological-
7 ly or materially. It's not just that "god" is dead; so is the "goddess." Or both
B are revivified in the worlds charged with microelectronic and biotechnolog-
o ical politics. In relation to objects Iike biotic components, one must think
10 not in terms of essential properties, but in terms of design, boundary con-
I straints, rates of flows, systemslogics, costs of lowering constraints. Sexual
reproduction is one kind of reproductive strategy among many, with costs
1
-f and benefits as a function of the system environment. Ideologies of sexual
4 reproduction can no longer reasonably call on notions of sex and sex role
5 as organic aspectsin natural objects like organisms and families. Such rea-
6 soning will be unmasked as irrational, and ironically corporate executives
7 reading Playboyand anti-pom radical feminists will make strange bedfel-
B lows in jointly unmasking the irrationalism.
9 Likewise for race, ideologies about human diversity have to be formu-
20 lated in terms of frequencies of parameters, like blood groups or intelli-
I gence scores.It is "irrational" to invoke concepts like primitive and civilized.
n
z For liberals and radicals, the search for integrated social systems gives way
5 to a new practice called "experimental ethnography" in which an organic
T object dissipatesin attention to the play of writing. At the level of ideology,
5 we see translations of racism and colonialism into languages of develop-
6 ment and under-development, rates and constraints of modernization. Any
7 objects or personscan be reasonablythought of in terms of disassemblyand
8 reassembly; no "natural" architectures constrain system design. The finan-
9 cial districts in all the world's cities, as well as the export processing and
30 free-trade zones, proclaim this elementary fact of "late capitalism." The
I entire universe of objects that can be known scientifically must be formu-
2 lated as problems in communications engineering(for the managers)or the-
5 ories of the text (for those who would resist). Both are cyborg semiologies.
A
T One should expect control strategiesto concentrate on boundary condi-
5 tions and interfaces, on rates of flow acrossbound2lis5 - and not on the
6 integrity of natural objects. "lntegrity' or "sincerity" of the Western self gives
7 way to decision procedures and expert systems.For example, control strate-
B gies applied to women's capacities to give birth to new human beings will be
9 developed in the languages of population control and maximization of goal
40 achievement for individual decision-makers. Control strategies will be for-
I mulated in terms of rates, costs of constraints, degreesof freedom. Human
2 beings, like any other component or subsystem,must be localized in a sys-
3 tem architecture whose basic modes of operation are probabilistic, statisti-
4 cal. No objects, spaces,or bodies are sacred in themselves;any component
5 can be interfaced with any other if the proper standard, the proper code, can
6 be constructed for processing signals in a common language. Exchange in
47 this world transcends the universal translation effected bv capitalist markets
M A S _ 5 0 1 5 X_ 0 4 _ ch 2 jp 1 - 9 4 _ 4 7 5 _ v2 .q xd 9/6/A g 3:30 AM P age 465

Haraway: A Cyborg Manifesto . 465

that Marx analyzedso well. The prMleged pathologyaffecting all kinds of I

components in this universe is stress- communications breakdown 2
(Hofness, l9B3).8The cyborgis not subjectto Foucault'sbiopolitics;the 3
cyborgsimulatespolitics,a much morepotentfield of operations. 4
This kind of analysisof scientific and cultural objects of knowledge 5
which have appearediristorically since the SecondWoild War preparesus 6
.7
to notice someimportant inadequaciesin feminist analysiswhich has pro-
ceededas if the organic,hierarchicaldualismsorderingdiscoursein "the 8
West" sinceAristotle still ruled. They have been cannibalized,or as 7ne 9
Sofia (Sofoulis) might put it, they have been "techno-digested."The 10
dichotomiesbetweenmind and body,animal and human, organismand I
machine,public and private,natureand culture,men and women,primi- 2
tive and civilizedare all in questionideologically.The actual situation of 3
women is their integration/exploitation into a world system of 4
production/reproduction and communicationcalledthe informaticsof dom- 5
ination. The home,workplace,market,public arena,the body itself - all 6
can be dispersedand interfacedin nearly infinite, polymorphousways, 7
with large consequencesfor women and others- consequencesthat 8
themselvesare very different for different people and which make potent 9
oppositionalinternationalmovementsdifficult to imagineand essentialfor 20
survival.One important route for reconstructingsocialist-feministpolitics I
is through theoryand practiceaddressedto the socialrelationsof science 2
and technology,including crucially the systemsof myth and meanings 3
structuring our imaginations.The cyborg is a kind of disassembledand 4
reassembled, postmoderncollectiveand personalself. This is the self fem- 5
inistsmust code. 6
Communicationstechnologiesand biotechnologiesare the crucial 7
tools recraftingour bodies.These tools embody and enforce new social B
relations for women world-wide.Technologiesand scientific discourses 9
can be partially understoodas formalizations,i.e., as frozenmoments,of 30
the fluid social interactionsconstituting them, but they should also be I
viewedas instrumentsfor enforcingmeanings.The boundaryis permeable 2
between tool and myth, instrumentand concept,historicalsystemsof 3
social relations and historical anatomiesof possible bodies, including 4
objects of knowledge.Indeed, myth and tool mutually constitute each 5
other. 6
'7
Furthermore,communicationssciencesand modernbiologiesare con-
structedby a common move- the translationot'the world into a problem 8
of coding,a searchfor a commonlanguagein 'uvhichall resistanceto instru- 9
mental control disappearsand all heterogeneitycan be submittedto disas- 40
sembly,reassembly, investment,and exchange. I
In communicationssciences,the translationof the world into a prob- 2
lem in coding can be illustrated by looking at cybernetic (feedback- 3
4
5
8. Hogness, E. Rusten (1983). "Why Stress? A Look at the Making of Stress, 1936-56." 6
Unpublished paper. [Ed.] 47
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466 . Ar t if ic ial Lif e; C r i t i c a l C o n t e x t s

I controlled) systemstheoriesapplied to telephonetechnology,computer

2 design,weaponsdeployment,or databaseconstructionand maintenance.
5 In eachcase,solutionto the key questionsrestson a theoryof languageand
A
T control; the key operationis determiningthe rates,directions,and proba-
5 bilitles of flow of a quantitycalledinformation,The world is subdividedby
6 boundariesdifferentiallypermeableto information.Informationis just that
7 l<indof quantifiableelement(unit, basisof unity) which allows universal
B translation,and so unhinderedinstrumentalpower (calledeffectivecom-
o munication).The biggestthreatto suchpoweris interruptionof communi-
l0 cation.Any systembreakdownis a functionof stress.The fundamentalsof
I this technologycan be condensedinto the metaphorC3l, command-
Z control-communication-intelligence, the military'ssymbolfor its operations
1
theory.
.ti In modernbiologies,the translationof the world into a problemin cod-
5 ing can be illustratedby moleculargenetics,ecology,sociobiological evolu-
6 tionary theory and immunobiologl.The organismhas been translatedinto
7 problemsof geneticcodingand read-out.Biotechnology, a writing technol-
d ogy,informsresearchbroadly.In a sense,organismshaveceasedto existas
o objectsof knowledge,givingway to biotic components,i.e., specialkinds
20 of information-processing devices.The analogousmovesin ecologycould
I be examinedby probingthe historyand utility of the conceptof the ecosys-
tem. Immunobiologyand associatedmedicalpracticesare rich exemplars
_) of the privilegeof codingand recognitionsystemsas objectsof knowledge,
4 as constructionsof bodily realiryfor us. Biologyhere is a kind of cryptog-
raphy. Researchis necessarilya kind of intelligence activity. Ironies
f) abound.A stressedsystemgoesawry;its communicationprocessesbreak
7 down; it fails to recognizethe differencebetweenself and other. Human
R babieswith baboonheartsevokenationalethical perplexiry- for animal
9 rightsactivistsat leastasmuch as for the guardiansof human purity.In the
30 United Statesgaymen and intravenousdrug usersare the "privileged"vic-
I tims of an awful immune systemdiseasethat marks(inscribeson the body)
2 confusionof boundariesand moral pollution (teichlea lgBT).e
3 But theseexcursionsinto communicationssciencesand biologyhave
A
T been at a rarefiedlevel; there is a mundane,largelyeconomic reality to
supportmy claim that thesesciencesand technologiesindicatefundamen-
6 tal transformationsin the structureof the world for us. Communications
7 technologiesdependon electronics.Modern states,multinationalcorpora-
B tions, military power,welfarestateapparatuses, satellitesystems,political
9 processes,fabricationof our imaginations,labor-controlsystems,medical
40 constructionsof our bodies, commercialpornography,the international
I division of labor, and religiousevangelismdepend intimarely upon elec-
tronics. Microelectronicsis the technical basis of simulacra;that is, of
copieswithout originals.
4

6 9. Treichler, Paula (1987). "AIDS, Homophobia, and Biomedical Discourse; An Epidemic of

47 Signification."October 43: 3l-70.
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H araw ay: A C yborg Mani festo . 467

Microelectronicsmediatesthe translationsof labor into robotics and I

word processing,sex into geneticengineeringand reproductivetechnolo- 2

gies,and mind into artificialintelligenceand decisionprocedures.The new 3
biotechnologiesconcem more than human reproduction.Biology as a pow- 4
erful engineeringsciencefor redesigningmaterialsand processeshas revo- 5
lutionary implications for industry perhapsmost obvious today in areasof 6
fermentation,agriculture,and energy.Communicationssciencesand biol- 7
ogy are constructionsof natural-technicalobjectsof knowledgein which B
the differencebetweenmachineand organismis thoroughlybluned; mind, 9
body, and tool are on very intimate terms. The "multinational"material l0
organizationof the productionand reproductionof daily life and the sym- I
bolic organization of the productionand reproductionof culture and imag- 2
ination seemequallyimplicated.The boundary-maintaining imagesof base 3
and superstructure, public and private,or materialand ideal neverseemed 4
more feeble. 5
I haveusedRachelGrossman's (1980)imageof womenin the integrat- 6
ed circuit to namethe situationof womenin a world so intimatelyrestruc- 7
tured throughthe socialrelationsof scienceand technology.l0I used the B
odd circumlocution,"the social relationsof science and technology,"to 9
indicatethat we are not dealingwith a technologicaldeterminism,but with 20
a historicalsystemdependingupon structuredrelationsamongpeople.But I
the phraseshould alsoindicatethat scienceand technologyprovide fresh 2
sourcesof power, that we need fresh sourcesof analysisand political 3
action (Latour,l9B4).I I Someof the rearrangements of race,sex,and class 4
rootedin high-tech-facilitated socialrelationscan makesocialist-feminism 5
more relevant to effective progressivepolitics. . . . 6
7
8
CYBORGS:A MYTH OF POUICAL IDENTITY
9
I want to concludewith a myth aboutidentityand boundarieswhich might 30
inform late twentieth-centurypolitical imaginations.I am indebtedin this I

story to writers like JoannaRuss, SamuelR. Delany,John Varley,James )

Tiptree Jr.,OctaviaButler,Monique Wittig, and VondaMclntyre.l2 These 3
A
are our story-tellersexploringwhat it meansto be embodiedin high-tech T

worlds. They are theoristsfor cyborgs.Exploring conceptionsof bodily 5

boundariesand social order, the anthropologistMary Douglas (1966, 6
lgZO;tl shouldbe creditedwith helpingus to consciousness about how 7
8
10. Grossman,Rachel (1980). "Women'sPlace in the IntegratedCircuit." RadicalAmeica l4 (l): 9
29-50. 40
I I . Latour, Bruno (l984). Les Microbes,Gwne et Puix, Ruivi des lndhrctions. Paris: M6taili€.
I
12. Monique Wttig is a French f'eminist,author of The Lesbbn Body (1973, New York: Avon), as
well as a t'eminist utopian novel, Les Cweillieres. All others in this list are American science fiction 2
q'riters. Flarawaycredits the follou'ingessayfor bringing these writers to her attention: Katie King 5
(198a), "The Pleasureof Repetitionand the Limits of Identification in Feminist Science Fiction: 4
Reimaginationsof the Body After the Cyborg."Paperdeliveredat the American StudiesAssociation,
5
Pomona,CA. [Ed.]
13. Douglas,Mary(1966). PuityundDanger. London: Routledge(1970).NaturalSynfuok. London: 6
Cr e sse t.IEd .] 47
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468 . Ar t if ic ial Lif e: Cr i t i c a l C o n t e x t s

I fundamentalbody imageryis to world view, and so to political language.

1
Z French feministslike Luce Irigarayand Monique Wittig, for all their dif-
3 ferences,know how to write the body;how to weaveeroticism,cosmology,
4 and politics from imageryof embodiment,and especiallyfor Wittig, from
imageryof fragmentationand reconstitutionof bodies.la
6 American radical feminists like Susan Griffin, Audre Lorde, and
7 Adrienne Rich haveprofoundlyaffectedour political imaginations- and
B perhapsrestrictedtoo much what we allow as a friendlybody and political
9 language.l5 They insist on the organic,opposingit to the technological.
10 But their symbolicsystemsand the relatedpositionsof ecofeminismand
I
I feminist paganism,replete with organicisms,can only be understoodin
2 Sandoval'sterms as oppositionalideologiesfitting the late twentieth century.
3 They would simply bewilder anyonenot preoccupiedwith the machines
A
T and consciousness of late capitalism.In that sensethey are part of the
5 cyborg world. But there are also great riches for feminists in explicitly
6 embracingthe possibilitiesinherentin the breakdownof cleandistinctions
7 between organismand machine and similar distinctionsstructuring the
B Westernself. It is the simultaneityof breakdownsthat cracksthe matrices
9 of dominationand opens geometricpossibilities.What might be learned
20 from personaland political "technological"pollution) I look briefly at two
I overlappinggroups of texts for their insight into the construction of a
2 potentiallyhelpful cyborgmyth: constructionsof womenof colorand mon-
strousselvesin feminist sciencefiction.
+ Earlier I suggestedthat "women of color" might be understoodas a
5 cyborgidentity,a potent subjectivirysynthesizedfrom fusionsof outsider
6 identities and in the complex political-historicallayeringsof her bio-
7 mythography.. . . There are materialand culturalgridsmappingthis poten-
B tial. Audre Lorde (t984) capturesthe tone in the title of her Sister
q
Outsider.In my political myth, Sister Outsider is the offshore woman,
30 whom U.S. workers,female and feminized,are supposedto regardas the
I enemy preventing their solidarity,threateningtheir security. Onshore,
2 inside the boundaryof the United States,SisterOutsideris a potential
3 amidst the racesand ethnic identitiesof women manipulatedfor division,
4
competition, and exploitationin the same industries."Women of color"
are the preferred labor force for the science-based industries, the real
6 women ftr whom the world-widesexualmarket,labor market,and politics
7 of reproductionkaleidoscopeinto daily life. YoungKoreanwomen hired in
8 the sex industry and in electronicsassemblyare recruited from high
9 schools,educatedfor the integratedcircuit. Literacy,especiallyin English,
40 distinguishesthe "cheap"femalelabor so attractiveto the multinationals.
I
z
3 14. Wittig, Monique (1973).TheLesbhnBody. NewYork:Avon;Irigaray,Luce (1977).CeSaeQti
4 N'en estpasUa. Paris:Minuit. [Ed.]
5 I 5. But all these poets are very complex, not least in their treatment of themes of llng and erotic,
decentred collective and personal identities. Griffin, Susan (1978). Womm and Nuture: Thc Roaing
o
Inside Her. New York: l{arper & Row; Lorde, Audre (1984). Sister Outsifur. Trumansberg, NY:
47 Crossing;Rich,Adrienne (1978).'lheDreanof aCommonlnngrnge. NewYork Norton.
M A S _ 5 0 1 5 X_ 0 4 _ ch 2 3 p 1 9 4 _ 4 7 5 _ v2 .q xd 9/6/OB 3:30 AU Pase 469

Haraway: A Cyborg Manifesto . 469

Contrary to orientalist stereorypesof the "oral primitive," literacy is a I

special mark of women of color, acquired by U.S black women as well as 2
men through a history of risking death to learn and to teach reading and J

writing. Writing has a special significance for all colonized groups. Writing +
has been crucia] to the Western myth of the distinction between oral and 5
written cultures, primitive and civilized mentalities, and more recently to o
the erosion of that distinction in "postmodernist" theories attacking the 7
phallogocentrism of the West, with its worship of the monotheistic, phal- B
lic, authoritative, and singular work, the unique and perfect name. 9
Contests for the meanings of writing are a major form of contemporary l0
political struggle. Releasing the play of writing is deadly serious. The poetry 1
I

and stories of U.S. women of color are repeatedly about writing, about 2
access to the power to signify; but this time that power must be neither .l

phallic nor innocent. Cyborg writing must not be about the Fall, the imag- 4
ination of a once-upon-a-time wholeness before language, before writing 5
before Man. Cyborg writing is about the power to survive, not on the basis 6
of original innocence, but on the basis of seizing the tools to mark the 7
world that marked them as other. 8
The tools are often stories, retold stories, versions that reverse and dis- 9
place the hierarchical dualisms of naturalized identities. In retelling origin 20
stories, cyborg authors subvert the central myths of origin of Western cul- t

ture. We have all been colonized by those origin myths, with their longing z
for fulfrllment in apocalypse.The phallogocentric origin stories most cru-
cial for feminist cyborgs are built into the Iiteral technologies - technolo- 4
gies rhat write the world, biotechnology and microelectronics - that have
recently textualized our bodies as code problems on the grid of C3l. 6
Feminist cyborg stories have the task of recoding communication and 7
intelligence to subvert command and control. B
Figuratively and literally, language politics pervade the struggles of 9
women of color; and stories about languagehave a special power in the rich 30
contemporary writing by U.S. women of color. For example, retellings of the I
story of the indigenous woman Malinche, mother of the mestizo "bastard" z
race of the new world, master of languages,and mistress of Cort6s, carry 5

special meaning for Chicana constructions of identity. Cherrfe Moraga 4

(1983) in Loving in the War Yearsexploresthe themes of identity when one 5
never possessedthe original language, never told the original story never 6
resided in the harmony of legitimate heterosexualityin the garden of cul- 7
ture, and so cannot base identity on a myth or a fall from innocence and B
right to natural names,mother'sor father's.16Moraga'swriting, her superb 9
literacy, is presented in her poetry as the same kind of violation as 4A
Malinche's mastery of the conqueror's language- a violation, an illegiti-
mate production, that allows survival. Moraga's language is not "whole," it 1

is self-consciously spliced, a chimera of English and Spanish, both con- 3

A
queror's languages.But it is this chimeric monster, without claim to an original T

5
16. Moraga, Cherrte (1 983). Lwing in the War Years:Lo que Nunca Pas6por Sus LaDios. Boston: 6
South End. [Ed.] 47
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47 0 . Ar t if ic ial Lif e: Cr i t i c a l C o n t e x t s

I languagebeforeviolation,that crafts the erotic, competent,potent identi-

2 ties of women of color. SisterOutsider hints at the possibility of world sur-
3 vivalnot becauseof her innocence,but becauseof her ability to live on the
4 boundaries,to write without the foundingmyth of originalwholeness,with
5 its inescapable apocalypseof final return to a deathlyonenessthat Man has
o imaginedto be the innocentandall-powerfulMother,freedat the End from
7 anotherspiral of appropriationby her son. Writing marks Moraga'sbody,
B affirmsit as the bodyof a womanof color,againstthe possibilityof passing
9 into the unmarkedcategoryof the Anglo father or into the orientalistmyth
l0 of "originalilliteracy"of a mother that never was. Malinche was mother
I here, not Eve before eating the forbidden fruit. Writing affirms Sister
z Outsider,not the Woman-before-the-Fall-into-Writing neededby the phal-
a
logocentricFamilyof Man.
A

5 Writing is pre-eminentlythe technologyof cyborgs,etchedsurfacesof the

6 late twentieth century.Cyborgpolitics is the strugglefor languageand the
7 struggleagainstperfect communication,againstthe one code that trans-
8 latesall meaningperfectly,the centraldogmaof phallogocentrism. That is
9 why cyborgpolitics insist on noiseand advocatepollution, rejoicingin the
20 illegitimatefusionsof animaland machine.Theseare the couplingswhich
I make Man and Womanso problematic,subvertingthe structureof desire,
2 the force imaginedto generatelanguageand gender,and so subvertingthe
3 structureand modesof reproductionof "Western"identity,of nature and
4 culture, of mirror and eye,slaveand master,body and mind. "We" did not
5 originallychooseto be cyborgs,but choice groundsa liberal politics and
6 epistemologythat imaginesthe reproduction of individuals before the
7 wider replicationsof "texts."
B From the perspectiveof cyborgs,freedof the need to groundpoliticsin
9 "our" privilegedpositionof the oppressionthat incorporatesall other domi-
30 nations,the innocenceof the merelyviolated,the groundof thosecloserto
I nature, we can seepowerful possibilities.Feminismsand Marxismshave
) run agroundon Westernepistemological imperativesto constructa revolu-
tionarysubjectfrom the perspectiveof a hierarchyof oppressions and./ora
4 latent position of moral superioriryinnocence,and greaterclosenessto
5 nature. With no availableoriginal dream of a common languageor original
6 symbiosispromisingprotectionhom hostile "masculine"separation,but
7 written into the play of a text that has no finally privilegedreadingor salva-
8 tion history to recognize"oneself'asfully implicatedin the world, freesus
9 of the need to root politics in identification,vanguardparties,purity, and
40 mothering.Strippedof identity,the bastardraceteachesaboutthe powerof
I
I the marginsand the importanceof a motherlike Mahnche.Womenof color
2 have transformedher from the evil mother of masculinistfear into the orig-
3 inally literate mother who teachessurvival.
4 This is not just literary deconstruction,but liminal transformation.
5 Everystorythat beginswith originalinnocenceand privilegesthe return to
o wholenessimaginesthe dramaof life to be individuation,separation,the
47 birth of the self, the tragedyof autonomy,the fall into writing, alienation;
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Haraway: A Cyborg Manifesto t 471

that is, war,temperedby imaginaryrespitein the bosomof the Other.These I

plots areruled by a reproductivepolitics- rebirthwithout flaw,perfection, 2
abstraction.In this plot women are imaginedeither better or worse off, but 3
all agee they havelessselfhood,weakerindividuation,more fusion to the 4
oral, to Mother,less at stakein masculineautonomy.But there is another 5
route to havingless at stake in masculine autonomy,a route that does not 6
passthroughWoman, Primitive, 7-,ero,the Mirror Stageand its imaginary It 7
passesthroughwomen and otherpresent-tense, illegitimatecyborgs,not of B
Woman born, who refuse the ideologicalresourcesof victimization so as to 9
have a real life. These cyborgsare the people who refuse to disappearon l0
cue, no matter how many times a "Westem"commentatorremarkson the I
sad passing of another primitive, another organic group done in by z
"Westem"technology, by writing.lTThesereal-lifecyborgs(for example,the 1
-f

SoutheastAsian villagewomen workersin Japaneseand U.S. electronics 4

firms describedbyAihwa Ong)18areactivelyrewriting the texts of their bod- 5
ies and societies.Survivalis the stakesin this play of readings. 6
To recapitulate,certain dualismshavebeenpersistentin Westem tradi- 7
tions; they haveall been systemicto the logicsand practicesof domination 8
of women,peopleof color,nature,workers,animals- in short, domination 9
of all constitutedas others,whosetask is to mirror the self. Chief among 2A
these troubling dualisms are self/other, mind/body, culture/nature, male/ I

female, civilized/primitive,reality/appearance,whole/part, agent/resource, 2

maker/made,active/passive,right/wrong, truth/illusion, totaVpartial, God/ 3
man. The selfis the One who is not dominated,who knowsthat by the ser- +
vice of the other,the otheris the one who holdsthe future,who knowsthat 5
by the experienceof domination,which givesthe lie to the autonomyof the 6
self.To be One is to be autonomous,to be powerful,to be God; but to be 7
One is to be an illusion,andsoto be involvedin a dialecticof apocalypsewith B
the other.Yet to be other is to be multiple, without clear boundary frayed, 9
insubstantial. One is too few,but two aretoo many. 30
High-techculture challenges thesedualismsin intriguingways.It is I
I

not clearwho makesand who is madein the relationbetweenhuman and 2

machine.It is not clear what is mind and what body in machinesthat 3
resolveinto codingpractices.Insofaras we know ourselvesin both formal 4
discourse(for example,biology)and in daily practice (for example,the 5
homework economy in the integratedcircuit), we find ourselvesto be 6
cyborgs,hybrids, mosaics,chimeras.Biologicalorganismshave become 7
8
17. The convention of ideologically taming militarized high technolory by publicizing its applica- 9
tions to speech and motion problems of the disabled/differentlyabled takes on a special irony in 40
monotheistic, patriarchal, and frequently anti-semitic culture when computer-generatedspeech I
allows a boy with no voice to chant the Haftorah at his bar mitzvah. See Sussman,Mc (1986).
2
["Personaf Tech: Technology Lends a Hand." The Washington Post Magazine. 9 November, pp.
45-56.] Making the alwayscontext-relativesocialdefinitionsof "ableness"particularlyclear,military 3
high-tech has a way of making human beingsdisabledby definition, a perverseaspectof much auto- 4
mated battlefield and Star Wars R&D. See Welford lWelford, John Noble (l Ju]y 1986). "Pilot's 5
Helmet Helps lnterpret High Speed World-" NeuTYort Times, pp. 2l , 24.1
l8- Ong, Aihwa (t987). Spiri* oJ Besistunceand Capitalist Discipline: Factory Workers in Malaysia.
6
Albany: SUNY P [Ed.] 47
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47 2 . Ar t if ic ial Lif e: C r i t i c a l C o n t e x t s

I biotic systems,communicationsdeviceslike others. There is no funda-

2 mental, ontologicalseparationin our formal knowledgeof machine and
5 organism,of technical and organic.The replicant Rachel in the Ridley
4 Scott film BlndcRunner standsas the imageof a cyborgculture'sfeaq love,
5 and confusion.
6 One consequence is that our senseof connectionto our toolsis height-
7 ened.The trancestateexperienced by manycomputerusershas becomea
B staple of science-fictionfilm and cultural jokes. Perhapsparaplegicsand
9 other severelyhandicappedpeoplecan (and sometimesdo) havethe most
10 intense experiencesof complexhybridizationwith other communication
I devices.Anne McCaffrey'spre-feministTheShip Who Sang( I 969) explored
2 the consciousness of a cyborg,hybrid of girls brain and complexmachinery
2 formed after the birth of a severelyhandicappedchild. Gender,sexuality,
A
a embodiment,skill:All werereconstitutedin the story.Why shouldour bod-
5 ies end at the skin, or include at best other beingsencapsulated by skin?
6 From the seventeenthcenturv till now. machinescould be animated-
7 givenghostlysoulsto makethem speakor moveor to accountfor their orderly
B developmentand mentalcapacities.Or organismscould be mechanized-
9 reducedto body understoodas resourceof mind. Thesemachinelorganism
20 relationshipsare obsolete,unnecessary. For us, in imaginationand in other
I practice,machinescan be prostheticdevices,intimatecomponents,friend-
L ly selves.We don't need organicholism to give impermeablewholeness,the
3 total woman and her feminist variants (mutants?).Let me conclude this
4 point by a very partial readingof the logic of the cyborgmonstersof my sec-
5 ond groupof texts,feministsciencefiction.
6 The cyborgspopulatingfeminist sciencefiction makeveryproblematic
7 the statusesof man or woman,human,artefact,memberof a race,individ-
B ual entiry or body.Katie King clarifieshow pleasurein readingthesefictions
9 is not largelybasedon identification.StudentsfacingJoannaRussfor the
30 first time, studentswho havelearnedto take modernistwriters like ]ames
Joyceor Vryinia Woolf without flinching, do not know what to make of The
I

Adventuresof Alyx or The FemaleMam, wherecharactersrefusethe reader's

3 searchtor innocent wholenesswhile grantingthe wish for heroic quests,
4 exuberanteroticism,and seriouspolitics.The FemaleMan is the story of
5 four versionsof one genoty?e,all of whom meet, but eventaken together
6 do not make a whole, resolvethe dilemmasof violent moral action, or
7 remove the growing scandalof gender.The feminist science fiction of
8 SamuelR. Delany,especiallyTalesof Nev1ryon,mocksstoriesof origin by
9 redoing the neolithic revolution,replayingthe founding movesof Westem
4A civilizationto subverttheir plausibility.JamesTiptreeJr.,an author whose
I fiction was regarded as particularly manly until her "true" gender was
2 revealed,tells talesof reproductionbasedon non-mammaliantechnologies
3 like alternationof generationsof male broodpouchesand male nurturing.
4 John Varleyconstructsa supremecyborgin his arch-feministexplorationof
5 Gaea, a mad goddess-planet-trickster-old woman-technological device on
o whose surfacean extraordinary afiayof post-cyborgsymbiosesare spawned.
47 Octavia Butler writes of an African sorceresspitting her powersof transfor-
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H araw ay: A C yborg Mani f esto . 47 3

mation againstthe geneticmanipulationsof her nval (Wild Seed),of time I

warpsthat bring a modem U.S. blackwomaninto slaverywhereher actions 2
in relationto her white master-ancestor determinethe possibiliryof her own 3
birth (K;ndred), and of the illegitimate insights into identiry and communi- 4
ty of an adoptedcross-species child who came to know the enemyas self 5
(Survivor). ln Dawn (1987), the first installment of a series called 6
Xenogenesis, Butler tells the sto{y of Lilith Iyapo, whose personal name 7
recallsAdam's first and repudiatedwife and whosefamily name marks her 8
statusas the widow of the son of Nigerianimmigrantsto the United States. 9
A blackwomanand a motherwhosechild is dead.Lilith mediatesthe trans- l0
formation of humanity through genetic exchange with extra-terrestrial I
Iovers/rescuersldestroyers/genetic engineers,who reform earth's habitats 1

after the nuclear holocaustand coerce survivinghumans into intimate 3

fusion with them. It is a novel that interrogatesreproductive,linguistic, and 4
nuclearpolitics in a mythic field structuredby late twentieth-centuryrace 5
and gender. 6
Becauseit is particularlyrich in boundarytransgessions, VondaMclntyre's 1

Superlurninalcan closethis truncatedcatalogueof promisingand danger- 8

ous monsterswho help redefinethe pleasuresand politics of embodiment 9
and feminist writing. In a fiction where no characteris "simply" human, 20
human statusis highly problematic.Orca, a geneticallyaltereddiver,can I
speakwith killer whalesand survivedeepoceanconditions,but she longs 2
to explorespaceas a pilot, necessitating bionic implantsjeopardizingher 3
kinshipwith the diversand cetaceans. tansformations areeffectedby virus 4
vectors carrying a new developmentalcode, by transplant surgery by im- 5
plants of microelectronicdevices,by analoguedoubles,and other means. 6
Laeneabecomesa pilot by acceptinga heart implant and a host of other 7
alterationsallowing survivalin transit at speedsexceedingthat of light, 8
Radu Dracul survivesa virus-caused plaguein his outerworldplanet to find 9
himselfwith a time sensethat changesthe boundariesof spatialperception 30
for the whole species.AII the charactersexplorethe limits of language;the I
dream of communicatingexperience;and the necessityof limitation, par- 2
tiality,and intimacy evenin this world of proteantransformationand con- 3
nection. Supeiluminal stands also fior the defining contradictionsof a 4
cyborgworld in anothersense;it embodiestextuallythe intersectionof fem- 5
inist theoryand colonialdiscoursein the sciencefiction I havealludedto in 6
this chapter.This is a conjunctionwith a long history that many "First 7
World" feministshave tried to repress,includingmyselfin my readingsof B
Superluminalbeforebeingcalledto accountby 7ne Sofoulis,whosediffer- 9
ent location in the world system'sinformaticsof domination made her 40
acutely alert to the imperialist moment of all sciencefiction cultures, I

including women'ssciencefiction. From an Australianfeminist sensitivity, 2

Sofoulis rememberedmore readily Mclntyre's role as writer of the adven- 3
tures of Captain Kirk and Spockin ffs StarTiel<seriesthan her rewriting 4
the romancein Superluminnl. 5
Monsters have alwaysdefined the limits of community in Western 6
imaginations.The Centaursand Amazonsof ancient Greece established 47
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47 4 . Ar t if ic ial Lif e: C r i t i c a l C o n t e x t s

1 the limits of the centeredpolis of the Greekmale human by their disrup-

1 tion of marriageand boundarypollutions of the warrior with animality and
woman.Unseparatedtwins and hermaphrodites were the confusedhuman
4 material in early modern Francewho groundeddiscourseon the natural
5 and supematural,medicaland legal,portentsand diseases - all crucial to
6 establishingmodern identiry.The evolutionaryand behavioralsciencesof
7 monkeysand apeshavemarkedthe multiple boundariesof late twentieth-
B century industrial identities.Cyborg monstersin feminist sciencefiction
9 define quite different politicalpossibilitiesand limits from thoseproposed
l0 by the mundanefiction of Man and Woman.
I
I There are severalconsequencesto taking seriouslythe imagery of
2 cyborgsasother than our enemies.Our bodies,ourselves;bodiesare maps
5 of power and identity.Cyborgsare no exception.A cyborgbodyis not inno-
4 cent; it was not born in a garden;it doesnot seekunitary identity and so
5 generateantagonisticdualismswithout end (or until the world ends); it
6 takes irony for granted.One is too few, and two is only one possibility.
7 Intensepleasurein skill, machineskill, ceasesto be a sin, but an aspectof
a embodiment.The machineis not an it to be animated,worshipped,and
9 dominated.The machine is us, our processes,an aspectof our embodi-
20 ment. We can be responsiblefor machines;theydo not dominateor ttreaten
I us. We areresponsiblefor boundaries;we arethey.Up till now (onceupon
a time), femaleembodimentseemedto be given,organic,necessary;and
femaleembodimentseemedto mean skill in motheringand its metaphor-
4 ic extensions.Only by beingout of placecould we take intensepleasurein
( machines,and then with excusesthat this was organicactivity after all,
6 appropriateto females.Cyborgsmight considermore seriouslythe partial,
7 fluid, sometimesaspectof sexand sexualembodiment.Gendermight not
8 be global identity after all, even if it has profound historicalbreadth and
9 depth.
30 The ideologicallychargedquestionof what counts as daily activity,as
t experience,can be approachedby exploitingthe cyborgimage.Feminists
z haverecendyclaimedthat women aregivento dailiness,that women more
3 than men somehowsustaindailylife, and sohavea privilegedepistemolog-
A
1 ical position potentially.There is a compellingaspectto this claim, one
that makesvisibleunvaluedfemaleactivityand namesit as the groundof
6 life. But the groundof life?What aboutall the ignoranceof women,all the
7 exclusionsand failuresof knowledgeand skill?What about men'saccess
B to daily competence,to knowinghow to build things,to take them apart,
q
to play?What about other embodiments?Cyborggenderis a local possi-
40 bihty takinga globalvengeance. Race,gender,and capitalrequirea cyborg
I theory of wholesand parts.There is no drive in cyborgsto produce total
2 theory but there is an intimate experienceof boundaries,their construc-
3 tion and deconstruction.Thereis a myth systemwaitingto becomea polit-
4 ical languageto groundone way of lookingat scienceand technologyand
challengingthe informaticsof domination- in order to act potently.
6 One last image:organismsand organismic,holistic politics dependon
47 metaphorsof rebirth and invariablycall on the resourcesof reproductive
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Haraway: A Cyborg Manifesto r 47 5

sex. I would suggestthat cyborgshave more to do with regenerationand 1

are suspiciousof the reproductivematrix and of most birthing. For sala- )
manders,regenerationafter injury such as the loss of a limb, involves
regrowthof structureand restorationof function with the constantpossi- .,
bility of twinning or other odd topographicalproductionsat the site of for- 5
mer injury. The regrownlimb can be monstrous,duplicated,potent. We 6
haveall beeninjured,profoundly.We requireregeneration, not rebirth, and 7
the possibilitiesfor our reconstitutioninclude the utopian dream of the B
hope for a monstrousworld without gender. 9
Cyborgimagerycan help expresstwo crucial argumentsin this essay: 10
.l
First, the productionof universal,totalizingtheoryis a major mistakethat
missesmost of reality,probablyalways,but certainlynow; and second,tak- 2
ing responsibilityfor the socialrelationsof scienceand technologymeans a

refusingan anti-sciencemetaphysics,a demonologyof technology,and so 4

meansembracingthe skillful task of reconstructingthe boundariesof daily 5
life, in partial connectionwith others,in communicationwith all of our 6
parts.It is not just that scienceand technologyarepossiblemeansof greaf 7
human satisfaction,as well as a matrix of complex dominations.Cyborg B
imagerycan suggesta way out of the mazeof dualismsin which we have 9
explainedour bodiesand our tools to ourselves.This is a dream not of a 20
commonIanguage,but of a powerfulinfidel heteroglossia. It is an imagina- I

tion of a feminist speakingin tonguesto strike fear into the circuits of the 2
supersaversof the new right. It means both building and destroying 3
machines,identities,categories,relationships,spacestories.Though both .tA

are bound in the spiraldance,I would ratherbe a cyborgthan a goddess. 5

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