Data Doubles and the Specters of Performance in the Bit Parts of Surveillance
JAMES HARDING · 2015
Sometime in the third century after the death of Jesus, two brothers by the name of Cosmas and Damian converted to Christianity. The two lived in the Roman province of Cilicia, located on the Mediterranean coast of what today is southern Turkey. According to legend, the two were martyred by beheading after torture could not compel them to renounce their faith. What is remarkable about the legend of these two brothers is that the depth of their faith was apparently matched only by their skill as physicians. Indeed, that skill was so great that their alleged medical accomplishments were deemed miracles. They were subsequently canonized and ultimately became the patron saints of medicine. Over 48 miracles were credited to the brothers, including the development of remedies against the plague, scabs, scurvy, and even kidney stones (Science Museum 2015). But their most famous miracle involved the reported replacement of a diseased leg of a Roman nobleman with the leg of a recently deceased Ethiopian or, by some accounts, with the leg of one of the nobleman’s slaves (International Society of SS Cosma and Damiano 2015). This act is often depicted in paintings, and considering the fact that the first documented successful leg transplantation occurred in July of 2011 (“History” 2011), Cosmas and Damian’s feat was a miracle by almost any measure, especially since it was apparently accomplished without the vast array of immunosuppressant drugs that are currently necessary to keep the body from rejecting new limbs.