Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic is a man-made disaster, caused by undue interference in the ecological balance and the lives of multiple species. Paradoxically, the contagion has resulted in increased use of technology and digital mediation, as well as enhanced hopes for vaccines and biomedical solutions. It has thereby intensified humans’ reliance on the very high-tech economy of cognitive capitalism that caused the problems in the first place. This combination of ambivalent elements in relation to the Fourth Industrial revolution and the Sixth Extinction is the trademark of the posthuman condition. This essay explores this condition further, offering both critical and affirmative propositions for moving forward.
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic is a man-made disaster, caused by undue interference in the ecological balance and the lives of multiple species
The contagion has resulted in increased use of technology and digital mediation, as well as enhanced hopes for
Braidotti (*) Utrecht University, Achter de Dom 20, 3512 JPUtrecht, The Netherlands e-mail: r.braidotti@uu.nl; gw.braidottiass@uu.nl vaccines and biomedical solutions. It has thereby intensified humans’ reliance on the very high-tech economy of cognitive capitalism that caused the problems in the first place. This combination of ambivalent elements in relation to the Fourth Industrial revolution and the Sixth Extinction is the trademark of the posthuman condition
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic is a man-made disaster, caused by undue interference in the ecological balance and the lives of multiple species. Over and above all else, we need to develop different ways of caring, a more transversal, relational ethics that encompasses the non-humans.
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