Perspectives Part 4

 Post humanism 

In this lecture, post humanism and surrounding subjects were explored. It was highlighted that the definition of human is vague and arbitrary, which is why its discussion is so vast. The expanse of post humanism could only be introduced within this lecture:

Notes

·        A cyborg Manifestation, Donna J. Haraway – wrote about posthumanism. She looked towards ideas of identity, gender and politics. Bodily realities – a cyborg world might break down our ideas of identity, since we would only be partially human.

·        Post is a transition, a period of time, and divergence of something else.

·        Materialism rejects philosophical ideas; it believes consciousness is a biological process.

·        Humanism puts the human in the centre, a humancentric point of view. Posthumanism is a divergence, it looks at a larger network of agencies that are all affecting each other. Posthumanism is disseminating what it is to be human; we are a product of technology.

·        We became human when we evolved into the homosapien genus. However, this is an ambiguous definition of human.

·        The Anthropocene – A smaller part of the Holocene. Decides to put the human being at the centre of the argument (we’ve gone past the Holocene) Humans are changing the course of nature for everything. Criticized massively, how it looks at western and puts it at the centre of the debate.

·        The Holocene – the latest interval of geological time.

·        Transhumanism – human enhancement. Roots in the enlightenment period, ideas of progress and rationality. A consideration of science and technology.

·        Democratic transhumanism – asks for these enhancements to be available to all to avoid discrimination and unfair advantages that enhancements afford.

·        Libertarian transhumanism – these advancements to be part of the free marks to help development of the enhancements to the best they can be.

·        Transhumanism suggests we are not posthuman yet. We are transitioning, perhaps to a new sub species (cyborg).

·        Posthumanism – is a thought process. We can be posthuman now. It is an existential approach – a way to exist in the world.

·        Post – Humanism – past the notion of human, not as one but as many. Human is made up of many ideas; race, class, nationality, ethnicity, gender, creed, disability. This shows a discrimination of what human is and makes the notion comparative in nature often bringing some ‘humans’ to become superior to others. Some are more human than others. It could be discussed as an effect of post modernism. The movement away from authority and the singular voice and a challenge of metanarratives.

·        Dualist mentality – the post-human moves away from that,

·        Post Dualism – A discriminatory process in which we define ourselves in relation to others. This could be considered a social technology. The human cannot be considered in a dualistic term in accordance with post-dualism. Post dualism asks us to consider the human as interconnected, relational and in co-existence. A move away from the dual perspectives aforementioned.

·        The body doesn’t sop at the surface of our skin. The extension of our reality reaches into everything else around us.

• Read: The ant humanist manifesto.