Posthumanism

Beyond humanism and anthropocentrism

Can a new kind of humanities—posthumanities—respond to the redefinition of humanity's place in the world by both the technological and the biological or "green" continuum in which the "human" is but one life form among many? Exploring this radical repositioning, Cary Wolfe ranges across bioethics, cognitive science, animal ethics, gender, and disability to develop a theoretical and philosophical approach responsive to our changing understanding of ourselves and our world.

What Is Posthumanism? is an original, thoroughly argued, fundamental redefinition and refocusing of posthumanism. Firmly distinguishing posthumanism from discourses of the ‘posthuman’ or ‘transhumanism,’ this book will be at the center of discussion for a long time to come.

—

Donna Haraway, author of When Species Meet

Above is a definitional work exploring implications of post (belong) or trans (transcending) humanism. We can also explore our own expectations of this term as well as our experiences.

Another important analysis was written by Katherine Hayles: This study engages less in the questions of embodiment itself and its ethical positioning and more on the emergence of this new technologized construction of the human as becoming integrated with and penetrated by systems of information exchange.

How We Became Posthuman

VIRTUAL BODIES IN CYBERNETICS, LITERATURE, AND INFORMATICS

287

N. KATHERINE HAYLES

364 pages | 5 line drawings | 6 x 9 | © 1999

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." ***** to discuss

Ranging widely across the history of technology, cultural studies, and literary criticism, Hayles shows what had to be erased, forgotten, and elided to conceive of information as a disembodied entity. Thus she moves from the post-World War II Macy Conferences on cybernetics to the 1952 novel Limbo by cybernetics aficionado Bernard Wolfe; from the concept of self-making to Philip K. Dick's literary explorations of hallucination and reality; and from artificial life to postmodern novels exploring the implications of seeing humans as cybernetic systems.

Although becoming posthuman can be nightmarish, Hayles shows how it can also be liberating. From the birth of cybernetics to artificial life, How We Became Posthuman provides an indispensable account of how we arrived in our virtual age, and of where we might go from here.

Posthumanism or post-humanism (meaning "after humanism" or "beyond humanism") is a term with at least seven definitions according to philosopher Francesca Ferrando:^[1]

1. Antihumanism: any theory that is critical of traditional humanism and traditional ideas about humanity and the human condition.^[2]
2. Cultural posthumanism: a branch of cultural theory critical of the foundational assumptions of humanism and its legacy^[3] that examines and questions the historical notions of "human" and "human nature", often challenging typical notions of human subjectivity and embodiment^[4] and strives to move beyond archaic concepts of "human nature" to develop ones which constantly adapt to contemporary technoscientificknowledge.^[5]
3. Philosophical posthumanism: a philosophical direction which draws on cultural posthumanism, the philosophical strand examines the ethical implications of expanding the circle of moral concern and extending subjectivities beyond the human species^[4]
4. Posthuman condition: the deconstruction of the human condition by critical theorists.^[6]
5. Transhumanism: an ideology and movement which seeks to develop and make available technologies that eliminate aging and greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities, in order to achieve a "posthuman future".^[7]
6. AI takeover: A more pessimistic alternative to transhumanism in which humans will not be enhanced, but rather eventually replaced by artificial intelligences. Some philosophers, including Nick Land, promote the view that humans should embrace and accept their eventual demise.^[8] This is related to the view of "cosmism" which supports the building of strong artificial intelligence even if it may entail the end of humanity as in their view it "would be a cosmic tragedy if humanity freezes evolution at the puny human level".^[9][10][11]
7. Voluntary Human Extinction, which seeks a "posthuman future" that in this case is a future without humans.

Also all of this is from Wikipedia so take it with a grain of salt; its to start conversation.