Posthuman World Research Articles

Posthuman Ethics and Distributed Agency in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun

This article discusses posthuman ethics in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun by employing the concept of distributed agency. By examining the AI protagonist Klara, the study argues that Ishiguro redefines agency as a networked phenomenon involving both human and non-human actors, challenging traditional anthropocentric ethical frameworks. The novel suggests that ethical considerations in a posthuman world must account for this distributed agency, where human and AI entities co-create ethical dynamics. This study concludes that Ishiguro’s work not only critiques the limitations of human-centered ethics but also prompts a reevaluation of moral responsibility in a technologically mediated world. By positioning Klara and the Sun within the discourse of posthuman ethics, the article contributes to contemporary discussions on the ethical implications of AI and the evolving nature of agency.

The Intersection of Transhumanism, Prognosis, and AI in Dan Brown’s Origin

The intersection of Transhumanism, Prognosis, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a topic that has captured the imagination of science fiction writers for years. In Dan Brown’s novel, Origin, he explores the idea that as AI evolves to the point of self-learning, the prospect of a posthuman world becomes increasingly plausible. Artificial intelligence has become ubiquitous, not only in technology but also in the way people think about the world. Machines are learning, and evolving, and are soon expected to surpass human intelligence. However, this pursuit of creating the ultimate AI raises ethical and moral concerns. The idea of a machine achieving sentience and surpassing human intelligence is a nightmare scenario for some who fear the rise of artificial intelligence. In his quest to create the ultimate AI, the protagonist in “Origin” has plunged into dangerous territory, pushing the limits of what is acceptable. The defining technology of the modern era is artificial intelligence, a force that is transforming every aspect of society from finance to healthcare to transportation. As AI continues to advance, people are becoming increasingly concerned about the ethical implications of creating machines that can think and reason like humans. Transhumanism, which aims to enhance human capabilities through the use of technology, is closely linked with the development of AI. The coalescence of man and machine is becoming a real possibility, and the future belongs to those who can control it. In conclusion, the intersection of transhumanism, prognosis, and AI raises important ethical and moral questions about the future of humanity. As we continue to develop AI, it is essential to consider the potential consequences of creating machines that can think and reason like humans. The quest for the ultimate AI is a double-edged sword, and we must be careful not to plunge too far into dangerous territory.

Materiality Versus Metabolism in the Hybrid World: Towards a Dualist Concept of Materialism as Limit of Post-humanism in the Technical Era

The point of departure of this article is the trend towards hybridisation in new technology development, which makes classical dichotomies between machines, human life and the environment obsolete and leads to the post-human world we live in today. We critically reflect on the post-human concept of the hybrid world. Although we agree with post-humanists that human life can no longer be opposed to machines but appears as a decentralized human-technology relation, alliance or network that constitutes a hybrid world, we ask for a limit to hybridisation. After rejecting the concept of metabolism as such a limit, we explore the concept of the responsive conativity of material entities. The principle of conativity of material entities provides a materialist perspective on metabolism, which enables us to conceive material entities as self-assertive material entities that are differentiated from the environment. The principle of responsivity of material entities provides a materialist perspective on the post-human world in which material entities are responsive to each other and form alliances and networks. We propose to differentiate between the conativity and responsivity of material entities and propose the conativity of matter as a limit to hybridisation in the post-human world.

포스트휴먼 칸트의 단초

Rather than simply breaking up with Kant, Deleuze and Foucault endeavored to delineate lines of thought that originated from Kant but extended beyond the limits set by Kant himself. Two pivotal inquiries, supplanting the foundational question of Kantian philosophy, “What is the human being?” guide this movement from within Kant to without: “What can a subject outside of the human-form be?” and “What can a faculty beyond the limits of the human-form do?”. This paper aims to explore the prospect that such a project of Kantianism beyond Kant could serve as the starting point for the task of rethinking Kant within the context of posthuman conditions and, conversely, contemplating the posthuman world through a Kantian lens. Consequently, this essay is not preoccupied with expressing sympathy for or offering counter-criticisms of the prevailing critiques of Kant’s humanism in numerous posthumanist theories. Instead, the principal objective of this paper is to problematize the oversimplified nature of this binary opposition. In essence, it seeks to elucidate the intricate relationship between posthumanity and Kantian philosophy that eludes the rigid constraints of the confrontational framework. This is accomplished through an examination of the works of Foucault and Deleuze, who, situated within Kant’s philosophical anthropology, identified vectors that problematize the very notion of the human, and employed them to develop new theories of subjectivity and faculties that transcend the conventional boundaries of anthropology.

Dum spiro spero? (Anna Starobiniec, Żywi)

The subject of the analysis is the short story by Anna Starobiniec titled The alive (2005). By using, inter alia, anti-utopia elements, the author analyzes the contemporary problems of mankind, presenting them against the backdrop of the world after “the end of history”, in which the catastrophe opens a completely new chapter in the history of Russia. The main characters are a pair of humanoids living in the posthuman world who are desperately trying to validate their human identity. In terms of the ideological aspect of the work, this raises the need to reformulate the thesis about the essence of humanity and the question about the criterion of the role and place of man in the world. If we assume that what people hope for defines their place in reality, then how to position the robot that hopes to become human? This problem (in the light of scientific progress) is only apparently distant and exotic, and in fact closer than we all think (especially in the moral and ethical dimension). In this context, it can be said that the story by Starobiniec is an important voice in the discussion on the problems of the future of the modern world in relation to the postulates of transhumanism – that considers and even allows for the abandonment of the human in favor of various variants of the posthuman.

Liberal Educational Implications of Korean Women’s Science Fiction in the 2010s : Focusing on Cheon Seonran’s <I>A Thousand Blue</I>

The emergence of women's science fiction in the 2010s is notable for its narrative achievements in imagining various possibilities of the ‘posthuman’ in the new reality brought about by the development of science and technology. Research on women’s science fiction has also been conducted in the context of the posthuman, with two main research trends: technofeminism, which affirms the union between women and science, and critical posthumanist research on ableism. However, these studies lack a perspective on animality that encompasses humans and nonhumans. The discussion of science fiction inevitably confronts the disregard for life and instrumentalist exploitation, which can be seen as increasing with the development of science and technology. Therefore, the issues of human and non-human minorities, vulnerability, and animality are the ultimate challenges of a posthuman society and are central to the discussion of science fiction. If posthumanism dreams of a ‘better’ post-human world, it should focus on ‘animals, including humans’. Therefore, in order to generate categories of thought for discussion topics that can be utilized in liberal arts education, this paper adds the animal axis to the existing discussion and discusses the correlation between the three concepts of minorities, vulnerability, and animality in Cheon Seonran’s science fiction novel <i>A Thousand Blue</i>. As we have seen, the educational implications of the novel are that it connects humans and animals through disability and points out the problems of the technological society that will come in the near future as an extension of today, pointing out that the posthuman society should be designed from the lowest position. In addition, the novel’s significance lies in the fact that it creates a point of debate, rather than simply sealing the issue by establishing a desirable human-animal relationship. The novel shows that by adding a species axis to the posthumanist discussion, we can start to think about how to redesign society.

Autism and Post-Human: A Cyborgian Reading of Sabina Berman’s Me Who Dove into the Heart of the World

ABSTRACT The concept of “cyborg” in Donna Haraway’s much-discussed “A Cyborg Manifesto” (1985) is outstanding in its depiction of the hybrid body that is untouched by long-standing polar dichotomy stemming from a hierarchal mode of thinking founded on prehistoric anthropocentricism: a worldview embedded mostly in western cultures which considers (normal 1 ) human beings to be superior to nature and has often resulted in victimization of the so-called other. Haraway’s cyborg is capable of “becoming” animal or machine and is, hence, better suited to the Posthuman world. Following in Haraway’s footsteps, we intend to discuss that autistic people – labeled/stigmatized as intellectually disabled – are able bodies that share close affinities with animals, robots, nature, and environment. To this purpose, Sabina Berman’s debut novel Me, Who Dove into the Heart of the World (2012) 2 is examined to help us draw an analogy between a cyborg figure and an autistic body to bring to light the necessity of inclusion of all as prescribed by Posthumanism.

미래는 끝나지 않았다: 마가렛 애트우드와 김초엽 소설에 나타난 지구 종말이후의 이야기들

Recent years have witnessed an eruption of fiction depicting the end of the world and the survival of a remnant of humanity. Contemporary women writers are participating in this apocalyptic trend, but their works differ from the traditional apocalyptic novels written by males. While traditional apocalypse fictions concentrate on the restoration of what has been lost and mourn for the past, contemporary women writers transform the apocalyptic genre to imagine possible stories of the humanity after the apocalyptic event. MaddAddam trilogy of Margaret Atwood and Greenhouse at the End of the Earth by Kim Cho Yeop share a number of themes, discourses, and narrative techniques as follows: a multi-layered narrative, a cast of post-human, cyborg and multi-species characters, an alternative community of new humankind, and the possibility of eco-utopia. Cobb-house of God’s Gardener in MaddAddam trilogy and the greenhouse in Kim Cho Yeop’s novel were a type of eco-utopia constructed in the post-apocalyptic Earth in order to establish a new community to co-exist with other species. As Donna Haraway’s new term, Chthulucene implies, all living things and all matters are interconnected and human beings should interact with other species in order to “stay with the trouble” in their novels. And post-apocalyptic fictions serve as meta-narratives that illustrate the storytelling process. By imagining future worlds and disclosing their narrative construction, a novel forces readers reevaluate the imminent problems of humanity and gives them the opportunity to change the present for a better post-human world. Symbiotic co-existence with animals, multi-species, cyborgs and non-human beings is feasible through interactive relationships with other earthly beings. In the post-apocalyptic novels of Margaret Atwood and Kim Cho Yeop, post-human narratives are not concluded, and there is hope even after the end of the world.

Embodying Affective Intra-Actions Online: Enacting Posthuman Methods in Virtual Spaces

This article explores how the posthuman concepts of affect, intra-action, and diffraction helped me reimagine collaborative inquiry, a traditionally place-based action research method that emphasizes human affect as the root of all personal becoming, for an online context and posthuman world. I begin with a brief introduction to posthuman philosophies and the ways a 21st-century world increasingly mediated by digital technologies may be considered a shared posthuman present reality. Next, I look to the literature to show how scholars in digital contexts have used and created posthuman concepts, exploring some of the methodological implications of emerging posthuman perspectives for qualitative research, particularly in online spaces. Considering the insights various posthuman studies offer my attempts to design a virtual collaborative inquiry, I suggest an artful and embodied heuristic for starting from human experience to better understand and to create digital posthuman worlds.

Analysis of connectivism as a tool for posthuman university classrooms

In the posthuman era, teaching and learning through technologies are becoming increasingly important, most especially in the university system. Connectivism, a theory of learning that emphasises the importance of connections between people and information, is one of the most influential educational philosophies driving today’s educational dynamism. In a posthuman world, where technology is constantly evolving and becoming more sophisticated, connectivism is argued to provide a framework for understanding how students learn and how can technology be used to facilitate learning. This study argues that connectivism is one of the ways in which classroom stakeholders can be made to prepare for the posthuman era. The study is located within the transformative paradigm to enable the researcher to tailor the argument toward transforming the university classrooms towards developing a new way of thinking about society's present social boundaries by pursuing truth within a postmodern framework. In the same vein, conceptual analysis was adopted to make sense of the argument since it helps to interoperate and dismantle complex and ambiguous concepts toward meaning-making. The analysis begins by presenting connectivism and its potential assumptions. The assumptions were juxtaposed with the posthuman agenda by arguing the relationship between posthumanism and connectivism and lastly, how it prepares classroom stakeholders for building students’ capacity ahead of the emerging interaction between human (students) and non-human (technologies). The study concludes that connectivism viewpoint is one of the unavoidable philosophies of the future.

The Future of Human Nature in a Post-human World: Habermas in Dialogue with Jonas' Philosophical Biology

In two lectures given at the beginning of the 2000s, Habermas focuses on the ethical problems linked to biotechnologies, notably to genetic engineering techniques. In an attempt to warn of the dangers inherent in liberal eugenics, Habermas proposes a definition of human nature with a metaphysical basis. In this paper, I argue that Habermas' analysis of the potential effect of biotechnology on human beings represents the theoretical outcome of a close dialogue with Hans Jonas' biological philosophy. The deconstruction of Habermas and Jonas' arguments not only provides the opportunity to reflect on the internal contradictions of an essentialist conception of human beings—still widespread today and directly or indirectly present in various critiques of post- and trans-humanist dystopias—but also allows for an exploration of some tendencies of 20th century German thought, which seeks to distance itself from the philosophical consequences of Darwinian evolutionism.

“I'm yours, and I'm not yours”: Reinventing the Genesis of Creation in a Posthuman World

The aim of this study is to discuss and examine the film Her, in relation to the story of Genesis. This will allow us to study the concept of humans from the inception to the contemporary world and address how women as the ‘other’ have always been excluded from that category. The emergence of AI, machines, or cyborgs as the new social entities in the context of posthumanism, as portrayed in the film manages to widen the border of the exclusive category of ‘human’ and helps women to build a place for themselves within it. In addition, the relationship between Theodore and Samantha contradicts the typical relationship of the male-dominated world and finds similarities with the story of Adam and Eve and their creation. The study uses the film, Her, to develop the argument that the posthuman approach is an ideal path to stretch the borders of the category of ‘humans’ and make it more inclusive.

КОНЕЦ УПРАВЛЕНИЯ ПОСТИНДУСТРИАЛЬНОЙ «ПУСТОТОЙ» ИЛИ О КРИЗИСЕ ГЛОБАЛЬНОГО СОЦИАЛЬНОГО УНИВЕРСАЛИЗМА

The purpose of the article is to assess the effect of social destruction on key social processes and institutions and to consider the prospects for the structural collapse of the entire system of post-industrial postmodernity. Methodology. The main research method is the method of predictive clustering through the identification of common signs of social context for social processes. This method allows you to highlight the features of mod-ern global transformations, which are determined by a combination of the following elements. Firstly, a critical change in the architecture of global political and economic relations. Secondly, the crisis of the economic de-velopment model built on the dominance of financial capitalism. Thirdly, the slow but consistent destruction of the universalist model of social de-velopment, including its sociocultural component. The latter began with attempts to delineate the contours of the post-human world within the framework of the "Davos Consensus". Where, on the one hand, the pro-spect of human neurofication and the algorithmization of their social be-havior began to be widely discussed, and on the other hand, the concept of the precariat was born. This concept implies the lumpenization of sig-nificant sections of the population of post-industrial postmodern coun-tries including through the socio-political legalization of precarity as a "new social normality". Results: identification of the main "breaking points" in the basic social and socio-political institutions characteristic of the space of post-industrial postmodernity. There is a statement of the high probability of a crisis of the entire system of social universalism of post-industrial postmodernity, and therefore a crisis of Western-centric globalization as a model of development.

Frankenstein’s Revenge: Hegemony of Post-Human Spectacles in Golden Fleece

The rapid development of image media today has been reinforcing what Guy Debord argued as society of spectacle. Ubiquitous visual advertising marks that spectacle has invaded diverse aspects of today’s life. The alienated labor relations proposed by Marx are once again simulated into a pseudo-desire structure guided by consumption symbols. Robert J. Sawyer’s Golden Fleece is even set in a post-human world where a society of spectacle has achieved its full maturity. Seeing from Guy Debord’s theory of spectacle society, this paper analyzes how spectacle seizes hegemony over human in future post-human world by means of coercive monologues and history-denying. Moreover, this paper further liberates science fiction from the anthropocentric perspective and discusses the identity of artificial intelligence in post-human era.

Movie Minorities: Transnational Rights Advocacy and South Korean Cinema

Movie Minorities: Transnational Rights Advocacy and South Korean Cinema

포스트휴먼 논의에서 정체성과 예술에 관한 연구

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between identity and art in the posthuman discussion. In particular, the discussion was developed under the assumption that surrealist thinking and digital media art had a major influence on the transition of human identity to posthuman. We dealt with semiotics and philosophical theories related to identity. What I noticed in this part is that human identity is formed through contact with others outside of oneself. In this paper, we put this other as a text and pay attention to the fact that the identity of a post-human is built through the detour of this text. In this regard, we have described Ricoeur's theories related to identity. In addition, the fact that human perception toward objects continues to fluctuate was examined through surrealism. Surrealism is a movement and a way of thinking that rejects fixed orders and ideas, and prevents identity from being hardened into ideas. The works of Nam June Paik and Stellac show one aspect of the posthuman world perception and identity expansion process.

Artificial intelligence in Indian films: Anukul and AI ethics

In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as an important theme in Indian cinema. Taking note of Indian filmmakers’ interest in AI, this article examines the Hindi-language short film Anukul directed by Sujoy Ghosh. Based on a short story by the legendary auteur Satyajit Ray, the film draws us to a posthuman world order in which machines have assumed rights and threaten to push humans out of the loop. The AI–human interface in Anukul provokes a number of ethical questions and this article aims to think through some of the ethical and legal concerns raised in the film.

Artificial Friends and Becoming-Machine: A Digital Humanities and Posthuman Reading of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun

Kazuo Ishiguro’s latest novel, Klara and the Sun presents a society with dormant layers that obscure the issues surrounding the human and the alterity of machines. With its technological advancements in gene editing and androids called Artificial Friends, Ishiguro’s novel presents a posthuman world where the posthuman concept of becoming-machine is seemingly mired in aporia. This paper attempts to examine this notion of “becoming-machine” and its entanglements in Ishiguro’s novel with digital humanities tools, Google Books NGram Viewer and Voyant Tools and a posthuman lens. I argue the claim that the diegetic process of child lifting and Klara’s sense of ethics, reveal the seemingly intertwined, but distinct notions of becoming within the text. One, becoming the machine, is a tangible, yet precarious process of humanity losing their ethical sense. While the other is one where Artificial Friends are ethically, in a posthuman sense, gaining ethical agency, or becoming-machine.

Contributors

Contributors

Do we need a posthumanist sociology? Notes from the COVID-19 pandemic

This article asks whether we need a posthumanist sociology, arguing that such a perspective can export a good deal of useful methodological and theoretical insight into the sociological toolbox. A posthumanist sociology is not a flattened ontology, in which we find agency in all things living and non-living. A posthumanist sociology asks instead what we do with the fundamental question of becoming both more and less human, following a surge of interest in decentring human exceptionalism. Moreover, a posthumanist sociology returns to the question of what it means to be an intersectional being, to proliferate the involvement of entities at the intersections of histories and social structures. Thus, it is a perspective that emerges from within the conditions of related crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. This pandemic has highlighted the need to decentre human exceptionalism, raising a challenge for sociologists to return to the premises of what it means to be a social being. In some sense, management of the pandemic already assumes a decentring. This article builds an argument by first reviewing what broadly constitutes a ‘posthumanist’ sociological perspective, then moves on to a case study of the interrelated human and non-human actors that constituted the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. The case study usefully marks the intersection between human and non-human bodies as nodes in the interpretive production chain of this global event – one that acknowledges human extensions and connections to multispecies and ecological systems. Such interlinkages become foundational to interrogating what it means to become human in a posthuman world. The article ends on this posthuman question: under the posthuman condition, if we do not discern a difference between the human and other-than-human entities, how will this homogenization affect the human collective ability to enact and maintain cross-species and cross-entity protections?