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1. How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics

   In this age of DNA computers and artificial intelligence, information is becoming disembodied even as the "bodies" that once carried it vanish into virtuality. While some marvel at these changes, envisioning consciousness downloaded into a computer or humans "beamed" Star Trek-style, others view them with horror, seeing monsters brooding in the machines. In How We Became Posthuman, N. Katherine Hayles separates hype from fact, investigating the fate of embodiment in an information age.

   Hayles relates three interwoven stories: how information lost its body, that is, how it came to be conceptualized as an entity separate from the material forms that carry it; the cultural and technological construction of the cyborg; and the dismantling of the liberal humanist "subject" in cybernetic discourse, along with the emergence of the "posthuman."

   Jill Walker Rettberg - 29.06.2013 - 23:21

2. The Posthuman

   This book offers an original and accessible introduction to the contemporary debates on the notion of the posthuman. It develops two lines of argument. First, contemporary market economies profit from the control and commodification of all forms of life. 'Second Life', genetically modified food, advanced prosthetics, robotics and reproductive technologies are familiar facets of our globally linked and technologically mediated societies. This high degree of bio-technological development results in hybridization, erasing categorical distinctions between the human and other species, seeds, plants, animals and machines. The dislocations produced by posthuman cultures therefore make possible a critique of anthropocentrism. Post-anthropocentric politics, as exemplified by environmentalism, encompass not only other species but also the sustainability of our planet as a whole.

   Hannah Ackermans - 08.09.2020 - 12:04