Journal of Posthumanism

Freed, S. (2019). AI and Human Thought and Emotion. CRC Press.

Amanda Hsu Yuk-kwan — Sun, 28 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Sam Freed’s AI and Human Thought and Emotion is a pioneering venture into the possibility of programming an anthropic model of artificial intelligence grounded on the author’s philosophical reflection on the accuracy-oriented and optimisation-driven making of AI. In critique of the rationalist tradition of AI development and expurgation of introspection from cognitive science, this book draws heavily upon phenomenology to argue for the necessity of incorporating human non-linear thinking processes into the technical design of AI. Freed’s conceptual revolution enters a substantive dialogue with Hubert Dreyfus’s What Computers Can’t Do to offer an answer to the impossibility of formalising human introspection, which is conventionally deemed unprogrammable under the ostracism of human subjectivity from the science discipline and anti-scientism that pervades the intellectual circle of the humanities.

Reijers, W., & Coeckelbergh, M. (2020). Narrative and technology

Jaya Sarkar — Sun, 28 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Published in 2020, Wessel Reijers and Mark Coeckelbergh’s Narrative and Technology Ethics provides insight into contemporary views on virtuous technical practices. As with their 2016 and 2018 papers on narrative technology, Reijers and Coeckelbergh’s stated objective is to expand a philosophical theory of narrative technology in other spheres of human lives—in this case—ethics. Starting with the effects of technology on the Covid-19 pandemic, the book traces the evolution of technology throughout the twenty-first century. In tandem with Plato’s technology of writing, Prometheus’s technology of fire, and the technologies used by Icarus and Pandora, the book argues that technology has been responsible for both the development and the suffering of individuals.

Karkulehto S.A., Koistinen, K., & Varis, E. (Eds.). (2019). Reconfiguring human, nonhuman and posthuman in literature and culture. Routledge.

Călina-Maria Moldovan — Sun, 28 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The current climate crisis and the rapid and drastic changes our planet is undergoing at the moment demand a re-thinking of the way in which humanity and nonhumanity are understood. Reconfiguring Human, Nonhuman and Posthuman in Literature and Culture aims to investigate human, nonhuman and posthuman representations in contemporary culture and literature, and analyse the way in which these concepts are reconfigured within the context of the Anthropocene. The volume is part of the Perspectives on the Non-Human in Literature and Culture series edited by Karen Raber, a series that investigates how the non-human is represented in literary and cultural studies. Building on seminal works of authors such as Donna Haraway, Rosi Braidotti, Karen Barad, N. Katherine Hayles, but also on newer scholarship such as Serenella Iovino and Serpil Oppermann’s “material ecocriticism” or Marco Caracciolo’s phenomenology of narrative, this volume seeks to understand the cultural changes engendered by the Anthropocene.

DeFalco, A. (2023). Curious kin in fictions of posthuman care. Oxford University Press.

Pummy Sharma — Sun, 28 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The crisis arising from climate change poses imminent threats to marginalised human and nonhuman populations, necessitating a concerted effort to formulate comprehensive solutions. The primary reason for climate change is humans’ rampant exploitation of natural resources through extractivism. The hubris of human exceptionalism allowed humans to continue this attitude of total disregard (Braidotti 2013, Ferrando 2020, Jensen and Auld 2022). In order to understand the flaws of human exceptionalism, it is imperative to comprehend prevailing notions of the human and how they create exclusionary boundaries. Posthumanism helps to realise the full potential of the decentering of the human as the measure of everything (Herbrechter 2013, Ferrando 2013, Ferrando 2020). It is a call for action to radically redefine the monolithic concept of humanism that emerged during the Enlightenment period in Europe (Braidotti 2013, Ferrando 2020).

Kilbourn, R.J.A., & Empey, J.A. (Eds.). (2023). Feminist posthumanism in contemporary science fiction film and media. From annihilation to high life and beyond. Bloomsbury.

Ilaria Biano — Sun, 28 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Feminist Posthumanism in Contemporary Science Fiction Film and Media strategically places itself within a consolidated and distinctly recognizable field by prioritizing science fiction as “the ideal venue for the exploration of [a] constellation of crucial themes” (1). These themes notably include HuManism and Anthropocentrism, along with their implications for the erasure or marginalization of ‘Woman’. Simultaneously, the book goes beyond mere placement within this established field, actively taking steps to advance and enrich the interconnections between feminist theory, posthumanist perspectives, and the expansive realm of science fiction. In doing so, it does not only acknowledge the centrality of science fiction in unraveling key societal themes, but it also contributes to the ongoing debate that seeks to bridge these critical frameworks for a more nuanced understanding of contemporary cultural narratives.

Murray, S. (2020). Disability and the posthuman: Bodies, technology, and cultural futures. Liverpool University Press

Emine Öncüler Yayalar — Sun, 28 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In Disability and the Posthuman: Bodies, Technology, and Cultural Futures (2020), Stuart F. Murray presents an insightful exploration of the intersections of posthumanism and disability studies and offers a compelling framework for understanding how these disciplines can mutually inform and enrich one another. Embedded firmly within critical disability studies, Murray explores the productive potentials of an encounter between posthumanism and disability studies. His analysis mainly focuses on the disruptive nature of disability and its implications for envisaging a posthumanist future. While integrating posthumanism with disability studies is not unprecedented, Murray distinguishes his work through a unique emphasis on cultural representations, contributing a fresh perspective to the literature.

The Not-So-Mean Streets of Hangzhou, China: Reflecting with Nietzsche, Freud and Marx

Thomas Steinbuch — Sun, 28 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The study of the city is one of the most challenging topics we explore as philosophers, but it is highly rewarding because the city is our most complex cultural artifact and draws in so many aspects of cultural studies. Posthuman Urbanism: Mapping Bodies in Contemporary City Space (Shaw, 2017), does not disappoint in this respect of revealing how the city is the locus of so much of our neoliberal, and now neocolonial, culture of privilege in forms of classism, racism and genderism, and how the many “others” to these are relegated to the margins of city spaces so that the city becomes a de facto selection tool of sorting these into strata.

Review of “1st Liveable Futures Report: Food of Mass Destruction: How Exploiting Animals Drives Us to Extinction"

Joaquín Fernández-Mateo — Sun, 28 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This report, compiled by Jaime del Val, Reverso/Metabody Institute, in 2023, synthesises over 100 previous reports by United Nations, governmental commissions and high profile scientific commissions that state that animal based food is the major source of climate change, biodiversity loss, human health problems, human inequality and animal suffering. The report coins the acronym “AEFI” (Animal Exploitation Food Industries) for highlighting the central, present and historical role of this industry in the crisis, and pushes for a renewal of global legal frameworks that recognise the rights of all life forms as condition of possibility for a liveable future for humans themselves, while exposing the interconnection of the core role of shifting diets away from animal products with a voluntary reduction of overconsumption and overpopulation.

Front Matter

Sun, 28 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Worlding intensity/ies and energy/ies in a portrait of “Ann”

Fiona Blaikie, David Fancy — Sun, 28 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This visual essay draws on Deleuzian immanence as visual-textual storying, framed by shifting energy/ies and intensity/ies inherent in situated ontologies, the non/human posthuman as non-exceptional, and making practices as documentary, multimodal, participatory, and unfinished. Mutually constitutive relationalities are impacted by subtle energetic interventions drawing on dialogic conceptual exchanges around works of art. Photographs and a portrait series are examined in relation to contemporary art, where immanent unstable energies and intensities transform singular worlding moments, framed by spaces, things, times, place; non/human entities offer their own animating presences that further situate and contextualize. As the painting of Ann progressed, a vital stirring presence materialized. Energy/ies took up space in the portrait series, shifting over time, just as the energy/ies that occupy all materialities including non/humans and spaces are immanent and resonant, and always in the process of un/knowing and un/becoming.