Disembodiment in Cyberspace Is Not a Myth

After reading the article " Disembodiment is a Cyberspace Myth: Discourse and the Self in Real Space, " by Steve Stanley, I was struck by a number of issues. 1 I did not think the author proved conclusively (or in any way) that dis-embodiment is a cyberspace myth. The techniques and methodology did not prove this point, although he raised a number of interesting questions. One central issue is, what is disembodiment? The author refers to an article by Sadie Plant, where she " charts the progression of Internet technology and its implications from the perspective of Cyberfeminism. " He discusses this only in brief and its relationship to postmod-ern rhetoric. Unfortunately, the author did not do justice to the concept of postmodernism, posthumanism, or concepts concerning disem-bodiment in cyberspace. As a consequence, he created a straw man, which he never subsequently dealt with in his paper. What is disembodiment? I would refer readers to the book How We Became Posthuman, by N. Katherine Hales, 2 who does a wonderful job of explaining posthumanism and the relationship of posthumanism to disembodiment. As Stanley implies, cyberspace, and for that matter , any communication technology, attempts to reembody the interface, whether or not it is e-mail, a letter, beating drums, or playing a musical instrument. There are ways in which we attempt to intone and convey the texture of human relatedness. But the fact is disembodiment is disembodiment. We can see cyberspace as being on a continuum. An e-mail is far removed from face-to-face interactions, as Stan-ley suggests in his paper. Oddly enough, he never talks about interpersonal space or the role of emotions, affects, and their suggested significance in interpersonal communication. His is an argument based on cognitive constructs and intellectual discourse—not " embodied " communication. Of further importance in this context is the work of Antonio R. Damasio, a neurologist, who attempts to deal with issues about the human brain and the necessity for human inter-personal relatedness or the embodiment of human communication to foster and clarify decision-making and cognitive processing. 3 Damasio has written extensively on this topic, and his work would suggest that anything less than face-to-face interaction is a degraded form of interpersonal communication. Disembodi-ment impedes decision-making and communication. Discourse without embodiment is ill-fated discourse. The issues about embodiment, disembodi-ment, cyberspace, rhetoric, and communication are critical. From my perspective, a reembodi-ment of human relatedness within cyberspace will …