Dirt Circus League : power and belonging in posthuman young adult fiction

This creative practice-led thesis consists of a creative work titled Dirt Circus League, which tells of a female teenaged medical intuitive who follows an enigmatic cult leader to his isolated home in Cape York, and an exegesis. The exegesis explores the representations and complexities of neuroscience and posthumanism in contemporary young adult fiction. The exegesis also discusses how the mechanics of storytelling changed the novel's original focus from one of neuroscience in relation to impacts and effects on teenage brains to the broader social concerns of posthumanism.

La idea más peligrosa del mundo : hacia una crítica de la antropología transhumanista

Resumen: En este trabajo examino aspectos filosóficos del transhumanismo, en particular en lo que se refiere a su antropología filosófica y la filosofía de la tecnología que se halla implicada en esta. Me enfoco en la ingeniería genética y la “evolución dirigida”, una narrativa central en la promoción de un futuro “posthumano” que –según el transhumanismo– traerá beneficios en gran escala para la humanidad. Argumento que el transhumanismo avanza una teoría deliberativa de los valores en un contexto que favorece la lógica de mercado para la comercialización y distribución de los bienes prometidos por la reprogenética. Esta teoría deliberativa, a su vez, se basa en una visión antropológica con fuertes raíces humanistas. Argumento que esta estrategia del transhumanismo nos lleva a profundas contradicciones, dado que la lógica individualista-mercantilista no conlleva lógicamente a un beneficio global en lo que concierne a la “naturaleza” humana.

To tremble the zero: art in the age of algorithmic reproduction

'To Tremble the Zero: Art in the Age of Algorithmic Reproduction' is a philosophic, political and sensuous journey playing with (and against) Benjamin's 'Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction'. In an age inundated by the 'post-': postmodernity, posthuman, post art, postsexual, post-feminist, post-society, post-nation, etc, 'To Tremble the Zero' sets out to re/present the nature of what it means to do or make 'art', as well as what it means to be or have 'human/ity' when the ground is nothing other than the fractal, and algorithmically infinite, combinations of zero and one. The work will address also the unfortunate way in which modern forms of metaphysics continue to creep 'unsuspectingly' into our understanding of contemporary media/electronic arts, despite (or perhaps even because of) the attempts by Latour, Badiou, or Agamben especially when addressing the zero/one as if a contradictory 'binary' rather than as a kind of 'slice' or (to use Deleuze and Guattari) an immanent plane of immanence. This work argues that by retrieving Benjamin, Einstein, Gödel, and Haraway, a rather different story of art can be told.

Critical autopoiesis and the materiality of law

Autopoietic theory is increasingly seen as a candidate for a radical theory of law, both in relation to its theoretical credentials and its relevance in terms of new and emerging forms of law. An aspect of the theory that has remained less developed, however, is its material side, and more concretely the theory’s accommodation of bodies, space, objects and their claim to legal agency. The present article reads Luhmann’s theory of autopoietic systems in a radical and material manner, linking it on the one hand to current post-structural theorisations of law and society, and on the other hand extending its ambit to accommodate the influx of material considerations that have been working their way through various other disciplines. The latter comprises both a materialisation of the theory itself and ways of conceptualising the legal system as material through and through. This I do by further developing what I have called Critical Autopoiesis, namely an acentric, topological, post-ecological and posthuman understanding of Luhmann’s theory, that draws on Deleuzian thought, feminist theory, geography, non-representational theory, and new material and object-oriented ontologies. These are combined with some well-rehearsed autopoietic concepts, such as distinction, environment and boundaries; Luhmann’s earlier work on materiality continuum; more recent work on bodies and space; as well as his work on form and medium in relation to art. The article concludes with five suggestions for an understanding of what critical autopoietic materiality might mean for law.

Comment: The Instagram Lawscape

Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos has recently published a collection of what he calls “picpoems”, which were poems inspired by pictures that he took using an iPhone. The pictures were taken and subsequently listened to through a posthuman methodology, which resulted in his composition of the poems. This comment comprises a conversation between Pravin Jeyaraj and Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos, in which Jeyaraj explores how the picpoems offer a visualisation of being inside the lawscape, which is an environment created by an invisible law. He argues that the role of law is to highlight the lack of control we have over our bodies and how suicide is the only way we can have any form of control over our escape.

Culture du corps et technosciences : vers une « mise à niveau » technique de l’humain? Analyse des représentations du corps soutenues par le mouvement transhumaniste

L’intérêt marqué porté actuellement aux recherches NBIC (nano-bio-info-cognitivo technologies) visant l’optimisation des capacités humaines augure d’un profond bouleversement dans nos représentations du corps humain et du rapport humain-machine. Tour à tour, des travaux issus des domaines du génie génétique, de la pharmacologie, des biotechnologies ou des nanotechnologies nous promettent un corps moins sujet à la maladie, mieux « adapté » et surtout plus malléable. Cette construction en laboratoire d’un corps amélioré fait amplement écho aux préoccupations contemporaines concernant la santé parfaite, le processus de vieillissement, l’inaptitude, l’apparence, la performance, etc. En vue d’analyser les transformations qu’induisent ces recherches sur les représentations du corps, nous avons construit un modèle théorique appuyé, d’une part, sur des travaux en sociologie du corps et, d’autre part, sur des travaux en épistémologie des sciences. Puis, en scrutant différents textes de vulgarisation scientifique produits par des chercheurs transhumanistes – militant ouvertement en faveur d’une optimisation radicale des capacités humaines par le biais des technosciences –, il a été observé que les représentations du corps s’organisent autour de trois principaux noyaux. Le corps humain est présenté, dans ce discours, comme étant à la fois informationnel, technologiquement perfectible et obsolète. Cette représentation tripartite du corps permet aux transhumanistes d’ériger leur modèle d’action (i.e. amélioration des capacités physiques, intellectuelles, sensitives, émotionnelles, etc.) à titre de nécessité anthropologique. À leurs yeux, l’amélioration des conditions humaines doit passer par une mutation contrôlée de la biologie (i.e. une hybridation avec la machine) du fait que le corps serait « inadapté » au monde contemporain. Ainsi, les promesses NBIC, une fois récupérées par les chercheurs transhumanistes, se voient exacerbées et prennent une tonalité péremptoire. Ceci contribue vivement à la promotion du posthumain ou du cyborg, soit d’un individu transformé dans l’optique d’être plus robuste et intelligent, de moduler sa sensitivité et ses états émotifs et de vivre plus longtemps, voire indéfiniment. Enfin, situé à mi-chemin entre la science et la science-fiction, ce projet est qualifié de techno-prophétie en ce qu’il produit d’innombrables prévisions basées sur les avancées technoscientifiques actuelles et potentielles. Afin d’accroître l’acceptabilité sociale de leur modèle d’action, les transhumanistes ne font pas uniquement appel à la (potentielle) faisabilité technique; ils s’appuient également sur des valeurs socialement partagées, telles que l’autodétermination, la perfectibilité humaine, l’égalité, la liberté ou la dignité. Néanmoins, la lecture qu’ils en font est parfois surprenante et rompt très souvent avec les conceptions issues de la modernité. À leur avis, le perfectionnement humain doit s’opérer par le biais des technosciences (non des institutions sociales), sur le corps même des individus (non sur l’environnement) et en vertu de leur « droit » à l’autodétermination compris comme un droit individuel d’optimiser ses capacités. De même, les technosciences doivent, disent-ils, être démocratisées afin d’en garantir l’accessibilité, de réduire les inégalités biologiques et de permettre à chacun de renforcer son sentiment d’identité et d’accomplissement. L’analyse du discours transhumaniste nous a donc permis d’observer leurs représentations du corps de même que la résonance culturelle du projet qu’ils proposent.

Posthumanité et subjectivité transcendante dans l’œuvre de Philip K. Dick

La problématique à l’étude dans ce mémoire est la représentation et conceptualisation de la notion de posthumanité dans trois romans de Philip K.Dick : The Three Stigmata Of Palmer Eldritch, Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? et Ubik. L’analyse de ces romans nous permettra de montrer que l’auteur américain focalise sa réflexion sur le posthumain sur la subjectivité transcendante de personnages qui absorbent, et se substituent à la réalité d’autres personnages dans leur environnement. Nous montrerons également que l’écriture de Dick a évolué vers une vision plus spirituelle ou mystique en se détachant graduellement du récit de science-fiction traditionnel. Ce développement aura des répercussions significatives sur sa postérité cyberpunk.

La société de l'amélioration : le renversement de la perfectibilité humaine, de l'humanisme des Lumières à l'humain augmenté

Thèse réalisée en cotutelle, entre l'Université de Montréal, au Département de Sociologie, et l'Université de Rennes 1, à la Faculté de Droit et de Science Politique

Prosthetics: a user guide for posthumans

Book review of 'The prosthetic impulse: from a posthuman present to a biocultural future', edited by M. Smith and J. Morra.

Nonhuman empires

The themed section “Nonhuman Empires” contributes to a critique of anthropocentrism in the field of imperial history. It reveals the variety of ways in which the historical trajectories of nonhuman animals and empires both intersected and informed one another. Beyond merely rehabilitating nonhuman themes in conversations about imperial history, it provides a platform for rethinking both nonhumans and empires as they are envisioned conventionally in the historiography. This introductory article begins by situating this special section as a conversation between science studies and animal studies, on the one hand, and the historiography of empires, on the other. It then suggests ways to reconceptualize agency, subjects, nonhumans, and empire by combining certain shared concerns of subaltern studies and actor-network theory. Finally, it emphasizes the need to integrate postcolonial critiques with emerging scholarship about the posthuman.

Models of complexity in Robert Coover's John's wife and the adventures of Lucky Pierre

This doctoral dissertation analyzes two novels by the American novelist Robert Coover as examples of hypertextual writing on the book bound page, as tokens of hyperfiction. The complexity displayed in the novels, John's Wife and The Adventures of Lucky Pierre, integrates the cultural elements that characterize the contemporary condition of capitalism and technologized practices that have fostered a different subjectivity evidenced in hypertextual writing and reading, the posthuman subjectivity. The models that account for the complexity of each novel are drawn from the concept of strange attractors in Chaos Theory and from the concept of rhizome in Nomadology. The transformations the characters undergo in the degree of their corporeality sets the plane on which to discuss turbulence and posthumanity. The notions of dynamic patterns and strange attractors, along with the concept of the Body without Organs and Rhizome are interpreted, leading to the revision of narratology and to analytical categories appropriate to the study of the novels. The reading exercised throughout this dissertation enacts Daniel Punday's corporeal reading. The changes in the characters' degree of materiality are associated with the stages of order, turbulence and chaos in the story, bearing on the constitution of subjectivity within and along the reading process. Coover's inscription of planes of consistency to counter linearity and accommodate hypertextual features to the paper supported narratives describes the characters' trajectory as rhizomatic. The study led to the conclusion that narrative today stands more as a regime in a rhizomatic relation with other regimes in cultural practice than as an exclusively literary form and genre. Besides this, posthuman subjectivity emerges as class identity, holding hypertextual novels as their literary form of choice.

Os desafios de Prometeu em uma era fáustica: as ideologias do pós-humano

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

O que queremos ser quando crescermos? Diálogos imaginários com um trans-humanista

Through an imaginary dialogue with a defender of the transhumanism – whose most significant representative is the philosopher Nick Bostrom – this paper aims to critically evaluate the ethical legitimacy of becoming a posthuman when we grow up. After a characterization of the transhumanist project and a definition of posthuman condition, the axiological reasons that underlie the desire to become a posthuman are examined.In a second momentit will be discussed the issue of whether we should want to be a posthuman when we grow up. A comparison is carried out between the relative strength of the arguments for the legitimacy of the transhumanist project and the possible objections, which are mainly based in an appeal to the idea of human nature, that are usually produced by the critics of transhumanism, such as Francis Fukuyama. Finally, the real possibilities of becoming a post human are outlined and, considering the uncertainty about the future and the difference between what can and what should be done, we are asked toreally think about what we want to be.