Person or entity that exists in a state beyond being human
Posthuman or post-human is a concept originating in the fields of science fiction, futurology, contemporary art, and philosophy that means a person or entity that exists in a state beyond being human.[1] The concept aims at addressing a variety of questions, including ethics and justice, language and trans-species communication, social systems, and the intellectual aspirations of interdisciplinarity.
Posthumanism is not to be confused with transhumanism (the biotechnological enhancement of human beings) and narrow definitions of the posthuman as the hoped-for transcendence of materiality.[2] The notion of the posthuman comes up both in posthumanism as well as transhumanism, but it has a special meaning in each tradition. In 2017, Penn State University Press in cooperation with Stefan Lorenz Sorgner and James Hughes established the Journal of Posthuman Studies,[3] in which all aspects of the concept "posthuman" can be analysed.[4]
In critical theory, the posthuman is a speculative being that represents or seeks to re-conceive the human. It is the object of posthumanist criticism, which critically questions humanism, a branch of humanist philosophy which claims that human nature is a universal state from which the human being emerges; human nature is autonomous, rational, capable of free will, and unified in itself as the apex of existence. Thus, the posthuman position recognizes imperfectability and disunity within oneself, and understands the world through heterogeneous perspectives while seeking to maintain intellectual rigor and dedication to objective observations. Key to this posthuman practice is the ability to fluidly change perspectives and manifest oneself through different identities. The posthuman, for critical theorists of the subject, has an emergent ontology rather than a stable one; in other words, the posthuman is not a singular, defined individual, but rather one who can "become" or embody different identities and understand the world from multiple, heterogeneous perspectives.[5]
Approaches to posthumanism are not homogeneous, and have often been very critical. The term itself is contested, with one of the foremost authors associated with posthumanism, Manuel de Landa, decrying the term as "very silly."[6] Covering the ideas of, for example, Robert Pepperell's The Posthuman Condition, and Hayles's How We Became Posthuman under a single term is distinctly problematic due to these contradictions.
The posthuman is roughly synonymous with the "cyborg" of A Cyborg Manifesto by Donna Haraway.[citation needed][7] Haraway's conception of the cyborg is an ironic take on traditional conceptions of the cyborg that inverts the traditional trope of the cyborg whose presence questions the salient line between humans and robots. Haraway's cyborg is in many ways the "beta" version of the posthuman, as her cyborg theory prompted the issue to be taken up in critical theory.[8] Following Haraway, Hayles, whose work grounds much of the critical posthuman discourse, asserts that liberal humanismwhich separates the mind from the body and thus portrays the body as a "shell" or vehicle for the mindbecomes increasingly complicated in the late 20th and 21st centuries because information technology puts the human body in question. Hayles maintains that we must be conscious of information technology advancements while understanding information as "disembodied," that is, something which cannot fundamentally replace the human body but can only be incorporated into it and human life practices.[9]
The idea of post-posthumanism (post-cyborgism) has recently been introduced.[10][11][12][13][14]This body of work outlines the after-effects of long-term adaptation to cyborg technologies and their subsequent removal, e.g., what happens after 20 years of constantly wearing computer-mediating eyeglass technologies and subsequently removing them, and of long-term adaptation to virtual worlds followed by return to "reality."[15][16] and the associated post-cyborg ethics (e.g. the ethics of forced removal of cyborg technologies by authorities, etc.).[17]
Posthuman political and natural rights have been framed on a spectrum with animal rights and human rights.[18] Posthumanism broadens the scope of what it means to be a valued life form and to be treated as such (in contrast to certain life forms being seen as less-than and being taken advantage of or killed off); it calls for a more inclusive definition of life, and a greater moral-ethical response, and responsibility, to non-human life forms in the age of species blurring and species mixing. [I]t interrogates the hierarchic ordering and subsequently exploitation and even eradication of life forms.[19]
According to transhumanist thinkers, a posthuman is a hypothetical future being "whose basic capacities so radically exceed those of present humans as to be no longer unambiguously human by our current standards."[20] Posthumans primarily focus on cybernetics, the posthuman consequent and the relationship to digital technology. Steve Nichols published the Posthuman Movement manifesto in 1988. His early evolutionary theory of mind (MVT) allows development of sentient E1 brains. The emphasis is on systems. Transhumanism does not focus on either of these. Instead, transhumanism focuses on the modification of the human species via any kind of emerging science, including genetic engineering, digital technology, and bioengineering.[21] Transhumanism is sometimes criticized for not adequately addressing the scope of posthumanism and its concerns for the evolution of humanism.[22]
Posthumans could be completely synthetic artificial intelligences, or a symbiosis of human and artificial intelligence, or uploaded consciousnesses, or the result of making many smaller but cumulatively profound technological augmentations to a biological human, i.e. a cyborg. Some examples of the latter are redesigning the human organism using advanced nanotechnology or radical enhancement using some combination of technologies such as genetic engineering, psychopharmacology, life extension therapies, neural interfaces, advanced information management tools, memory enhancing drugs, wearable or implanted computers, and cognitive techniques.[20]
As used in this article, "posthuman" does not necessarily refer to a conjectured future where humans are extinct or otherwise absent from the Earth.[23] Kevin Warwick says that both humans and posthumans will continue to exist but the latter will predominate in society over the former because of their abilities.[24] Recently, scholars have begun to speculate that posthumanism provides an alternative analysis of apocalyptic cinema and fiction,[25] often casting vampires, werewolves and even zombies as potential evolutions of the human form and being.[26]
Many science fiction authors, such as Greg Egan, H. G. Wells, Isaac Asimov, Bruce Sterling, Frederik Pohl, Greg Bear, Charles Stross, Neal Asher, Ken MacLeod, Peter F. Hamilton and authors of the Orion's Arm Universe,[27] have written works set in posthuman futures.
A variation on the posthuman theme is the notion of a "posthuman god"; the idea that posthumans, being no longer confined to the parameters of human nature, might grow physically and mentally so powerful as to appear possibly god-like by present-day human standards.[20] This notion should not be interpreted as being related to the idea portrayed in some science fiction that a sufficiently advanced species may "ascend" to a higher plane of existencerather, it merely means that some posthuman beings may become so exceedingly intelligent and technologically sophisticated that their behaviour would not possibly be comprehensible to modern humans, purely by reason of their limited intelligence and imagination.[28]
Read the original here:
- Rise of the Posthuman Technocracy : Waking Times [Last Updated On: December 8th, 2016] [Originally Added On: December 8th, 2016]
- Sympathetic Sci-Fi - The New Yorker [Last Updated On: December 8th, 2016] [Originally Added On: December 8th, 2016]
- Noted philosopher to deliver Tanner Lectures on 'Posthuman, All too Human' - Yale News [Last Updated On: February 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2017]
- Are You Living in a Simulation? [Last Updated On: February 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2017]
- The Ethics of Innovation: Creativity, Machines, and Artificial Intelligence - Kootenay News Advertiser [Last Updated On: February 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 9th, 2017]
- Will we control innovation or will it control us? - The Daily Courier (subscription) [Last Updated On: February 12th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 12th, 2017]
- Prairie Pop: NPR's Codrescu breaks down Dadaism's ongoing influence - Little Village [Last Updated On: February 14th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 14th, 2017]
- Btonsalon Center for Art and Research - E-Flux [Last Updated On: February 21st, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 21st, 2017]
- I Love Acid's 10th anniversary compilation comes on a 303-shaped USB stick - FACT [Last Updated On: February 28th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 28th, 2017]
- '10 Years of I Love Acid' compilation comes on a 303-shaped USB ... - Mixmag [Last Updated On: March 1st, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 1st, 2017]
- Things Are Super Weird Right Now, but It's Not a Glitch in the Matrix, Says Harvard Physicist - ScienceAlert [Last Updated On: March 3rd, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 3rd, 2017]
- The Ninja Tune forum has shut down after 19 years - FACT Magazine - FACT [Last Updated On: March 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 7th, 2017]
- At the Spencer, surprises from new Asian artists - Pitch Weekly [Last Updated On: March 8th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 8th, 2017]
- BAK, basis voor actuele kunst - E-Flux [Last Updated On: March 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 9th, 2017]
- Musk and Bostrom's computer simulation theory isn't as crazy as it first sounds - The Plaid Zebra (blog) [Last Updated On: March 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 9th, 2017]
- Why Reality Is Not A Video Game And Why It Matters - New Hampshire Public Radio [Last Updated On: March 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 9th, 2017]
- Why We Are Not In A Computer Simulation Run By Posthumans - NPR - NPR [Last Updated On: March 10th, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 10th, 2017]
- Milano Arch Week - E-Flux [Last Updated On: June 13th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 13th, 2017]
- Our Posthuman Future - Wikipedia [Last Updated On: June 18th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 18th, 2017]
- Why We're Probably Living in a Computer Simulation - Inverse [Last Updated On: June 24th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 24th, 2017]
- Inaugural Issues of the Journal of Posthuman Studies Now Available! - Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies [Last Updated On: June 30th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 30th, 2017]
- Nam June Paik Art Center - E-Flux [Last Updated On: June 30th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 30th, 2017]
- An Interview With Rick Rosner on Women and the Future (Part 4) - The Good Men Project (blog) [Last Updated On: July 10th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 10th, 2017]
- Pulitzer Prize Winner Jorie Graham's Collection of Poetry, 'Fast', Will Haunt You, Beautifully - PopMatters [Last Updated On: July 29th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 29th, 2017]
- Inevitably Posthuman? - The Weekly Standard [Last Updated On: July 29th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 29th, 2017]
- July 31, 2017 - Nam June Paik Art Center - Our Bright Future-Cybernetic Fantasy - E-Flux [Last Updated On: August 4th, 2017] [Originally Added On: August 4th, 2017]
- Posthuman advertising: does AI spell the end of media and marketing as we know it? - Marketing magazine Australia (registration) [Last Updated On: August 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: August 6th, 2017]
- Posthuman age - DAWN.com [Last Updated On: August 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: August 7th, 2017]
- 9th Beyond Humanism Conference Wrap Up - Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies [Last Updated On: August 12th, 2017] [Originally Added On: August 12th, 2017]
- Hall Center for the Humanities events to explore the posthuman condition - KU Today [Last Updated On: August 24th, 2017] [Originally Added On: August 24th, 2017]
- News With Views | Reality Is Often Stranger Than Fiction ... [Last Updated On: February 6th, 2018] [Originally Added On: February 6th, 2018]
- doppelgnger | The Posthuman Marxist [Last Updated On: February 23rd, 2018] [Originally Added On: February 23rd, 2018]
- Posthuman Review People with Meeples [Last Updated On: March 7th, 2018] [Originally Added On: March 7th, 2018]
- Orlan and Stelarc: Manifesting Posthuman Performance ... [Last Updated On: March 7th, 2018] [Originally Added On: March 7th, 2018]
- Harms Way: Posthuman Album Review | Pitchfork [Last Updated On: March 19th, 2018] [Originally Added On: March 19th, 2018]
- Design Diary 1 Posthuman Saga Intro Mighty Boards [Last Updated On: May 7th, 2018] [Originally Added On: May 7th, 2018]
- The Posthuman Project (2014) YIFY - yts.am [Last Updated On: May 28th, 2018] [Originally Added On: May 28th, 2018]
- Ancient Lies & Shiny New Tech: Transhumanists Posthuman Plan [Last Updated On: June 19th, 2018] [Originally Added On: June 19th, 2018]
- The Posthuman 1st Edition - amazon.com [Last Updated On: July 22nd, 2018] [Originally Added On: July 22nd, 2018]
- The Posthuman Project - yts.am [Last Updated On: August 29th, 2018] [Originally Added On: August 29th, 2018]
- Posthuman Ethics, Pain and Endurance | Utrecht Summer School [Last Updated On: September 6th, 2018] [Originally Added On: September 6th, 2018]
- Posthuman: Sanctuary on Steam [Last Updated On: September 25th, 2018] [Originally Added On: September 25th, 2018]
- How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics ... [Last Updated On: December 13th, 2018] [Originally Added On: December 13th, 2018]
- Posthuman - SCP Foundation [Last Updated On: March 22nd, 2019] [Originally Added On: March 22nd, 2019]
- Ex Machina Now on Digital HD + Blu-Ray [Last Updated On: April 20th, 2019] [Originally Added On: April 20th, 2019]
- Producers are losing millions in royalties every year here's what you can do about it - DJ Mag [Last Updated On: September 19th, 2019] [Originally Added On: September 19th, 2019]
- How Far Away Is Immortality? - Science 2.0 [Last Updated On: September 19th, 2019] [Originally Added On: September 19th, 2019]
- HiX-Men Moment of the Week: Mutants are finally treating Magneto like the god he (thinks he) is - Comics Beat [Last Updated On: October 24th, 2019] [Originally Added On: October 24th, 2019]
- X-Men #1 is Already Better Than All of HoXPoX [X-ual Healing 10-16-19] - Bleeding Cool News [Last Updated On: October 24th, 2019] [Originally Added On: October 24th, 2019]
- 'The Expanse' Season 4 Review: Hard science, biological conflicts laced with emotions and action makes space d - MEAWW [Last Updated On: December 13th, 2019] [Originally Added On: December 13th, 2019]
- Moscows Garage Museum Starts Pioneering Online Art Venueand Its More Than a Museum on the Internet - ARTnews [Last Updated On: December 13th, 2019] [Originally Added On: December 13th, 2019]
- Best of 2019: Harm's Way Pick 5 Favorite Albums of Year - Revolver Magazine [Last Updated On: December 27th, 2019] [Originally Added On: December 27th, 2019]
- WIRE Buzz: Stoned Kevin Smith weeps to Onward; The Willoughbys trailer; more - SYFY WIRE [Last Updated On: March 26th, 2020] [Originally Added On: March 26th, 2020]
- Posthuman Saga is the post apocalyptic board game youve been waiting for - Big Boss Battle [Last Updated On: March 26th, 2020] [Originally Added On: March 26th, 2020]
- Gary K. Wolfe Reviews The Hidden Girl and Other Stories by Ken Liu - Locus Online [Last Updated On: April 6th, 2020] [Originally Added On: April 6th, 2020]
- These Are the Must-See TV Shows Premiering in April - HYPEBEAST [Last Updated On: April 6th, 2020] [Originally Added On: April 6th, 2020]
- The Atmospheric Indie Exploration Title In Other Waters Has Been Released! - Happy Gamer [Last Updated On: April 6th, 2020] [Originally Added On: April 6th, 2020]
- Article Posthuman cyborg love? The adaptation of the human body into machine-based offers in the sexual domain submitted, ..to be published... [Last Updated On: May 15th, 2020] [Originally Added On: May 15th, 2020]
- Jaws Is the Perfect Blockbuster - The Ringer [Last Updated On: June 22nd, 2020] [Originally Added On: June 22nd, 2020]
- The Vocoder's Cyborg Flights in Electronic Music and Hip-Hop - Reverb News [Last Updated On: June 22nd, 2020] [Originally Added On: June 22nd, 2020]
- Covid-19 might have injected a new life into the conspiracy theory scene, but the fire was already ablaze - Daily Maverick [Last Updated On: July 12th, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 12th, 2020]
- Posthuman | Literary Theory and Criticism [Last Updated On: July 18th, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 18th, 2020]
- Posthuman | Transhumanism Wiki | Fandom [Last Updated On: July 18th, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 18th, 2020]
- Caitlin Cherry on digital abstraction and Black femininity - Artforum [Last Updated On: July 26th, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 26th, 2020]
- Posthuman | Tardis | Fandom [Last Updated On: July 30th, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 30th, 2020]
- Last and First Men review eerie sounds and unearthly images from a posthuman world - The Guardian [Last Updated On: August 4th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 4th, 2020]
- Updating the Human Algorithm - lareviewofbooks [Last Updated On: August 4th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 4th, 2020]
- posthuman | The Chicago School of Media Theory [Last Updated On: August 7th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 7th, 2020]
- What does it mean to be posthuman? | New Scientist [Last Updated On: August 7th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 7th, 2020]
- Curated by Tan Yue, Study of Things. Or a Brief Story About Fountain, Brick, Tin, Coin, Stone, Shell, Curtain, and Body. at Guangdong Times Museum,... [Last Updated On: August 8th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 8th, 2020]
- Beyond Fermis Paradox VII: What it the Planetarium Hypothesis - Universe Today [Last Updated On: September 2nd, 2020] [Originally Added On: September 2nd, 2020]
- Bring Me The Horizons Oli Sykes: Yungblud is a new breed of rockstar - NME.com [Last Updated On: September 6th, 2020] [Originally Added On: September 6th, 2020]
- Reviewed: The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante - RTE.ie [Last Updated On: September 18th, 2020] [Originally Added On: September 18th, 2020]
- Bring Me The Horizon share behind-the-scenes look at Obey video shoot - NME.com [Last Updated On: September 18th, 2020] [Originally Added On: September 18th, 2020]
- There's a 50-50 Chance We Really Are Living in a Simulation, Scientists Say - IGN Southeast Asia [Last Updated On: October 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: October 21st, 2020]
- Are the Posthumans Here Yet? - JSTOR Daily [Last Updated On: October 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: October 21st, 2020]
- Bring Me The Horizon explain delay in "bigger than intended" EP series - NME.com [Last Updated On: January 5th, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 5th, 2021]
- The sci-fi thriller on Amazon Prime Video with a big twist at the end - CNET [Last Updated On: November 29th, 2021] [Originally Added On: November 29th, 2021]
- Posthuman Ensemble - Announcements - e-flux [Last Updated On: December 14th, 2021] [Originally Added On: December 14th, 2021]
- 'Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 Sustainable War' Ending Explained: Is Togusa compromised? - MEAWW [Last Updated On: May 12th, 2022] [Originally Added On: May 12th, 2022]