In her most basic description, Donna Haraway states that a cyborg is a hybrid between machine and organism. But past this definition, Donna Haraway’s concept of a cyborg serves to open up a conversation about embracing the dualities and multiplicities of identity.
Much of the conversation in this essay is centered around the kind of world that allows for cyborgs as opposed to them as beings themselves. The world that they inhabit is one without gender, and given the questions and assumptions Haraway asks about the future and the comparisons she makes between feminism and marxism, a world where the means of control are far less centralized than they are today.
I think comparing R.U.R. with the Cyborg Manifesto is interesting because while they both cover themes of race and gender but are so contextually different. They both offer critiques of current society, but I found Haraway’s much more nuanced — possible because the time in which is was wrote offered more variety of discussion on the subjects of class and gender — particularly given that the Cyborg Manifesto was written during the crossover between second and third wave feminism, partially in response to second wave feminism. Much of R.U.R. was critical of the way the humans treated robots, and by extension, how owners treat workers — but Haraway speculates of a future where because of technology, the system shifts, and abuse of the worker is less possible due to decentralization. I liked that Haraway’s cyborg was different from R.U.R.’s robot in that it wasn’t just symbolic of a current evil but a lens into a different and better potential future.