The Aesthetics of the Sovereign Self in Conditions of Post-Scarcity

Abstract

I look at two notions of self here in a discussion of aesthetics of sovereignty: a sovereign self expressing and constituting itself through an aesthetic of control, and a communitarian self with its attendant aesthetic of play. In an attempt to reduce discussion to manageable proportions, I will associate control with issue of individualist autonomy, and play with issue of collaboration. My main interest in paper is to examine notion of sovereign individual self that is associated with economic ideology of capitalism. Although there are a number of important distinctions between various kinds and stages of capitalist ideology, I will focus on portrait of self produced by semantic field that terms such as capitalism, late-capitalism, and neo-liberalism all generally connote. A useful sketch of such a self is provided by Foucault in one of his College de France lectures: the economic model of supply and demand and of investment-costs-profit [is extended] so as to make it a model of social relations and of existence itself, a form of relationship of individual to himself, time, those around him, group, and family (242), or as David Harvey puts it, the commodification of everything (165). The sovereign self with its focus on autonomy and its aesthetic of control as it comes forth from ideology of neo-liberal capitalism is dependent on notion of scarcity, as indeed is notion of economic exchange itself. Adam Smith may have overlooked scarcity in The Wealth of Nations but idea finds expression in early part of twentieth century with Robbins, who gives it a central role in accepted definition of economics. Robbins begins by noting that, with very few exceptions, we have at our disposal many more important wants than we have of satisfying them all completely. He then quickly moves to definition of Economic Science as study of behavior in disposing of scarce means (15), or more fully: The economist studies disposal of scarce means. He is interested in way different degrees of scarcity of different goods give rise to different ratios of valuation between them, and he is interested in way in which changes in conditions of scarcity, whether coming from changes in ends or changes in means--from demand side or supply side--affect these ratios. Economics is science which studies human behavior as a relationship between ends and scarce which have alternative uses. (16) I will put this scarcity-dependent sovereign self with its defining feature of individualist autonomy and aesthetic of control to an imaginative test through a consideration of two science fiction novels by Charles Stross, Singularity Sky (2003) and Iron Sunrise (2004). The two works by Stross are part of a small but growing number of science fiction novels that are set in a post-singularity and post-scarcity future. The singularity, according to Ray Kurzweil, is a future period during which pace of technological change will be so rapid, its impact so deep, that human life will be irreversibly transformed (7). Although no one is quite sure what life will be like after singularity, all are certain that we will finally have moved into a post-scarcity world. The sciences and technologies which will bring this about are already here and getting closer every year. The speed and capacity of computing power is growing exponentially so that soon Kurzweil hopes to be able to convert his brain into software; nanotechnology is on verge of realizing dreams of alchemy; and recasting of biology into a branch of information technology will lead to complete control over our bodies and our environments. Implicit in such a vision is understanding that each one of will never have to suffer from any physical want. The populating of us has given some science fiction writers pause as they see little reason for dynamics of technology transfer to change in foreseeable future. …