I really wanted to get the concept of posthumans straight in my head, and the best way to do that is to blog it!
Hayles defines the posthuman in the following manner:
“First, the posthuman view privileges informational pattern over material instantiation, so that embodiment in a biological substrate is seen as an accident of history rather than an inevitability of life. Second, the posthuman view considers consciousness, regarded as the seat of human identity in the Western tradition long before Descartes thought he was a mind thinking, as an epiphenomenon, as an evolutionary upstart trying to claim that it is the whole show when in actuality it is only a minor sideshow. Third, the posthuman view thinks of the body as the original prosthesis we all learn to manipulate, so that extending or replacing the body with other prostheses becomes a continuation of a process that began before we were born. Fourth, and most important, by these and other means, the posthuman view configures human being so that is can be seamlessly articulated with intelligent machines. In the posthuman, there are no essential differences or demarcations between bodily existence and computer simulation, cybernetic mechanism and biological organism, robot teleology and human goals.” pg2
I read this as:
1) The human body is incidental – it is the information that is key.
2) Western ideas of consciousness are not a vital component.
3) The posthuman will update the biological as necessary. Augmentations will be used whenever they will improve the performance of the posthuman.
4) The man and the machine will be integrated and there are no boundaries between “bodily existence and computer simulation”.
Hayles also discusses the posthuman in terms of rationality, free will, autonomy, independence of spirit and sense of self:
“If human essence is freedom from the will of others, the posthuman is ‘post’ not because it is necessarily unfree but because there is no priori way to identify a self-will from an other-will” pg 4
She states that it is the Western view that independence and individualism is an outdated view and that the posthuman is there to take us forward. It seems to me that she is suggesting the relinquishing of control, because a need for a semblance of control is human, not posthuman. This seems a strange concept to me, and one that I am still wrestling with – that the loss of control can be good. I think I will have to mull that one over some more! However, Hayles view of the posthuman is also hugely positive:
“my dream is a version of the posthuman that embraces the possibilities of information technologies without being seduced by fantasies of unlimited power and disembodied immortality, that recognizes and celebrates finitude as a condition of human being, and that understands human life is embedded in a material world of great complexity, one on which we depend for our continued survival”. (p.5)
At a very basic level, it seems to me that Hayles is using the term posthuman to attempt to describe the positives and the pitfalls of our relationship with technology as we become increasingly connected.
References
Hayles, N.K. (1999). Toward embodied virtuality, chapter 1 of “How we became posthuman: virtual bodies in cybernetics, literature and informatics“. Chicago, University of Chicago Press. pp1-25
Hi Sarah,
I like the way you have unpicked Hayle’s concept of posthuman. And I think the key is the rejection of individualism which I think is central to a humanist view. The point about control is (I think) that control is part and parcel of an individualistic, humanistic view of life – and that is an illusion anyway. As individuals we have limited control – depending on the social conditions we are situated. So we are not really losing control but losing the illusion of control. The posthuman is about connections and relations with others through technology and using technology to extend ourselves.
I guess. I am still struggling too.
Hi Silvana
Thanks for your comments which were very timely as they fitted precisely with a blog entry with reference to Muri and the posthuman condition I was working on which I have posted here.
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