Deterioration of Boundaries: Organic Matter and Technology
As demonstrated by the representation of the cyborg (or cyborg comparisons), within the medium of film as relayed by popular culture, one is able to note progressive similarities that exist within the various films. For instance, a common theme within the different science fiction mediums is the desire to possess "humanness" in an attempt to compensate for the absence of "human" understanding and knowledge. However, as represented by Johnny Five, and Data, is that although both characters sought the elusive notion of "human" understanding and intellect, they were presented via the medium of film with individualized personalities and characteristics. The contradiction due to the representation of "cyborg-like" characters is a result of the deterioration of the boundaries that separate the organic from technology.

Nevertheless, the deterioration of the boundaries provides for a future projection of the cyborg by presenting a "living" alternative, i.e., the ambiguous nature of the technological construction of the body, with the desire for humanness, allows for a synthesis of once remote mediums. A conglomeration of the organic with technology provides a nouveau synthesis that allows for the postmodern argument of fragmentation in respect to the construction of identity. Despite the technological undertones of one's identity, or the construction of one's "person," the "humanness" remains. However, the deterioration of boundaries that previously separated the "organic" human from technology, have thus created a platform for the inclusion of two differing mediums, i.e. the cyborg. The cyborg thus translates within popular culture to a fictive construction of the "infinite" capabilities of technology, combined with the characteristics that are identifiable in one's self, i.e. the "humanness" of emotion.
Related Links:

The Great Exhibit of 1851

http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/english/

Clayton/318visual_1851.htm

Images of the Crystal Palace

http://www.engl.virginia.edu/~mhc/greatex.html

Three-Dimension Rendition

http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/london/model/
For instance, it is possible to compare the commencement of the organic "humanness" with technology to the notion of the "Crystal Palace." An analogy that is due to the loss of the organic in favor of mass-production as a result of the augmented utilization of technology. The "Crystal Palace," which is oft considered the first modern building, consists of iron and glass, and was constructed according to a gridiron plan - the model subsequently used for the production of skyscrapers. Thus, the "Crystal Palace" can be used as a metaphor for not only the deterioration of the boundaries of organic and technology, it can symbolize the gradual "death" of the organic in favor of the technology as embodied by the modern age. As stated by Celeste Olalquiaga, in The Artificial Kingdom:
The interior of the "Crystal Palace" attempts to compensate for the moden mediums of steel and glass.
Rather than its reaching for a utopian 'natural' experience through technology, one could say the Crystal Palace's best-kept secret was its justified fear of losing a world that it loved all too well but was slowly sacrificing to scientific and industrial progress. With the organic standing metaphorically for use value and for production unmediated by technology (and therefore presumably having a more direct relationship to reality), the loss of the organic was perceived as the death of a dimension from which Western culture had derived a great deal of its meaning for centuries. (42)
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