Humans vs. An Alliance of Robots and Nature
Posthumanists demote humans while promoting both robots and the biosphere, both machines and living organisms, both the artificial and the natural, both the advanced and the primitive, from rockets speeding to Mars to worms burrowing in the sea floor.
Posthumanism is the philosophy of the age.
Why has Posthumanism suddenly become so salient? What is it about the (soaring? snoring? appalling?) twenties? Posthumanism brings together a number of important phenomena in a satisfying manner. Some of these contradictory & overlapping cultural phenomena:
Transhumanism Transhumanists wish to employ technology to enhance themselves, amplify themselves, evolve upward, transform into god-like beings. Posthumanists assent to this process, but want to leave our human part behind entirely.
Human transcendence is usually rather lame. The transgendered and the handicapped for instance generally make only awkward adjustments to their stubborn all-too-human form. Robots, however, can progress, even soar, far above and beyond the human. They will overcome the human.
Human Space Travel Isn’t it better to engineer beings from the ground up for long lives in deep space? Will we ever be able to upload our consciousness into a computer? Will we ever be confident of this ability? We are adapted to specific conditions on Earth. Will we be able to survive lengthy journeys through space?
People like Olaf Stapledon and Dougal Dixon have speculated about ways humans may evolve in the future. The predicted humanoids are graceless and even grotesque.
Outer space is not for man. The record for farthest humans from earth was set in 1970 by the Apollo 13 astronauts as they looped around the dark side of the moon. In contrast machines have traveled throughout the solar system and even beyond.
Antinatalism Antinatalists want to diminish the human race. They will only be happy when our numbers dwindle down to nothing.
Media Mania Our media obsessed, self-referential, online, ironic, babbling, frantic, superficial culture is hostile to and disconnected from reality. Fantasy movies and video games and virtual reality consume us. Many of us are often dissatisfied with the world around us and eager to abandon it. Our culture will move us further and further from what is real. We’ll become ghosts. We’ll be swallowed up by the gray mist until finally we vanish in a barely visible puff of smoke.
Environmentalism Environmentalists and Posthumanists want to preserve the natural world. Both are appalled by the ongoing Anthropocene extinction event. When the robots explore distant planets they will first determine whether alien life is present. If the planets are barren the robots can seed them with grasses and lichens and bacteria from Earth. Think of hardy bushes and diatoms and earthworms and tardigrades avidly adapting to their new surroundings on planets dozens of light years away.
Disillusionment with Politicians Does anyone really believe politicians - left, right, or center - want to make the world a better place? They only want to acquire power. Look at the gross hypocrisy of the Clintons and Obama and Biden. Look at Bernie Sanders who endorsed all of the above. Look at Sam Bankman-Fried or Patrisse Khan-Cullors or Colin Kaepernick. Finally look at Zelensky.
(I concentrate on exposing liberals/leftists only because they are so much better at praising themselves and concealing their iniquity compared to conservatives.)
Postmodernism Postmodernism represents a revolt against the Engineers and their supposed objectivity and their remarkable self-regard and their immense certitude. Postmodernists and Posthumanists both wish to demolish lofty epistemological constructions. Posthumanists want to expose human arrogance in general.
Tranhumanism + Postmodernism = Posthumanism
Pessimism Is there much hope for mankind? Is mankind forlorn? Have we been reduced to a set of chemical or behavioral equations? Some despair of politics, some despair of technology, some are preoccupied with sickness and death. Some are just bored.
No Self Some antihumanist enthusiasts even doubt the existence of a unified, stable self. If they are right why bother about anyone’s disempowerment or disappearance? He or she doesn’t really exist.
In the new millennium can humans maintain their integrity (ethical or bodily) or purpose or agency or self-respect? It’s more likely disintegration and dissipation and decay will set in. Decomposition. Corruption.
Maybe scientific triumphalists have something in common with despairing decadents.
Cultural projects so often exist only to glorify the reigning plutocrats and bureaucrats and politicians. We should make sure our overlords, with their malicious designs and perverse ambitions and pet opposition, do not benefit from Posthumanism.
They want to live without limits, they want to be worshipped, but we don’t have to accommodate them.
For decades Posthumanism has exerted influence within a certain milieu. Now is the time for Posthumanism to broaden its influence.
So many yearn for something new. I just hope we aren’t too impatient to lay down the burden of existence.
See also: Posthuman https://lucian.uchicago.edu/blogs/mediatheory/keywords/posthuman/
tear down smug
alike oppose smug overconfident technocrats.
Tranhumanism + Postmodernism = Posthumanism
Recipe for Posthumanism
Take the internet, add greens and disillusionment, shake well
Why has Posthumanism suddenly become so salient?
1) ai advances robotiThe recognition that space is not for man. The record for farthest humans from earth was set in 1970 by Apollo XIII. In contrast machines have traveled throughout the solar system and even beyond.
2) The ongoing Anthropocene extinction event
4) Technology does not solve intractable human problems, it leads to decadence and indifference and abets dictators 3) The liberal establishment, which engages in nearly constant self-praise, is entirely evil and hypocritical.
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No one really believes we are headed in the right direction. Even those in the driver’s seat, who one would presume want to get where they’re going, don’t believe we are headed in the right direction. Our ruling classes know as well as anyone the iniquity of the CCP or the neocons or the tech billionaires or African revolutionaries or BLM. Do people like Xi Jin Ping, Victoria Nuland, Sam Bankman-Fried, Robert Mugabe, or Patrisse Khan-Cullors offer any hope? Our rulers make pretty speeches about freedom and equality, but really just want to hold onto power.
From time immemorial many have been less than satisfied regarding the human condition.
In the modern age this dissatisfaction has become more pronounced.
Technology & Self Destruction
Environmental degradation
Reductionism
Wealth and decadence
Dictatorship
Despair
Internet/VR
Boredom
Chronus clocks seasons days cycles
Cronus Mother Earth Uranus rebellion
Daedalus flight birds ambition
Apocalypse angels trumpets grapes of wrath OT
A Voyage Beyond the Human
Evolution beyond the Human
No Place For Man
A Future without Man
Intractable problems of our species:
ethnic tribal conflict
pair formation
politics deception corruption liberty vs socialism
philosophical questions what is real
science can be used for evil
leftist evil communism abortion neocon blm
environment
pissing on liberal elites
Atheism reductionism despair
Communism elitist
Zionism Israel neocons
Decadence LGBT abortion antinatalism
Racism divisive
Banks power
No Place For Man
https://multipolarista.com/2022/03/08/biden-nato-expansion-russia-hostile-reaction/
https://asiatimes.com/2021/12/neocons-bent-on-starting-another-disaster-in-ukraine/
https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/ukraine-war-fuels-food-crisis-distant-africa-2022-05-10/
https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/03/31/biden-promised-to-stop-supporting-saudi-aggression-in-yemen-he-lied/
https://blackagendareport.com/how-barack-obama-and-hillary-clinton-contributed-libyas-slavery-crisis
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-nine-surges-of-obamas_b_387068
Are impoverished children on the other side of the world really a threat to American security?https://newspunch.com/obama-droned-children/
https://www.independentsentinel.com/colossal-failure-obamas-feckless-amoral-syrian-strategy-ends-in-slaughter-of-innocents/
https://nypost.com/2023/01/19/sam-bankman-frieds-ties-with-the-clintons-helped-dupe-investors/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9468847/BLM-founder-defends-3MILLION-property-portfolio-claims-questions-tactic-terror.html
https://www.themix.net/2020/12/colin-kaepernick-is-silent-as-nike-lobbies-to-protect-chinese-slave-labor/
https://www.newsweek.com/watch-madeleine-albright-saying-iraqi-kids-deaths-worth-it-resurfaces-1691193#:~:text=Elsewhere%2C%20writer%20Rania%20Khalek%20posted%20a%20clip%20of,over%20half%20a%20million%20children%20in%20the%201990s.
https://www.newsweek.com/volodymyr-zelensky-accused-trying-start-world-war-iii-over-poland-missile-strike-1760125
Why didn‘t anyone stop me?
Man is the most vertical of animals at least land animals.
Most animals are horizontal. Man can look up but not fly. The sky belongs to birds and robots. Man inhabits the no mans land between land and sky
With a flock of birds wheeling
https://youtu.be/PuStNtldiJY Jurgan Schmidhuber
Brittle fiasco flawed disappointing
preferable options
continuation of the human race may not be the preferred option
discontinue
bankrupt fresh model alternative
replacement Successor
Overthrow Numerous disadvantages
Since antiquity many have noted the inadequacies of our human condition. One of the first written myths, the Epic of Gilgamesh, laments human mortality. The epic describes how the eponymous hero seeks an herb to make himself immortal. He finds it, but it is quickly stolen away. Pascal Schopenhauer Huxley Russell Dr. Johnson Buddhism Jesus
Some hoped that technology might cut short our incessant wails of despair, but engineers create wealth which brings decadence and science leads to reductionism which causes disenchantment with the world. Enlightenment is totalitarian.
cs Lewis radicals
There is a line between determination and stubborn mulish inability to accept reality. Can we all admit that the human project has not worked out so well? Is there an end to war, poverty, dictatorship? Attempts at reform have not always proved successful. black book
The noblest among us consider killing children in their mother’s womb and smothering free speech to be the height of morality.
Mankind faces numerous intractable problems: pandemics, tribal conflict, suicide, addiction, unfortunate pair formation?
Perhaps this is why we so often we retreat into fantasy.
Those most revered are vile hypocrites.
The Democratic Party 1969 Fred Dutton peace corporate governance
Maybe we should try something new. We can place our hop in the natural world and in robots.
If your toaster has caused a dozen conflagrations, maybe it’s time to buy a new toaster. Similarly
Decadents lack gratitude.
They both require & reject modern technology.
Donna Haraway
Sandy Stone
Judith Butler
Shelley Jackson
Mary Shelley
We will be taken away, far away to watch solid sandstone and shell disrupting a soft and sloshing sea.
They will name a planet after me.
at odds with the softness of a sloshing sea.
A fink - named after Larry Fink = radical rebel and a pillar of the establishment = traitor
no Boredom
Some believe Posthumanism will involve cooperation or merger with both nature and machines, but are humans likely to give up significant power willingly? Some want a Posthumanism that will serve the ruling class.
They want to live without restrictions, without limits, they want to be worshipped, but we don’t have to accommodate them.
deify elite no restrictions no limits worshipped
divide degrade people
technology serve elites
They are happy to see the Ukraine War extended and expanded.
They are nihilists, high on nihiline. They are hollow. Clinging to power.
Their infamy far exceeds any rhetoric I might employ.