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cyborg and age: time warp of existence
Interview with a 86 year old cyborg
Margarethe Koller,
born 10.03.1911 in Vienna. Cyborg degree: very high.
Cyborg features: dentures, hearing aids, glasses,
heart pace maker, metal wires to hold together the
chest bone after heart surgery, a metal implant
on the pinkie toe after removal of the bone, TV as the
only device to make contact to an external world
since she cannot leave the house anymore. Self-declared: still-human
Background:
Born 1911 in Vienna into the working class,
she grew up with basic education and
became a tailor and housewife with a husband and
two daughters.
Q1. When you were a kid, what sort of media/technologies
were around then?
A1. Well, a lot of newspapers, if that what you mean
by media, and technologies .. well, I guess you mean computers,
-we just were using machines. That means, the industry was.
At home we were washing our clothes with our hands
and we were even making the soap. In my family, the only one
who was actually reading the newspaper was my father.
He was making covers for books and folders, so he was using
machines. You must understand, that automobiles were then
known but no one of the regular people had one. Even the
emperor (I saw him once on Ringstrasse) was using
a horse carriage.
Later, when I was a little older, say fifteen, the cinema
was a very popular place to visit. To get news and it was
also a form of entertainment. My piano teacher was playing
in one of those theaters and I often went to see her.
If it was not for her, I probably would not have been
allowed to go there.
Q2. What about photography?
A2. Yes, there was photography at the time. My father used to
take us on special occasions -it was expensive
you know. I still have some of the
pictures from back then. They are nice memories. For me it was
always really exciting to go and it was very special for me.
Q3. What role did radio play for you and when did you get your
first radio?
A3. We got a radio in the early thirties. Not many people
in our house had one, but again my father was really keen
on these things. My mother did not like it
too much because she was very musical and
hated the sounds of this box.
During the Second War it was important
because we were getting news. Then I got married,
and 1935 we moved into our house and my husband got
a radio. He liked to come home and play it. Our daughters
grew up with radio and like the popular music, especially
when they were older in the fifties (they were teenagers then).
I was not so important for me, but for the girls it was good
entertainment and modern.
Q4. When did you get a television?
A4. Not until very late. We did not have a lot on money and
we never had one as long as my husband was alive. My son-in law
gave us an old black and white one in 1968, but we did not
watch so much, not as much now anyway.
Q5. Do you watch a lot now?
A5. I guess so. In the morning the news, at lunch the
news and in the evening news again and broadcasts with
traditional Austrian folk music. But I go to bed early
so now I don’t watch much of the police-films, as I used
to when my grand-children were small. ..also western-movies,
yeah, I liked those!
I don’t see very well, even with glasses and I have difficulty
hearing even with my hearing aids.
Q6. Why do you watch TV? For the news or for entertainment?
A6. You see, in the last 3 years, my health has drastically worsen.
I used to be very active and I did not have many health problem, nothing
severe anyway, and suddenly, I can't even leave the house. That’s really
horrible for me so I watch TV to pass some time. I used to play
a few instruments every day, up until my health did not permit it,
and what is the worst for me is not being able to do the things that
I did all my life. Sometimes I think that I am just waiting to die.
My family is taking really good care of me though and at least
I am not all alone in this.
Q7. You also have a pace maker and a metal toe implant.
A7. Yes, I had heart surely last year. They did not even want
to let me do this surgery because the doctors told me that I was
too old for such a heavy dose of anesthesia. But I was in really bad
shape and I decided: either this is my chance or I prefer to die.
And I am still here .. limited in what I can do (as I said, I can
hardy leave the house and I can't work) but I am here.
Q8. On your x-rays of the pace maker, you can really see the
technology interwoven in your body. Do you ever think about
this technology inside of you?
A8. Not really. I don't understand in detail what they did. I know
that it helps my heart and that I am alive because of it.
If you want to put it this way..that this piece of technology is
inside of me..sure I guess that is not false but the only thing
that matters for me is what it does for me.
Q9. Do you listen to your heart? Do you feel the metal inside of you?
A9. I don’t feel anything of that. Sometimes, I do though, then I
stop and "listen" and that's strange. I am usually just concerned
that it keeps working fine. But I think that medicine and all that
has developed to such a great point that I guess it just works,
but don't ask me how and why!
Q10. What has changed for you in these past years that you have
come to live with a lot of technologies, starting from dentures and
hearing aids, right down to the pace maker?
A10. What has changed..I don't really know..I am older and the old
machine, my body, is just not working as well as it used to (laughter)
and I have to restrain myself and watch myself. It did not
all happen at once but gradually I needed more and more of
medical devices to help me.
Q11. Is it helping you to live?
A11. Yes, sure.
12. Do you know what a cyborg is?
A12. No I am sorry I don't.
Q13. Some would say that you are a cyborg, because you carry so much
technology inside of you that you even need to live. Cyborg is
a term that describes a life form that is partial human, partial
something technology.
A13. But I am still human. I have some technology but a lot of
it I don't see and I don't pay so much attention to it.
It's more what it does for me that is important for me.
I only have these things because my body was not working
well. They help me.
Q14. Do you think that these technologies prolong your life?
A14. I don't know. When god wants to take me to him he will.
I really don't know why he is taking so much time with me!
(Laughter) But they help me, sure, with whatever.
Q15. Throughout your life, a lot of media and technologies entered
your everyday life, such as the radio, later television, and
in age medical devices. What do you think about that?
A15. I never really thought about it.
Those were not the only things that changed.
What I saw more is how morals changed and what is important
in the life of a person. It is really different from when
I was young.
Q16. Do you think that it might be because of technology or media?
A16. Maybe the television. Some of the movies that they show I find
outrageous, but like I say, the morals are different today.
Maybe there aren't even any, that's possible too.
Q17. If you knew today that you would have another 50 years to
live, would you want to know how to use a computer?
A17. What for? I don't know what it does? I am a tailor
and I like to play music and do the garden. And that is what
I would do the next fifty years .. and maybe when my grandchildren
have children themselves, I would baby-sit them. Kids are wonderful!
Q18. But you also were not so keen on radio and television at
first, and then it gradually became a part of your life.
The same could happen with computers.
A18. Maybe, I don't know. Then I guess I would use it.
Q19. Would you call yourself a cyborg then?
A19. I am starting to like this word: cyborg. I suppose if I was
going to live another 50 years, I'd have to learn terms like this
and yes, maybe I would call myself a cyborg (unless I discover that
it is something dirty).
Q20. It's nothing dirty.
A20. Then you can go on and call me a cyborg.
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