More than Human

In my quest to become more philosophical—given the times we find ourselves in—I was recently introduced to the term “posthumanism”. My first thought was of the bullshit tech bros get up to in trying to “hack” the body and reverse aging, live forever, store their brains in computers, etc. That apparently goes by the name of “transhumanism”. Hahahaha, good luck with that, gents. So far all they’ve managed is democracy destroying social media and so-called AIs that recommend glue in your pizza sauce and can’t spell blueberry. The brave new world awaits us, darlings. lol

Thankfully, it’s not that. Rather, it’s a recent (as far as these things go) branch of philosophy put forth and championed in Europe mostly. It was a particular title of a book, listed among the philosophical influences of an intriguing collaborative project by artist Caroline Paz at AIR Gallery in NYC, that caught my attention. Intrigued, I picked up a copy of the book The Posthuman by Rosi Braidotti and started reading.

I won’t lie, darlings, it’s a struggle. The academic life was not for me and though I do from time to time indulge in some dense prose, it’s not really my cup of tea. However, this book is more approachable than say Gilles Deleuze—another one I’ve tried to read recently and had to admit defeat. We’ll see how far I get.

Though hard-pressed to understand it all (thank god there’s no tests here!), I am deeply intrigued. It’s putting what I’ve intuitively felt my whole life into formal philosophical concepts and prose.

Here’s my simple take (consult the philosophers for more). Humans are a part of life, on a continuum of life, one more form of life. We are not, darlings, its apex or culmination or, least of all, its ruler. (Certain religions' founding myths not withstanding.) There’s a beautiful reminder of this in the opening of Peter Godfrey-Smith’s Living on Earth.

The age of the universe, as far as we can tell, is a bit under 14 billion years. Life has existed on Earth for something like 3.7 billion. That is over a quarter of the total span. We, in this very broad sense of "we," have been around a while. Living organization is one of the longer-running features of the universe.

It’s this simple, intuitive take that has been a big part of my lifetime love of science fiction. And the post humanism has been there, in my work, all along even thought I didn’t have a name for it. Or the fancy academic jargon! Oh, imagine the possibility for pretentious art-world speak I can engage in now, darlings. Don’t worry, I’ll spare you.

Even if you’re not of a philosophical bent, it is worth pondering how much we put ourselves above the rest of life. It doesn’t have to be a chore. There’s plenty of entertaining sci-fi out there where the theme comes into sharp relief.

For instance, take Foundation’s Edge and Foundation and Earth by Isaac Asimov. In these books, the fourth and fifth of the Foundation series, we are introduced to ideas, taken to the extreme, of what an entire planetary consciousness, that includes all life on the planet, would be like. And whether that should be the future of humanity. The protagonist, Golan, is tasked with the savior like role of deciding whether the forces that be in the galaxy should push toward merged consciousness on a galactic scale or maintain the individualistic, i.e. humanist, course we’ve been on since the beginning of our history.

That’s a very conceptual and dare I say sexist (the great man decides the fate of humanity! lol) exploration. As an antidote, consider the Xenogenesis series by Octavia Butler. In this series, we get an exploration of multiple generations of human and nonhumans joining to create new life. Humans are unwillingly (?) saved by a nomadic species (can we even use that word with its implicit assumptions about fixed boundaries?) that evolves by absorbing, combining with others as they wander though space. These are some deep and trippy books for looking at the loaded and lofty ideas of consent, identity, and boundaries.

With all this deep thought in mind, my last task before leaving you is to encourage you to check out my own entry into this philosophical stream: The Pleasure Moons. I’ve recently finished the second and am now embarking on drawing and painting the third. It’s a naughty tale of a human and a not human, both conscripted into fighting a war they don’t believe in, finding escape, love, and lots of sex away from their respective armies. Interspecies understanding takes on a whole new form.

Cover image by Javier Miranda via Unsplash.