Tutorial Presentation--- Posthuman Conclusion

Hi everyone, we are Charlotte and Titus. Our presentation topic in this week is “Posthuman Conclusion”.

Under rapid development of advanced technology in recent decades, we are already lived in a digital age. Cyborgs, posthuman, as well as transhuman are therefore suggested by different scholars successively which change the traditional social discourses and give a new definition on the meaning of ‘human’.

In our presentation, we are going to divide it into 4 sections. First of all, a brief definition on the meaning of ‘cyborg’ and ‘posthuman’ will be given in order to find out their similarities and differences by analysis their starting points. And ontology will be discussed in the following. Since the human society is constructed and maintained by the biological determinism which emphasizes in naturalization and normalization of essential links between biological sex, sexuality, reproductive capacities, gendered subjectivity and hierarchical gender system. However, in the last decades, it was attacked by the appearance of cyborg. According to the “Cyborg Manifesto” of Donna Haraway, it suggested that the three boundaries: human/animal, organic/machine and physical/non-physical will be broken down by technology. Following this suggestion, human and machine are no longer in confronting position due to the blurring of boundaries which means we are in a position to embody the outside power, and also empower the outside body. And this causes the deconstruction of cultural imaginary on identification.

After the introduction on cyborg, we would discuss about the posthumanism. What does it means, and how does it influence to our life? Posthumanism is an ideology of technology which affirms the possibility and desirability of achieving a "posthuman future". According to Hayles, posthuman discourse asserts the liberalization of humanism; it separates the mind from the body and thus portrays the body as a "shell" or vehicle for the mind. Besides, it focus on the conscious of information technological advancements, which means the Information is seen as "disembodied", It cannot fundamentally replace the human body but can only be incorporated into it and human life practices.

Our embodiment in posthuman world is different than before. There is a blurring of boundaries between biology, culture and technology. Biology is not the opposite side to culture. As the ‘Thought’ is a much broader cognitive function depending for its specificities on the embodied form enacting it, we would see that the influence of technology. It helps to transform the liberal subject, regarded as the model of the human since the Enlightenment, into the posthuman.

Moreover, we would discuss about the ‘Turing Test’. Turing argued that machines can think. Machines can perform the thinking previously considered to be an exclusive capacity of the human mind. Also, he argues that representation of bodies can be mediated by technology, so the production of identity can be separated from human subject.

Despite the discussion of Posthumanism, there is a new form of humanism, the ‘Transhumanism’. It is an international intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally transforming the human condition. It points out that the developing technologies eliminate aging and greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities. It supposes that human beings may eventually be able to transform themselves into beings with greatly expanded abilities. It transformed the future humanity.

For its aims, it is about the science and technology for the purposes of reducing poverty, disease, disability, and malnutrition around the globe, transhumanism is distinctive in its particular focus on the applications of technologies to the improvement of human bodies at the individual level. It means every human is in control of their own evolution, the natural evolution would be replaced with deliberate change.

As we can see that there is a lot of imagination of Super Hero in comic and cartoon, when do these images of hero be existed? The setting of super hero is always related to the ideology of transhumanism. Human can be a ‘superman’, empowered and superior. They are strong and strengthen at every aspect. But we may question that: “is it the final goal of being a transhuman?”

Finally, we would have a discussion with our fellow classmates. There are four questions for them to think about:

(1) Do you think that the imagination of “Transhuman” will appear in the future?

(2) Do you agree that “Cyborg empowers individual, but also isolate us from the outside world?”

(3) Do the posthumanism/ transhumanism exaggerate the “Individualism”? Would it be problematic to the traditional social and cultural ideology?

(4) Is it possible to have “Post-animal”? If yes, what does “human” mean?