Cyberculture expert to discuss implications of altering the human body

Chris Hables Gray, a noted cyberculture expert and activist, will discuss the social implications of altering the human body through technology in a lecture at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 3, in the Keck Classroom (G52), Pettengill Hall. Gray will also participate in a panel discussion with Bates professors about scientific responsibility and ethics at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 4, in Room G21, Pettengill. The public is invited to attend both events free of charge. For more information, call 207-786-8293.

Editor of The Cyborg Handbook (Routledge, 1995) and author of the book Postmodern War (Guilford, 1997), Gray is associate professor of computer science and of the cultural studies of science and technology at the University of Great Falls, Montana, and is core faculty for the Union Institute and University. The recipient of fellowships at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, he chairs a weapons and peace group of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility. His work crosses the boundaries of science, technology, politics and philosophy.

Gray’s Feb. 3 talk is titled Cyborgs, Posthumans, and Other Waking Dreams. Short for cybernetic organism, the term “cyborg” refers to an entity with both mechanical and organic qualities.

Titled Terror and Peace in the 21st Century, the Feb. 4 panel considers “how war has become terror and how the international system is being tremendously shaped by new technologies, especially information technologies with profound implications for globalization and our prospects for peace,” Gray says.

Moderated by Bates Professor of Psychology Richard Wagner, the panel includes Gray, professor of physics John Smedley, assistant professor of philosophy Frank Chessa, and associate professor of mathematics Bonnie Shulman. Gray’s visit to Bates is sponsored by the Bates College lecture committee.