Discussing the Application of Theories
Posthumanism relates to social justice because it encompasses the future capabilities of the human race. This concept then, relates to environmental justice because, with hope, we will be able to open our minds to change our destructive habits of the earth. With transhumanism, cybernetics, and cyborg theory in mind, I read some posthumanistic literature. On this page, I will highlight the ideas that pertain to our posthumanistic concepts.
Cybernetics
Neil Badmington’s “Theorizing Posthumanism” points out that posthumanism should not be viewed as the apocalypse of humanism. He makes the realization that many individuals might begin to think that machines are going to take over humans. He talks about Hayles and how she reveals the dangers of posthumanism becoming apocalyptic. In How We Became Posthuman, Hayles references Hans Moravec's Mind Children: The Future of Robot and Human Intelligence and a scene in which an individual's consciousness is uploaded into a computer and wakes up feeling no different. However, anthropologist Amber Case chimes in, "it's not that machines are taking over. It's that they're helping us to be more human, helping us to connect with each other." (Case, 2010). Our seemingly frightening advancements in technology can actually help us stay in touch with our humanity as well as further us in our scientific developments.
Hayles then goes on to talk about Philip K. Dick’s short story, “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” in an interview with Arthur Piper for Edinburgh University Press. She talks about Dick as an author in response to cybernetics. She believes that Dick saw what was really at stake in the cybernetic hypothesis. “He expressed it very powerfully, not only through visions of the future but also through expressions of affect, how people would feel about the cybernetic paradigm, what kinds of emotions and deep unconscious responses it would unleash. The idea that affective forces might be at work in the de-centering of the human subject is implicit in the cybernetic texts.” But cyberneticians, due to scientific tradition, did not deal with these “affective consequences”. Hayles believes that works like Dick’s can serve as a resource to understand the implications cyberneticians have not yet delved into in such scientific paradigms.
The evolution of the adaptable human may someday possibly create a cybernetic organism or more unconventional human that, like in Dick’s short story , needs to have its brain stimulated by a machine simply to perform everyday emotional functions. That may be a bit of a stretch to conceptualize; however, if someday humans are able to eliminate emotion, we may be able to see past our own wants and start putting the earth’s needs slightly above ours.
In Dick's short story, Deckard and his wife, Iran, along with the rest of the human population that is still on Earth, are programmed to “dial” their moods into the Penfield artificial brain stimulation. This is an example of humanity evolving – for better or worse.
If someday humans were in control of our own evolution, then natural evolution would be replaced by a deliberate change. If we can change ourselves with technology, perhaps we will not need to rely on our planet’s precious resources as much. However, by this time, we may have already used up most of these allocations (Withgott, 87).
Cyborg Theory
Samuel R. Delany’s novel Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand is a philosophical tale of science fiction. In a galaxy with over 6,000 worlds, two humans find each other and attempt to make worlds come together through love. The novel latches onto Haraway’s conceptions of cyborgs. The characters all have a technological advancement, called General Information, located in their brain stems. In short, the beings in this novel are mental cyborgs. Delany introduces a main conflict of the novel called “cultural fugue”: a state of incurable escape of cultural and technological complexity that destroys all life on a world via a singularity. The concept of the technological singularity is a very posthuman notion and also ties in with Hayles and Badmington’s preconceived ideas of fearing what we know not of. The hypothesis that accelerating advancements made in the field of technology will cause a snowball effect where artificial intelligence will surpass human intellectual command, radically changing our society (Colombetti, 2014).
Posthumanism and its intentions simply represent a kind of humanism after humanism. With intellectual and physical advancements to our society we can hopefully progress into a sustainable organism that does not extract all of earth’s vivacity and leave it dry.To begin our commitment to action, we should read literature. We can develop our minds to be more open and curious to technological advancements so we can advance and start a transhuman revolution that will lead us to our posthuman era. Literature will make us more receptive to other kinds of knowledge.
Transhumanism
The main concept of this theory, similar to cyborg theory, is to make technologies available to enhance human intellectual and physical capacities (Bostrom, 2005). Professor of Philosophy at Oxford University, Nick Bostrom, points out that in Aldous Huxley's A Brave New World and George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four technology is not employed to increase human capabilities, it is used to repress them. Bioethicist James Hughes argues in his novel Citizen Cyborg:Why Democratic Societies Must Respond to the Redesigned Human of the Future, that we will achieve the optimal posthuman future when we ensure that technologies are safe, widely available to everyone, and respect the right of individuals to control their own bodies (Hughes, 2004).
We see how transhumanism is applicable in literature such as science and speculative fiction; however, it can also be applicable in our own lives, right now. Founders of Humanity+, a transhumanistic organization that aim to influence a new generation of thinkers, have taken it upon themselves to emphasize how we are modifying ourselves presently. Common things such as, "exercise, healthy diet, relaxation techniques, time management, study skills, information technology, coffee or tea (as stimulants), education, and nutritional supplements (such as vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, or hormones)" we partake in daily. Other modifications that we may not employ such as: cryonic suspension, chewing nicotine gum to enhance memory, pharmacological mood drugs, or sex reassignment surgery are also forms of technological adaptions.