The Promises of Monsters theorizing human impact of the (bio)technological advancement Lika Rygina, PhD student GSSR IFiS PAN Sociolbiology October, 2008

Fukuyama, Francis. (2002). Our posthuman future. Consequences of the biotechnology revolution. London: Profile Books. The aim of this book is to argue that …the most significant threat posed by contemporary biotechnology is the possibility that it will alter human nature and thereby move us into a posthuman stage of history. This is important …because human nature exists, is a meaningful concept, and has provided a stable continuity to our experience as species...Human nature shapes and constrains the possible kinds of political regimes, so a technology powerful enough to reshape what we are will have possibly malign consequences for liberal democracy and the nature of politic itself. (p. 7)

Structure of the book Part I: Pathways of the future Part II: Being human Part III: What to do

Burgeoning areas of biotechnology - brain science; - neuropharmacology/behavior control; - life extending technology; -genetic engineering: diagnostics and screening amorous, artificial production of body parts, manipulation with genes.

What is human nature? human nature is the sum of the behavior and characteristics that are typical of the human species, arising from genetic rather than environmental factors (p. 130). Factor X is the human essence, the most basic meaning of what it is to be human (p. 150). Only humans possess dignity which gives them a superior... moral status that raises us all above the rest of animal creation and yet makes us equals of one another qua human beings (p. 138).

Why it is important? Only human beings can formulate, debate, and modify abstract rules of justice… we should not confuse human politics with the social behaviour of any other species (p. 37). Liberal democracy has emerged as the only viable and legitimate political system for modern societies because it avoids either extreme, shaping politics according to historically created norm of justice while not interfacing excessively with natural patterns of behaviour (p. 14).

What is it that we want to protect from any advances in biotechnology? [W]e want to protect the full range of our complex, evolved natures against attempts at self-modification. We do not want to disrupt either the unity or the continuity of human nature, and thereby the human rights that are based on it (p. 172). True freedom means the freedom of political communities to protect the values they hold most dear, and it is that freedom that we need to exercise with regards to the biotechnology revolution (p. 218).

Political impact deep change of the notion of human equality and the capacity for moral choice; development of new technologies for controlling behaviors of their citizens; erosion of understanding of human personality and identity; elevation of existing social hierarchies; affect to the rate of intellectual, material, and political progress.

Our posthuman future Disruption of humans biology= The end of human nature Transformation of human values The end of liberal democracy= The end of history

Critique misleading title; confusion with culture and nature; simplification of the issue of human rights and equality.

Cyborg society In the industrial and so-called post- industrial countries a cyborg society has developed where the intimate interconnections and codependencies between organic and machanic systems are so complex and pervasive that whether or not any particular individual in that society is a cyborg, we are all living a cyborgian existence (Gray, 2001).

Cyborg as a space pioneer Clynes, M., Kline, N. (September 1960). Cyborgs and Space. Astronautics. 1960s, NASA activity for expanding human ability to survive under the hard conditions. We worked to hatch fish species that are able to live on land (Clynes & Kline, 1995).

Postbiological/cyborg condition Haraway, D. (1985). Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, technology, and social feminism in the 1980s. Socialist Review, 80: Capitalist Patriarchy – vs – Informatics of Domination Representation – vs – Simulation Organism – vs – Biotic Component Perfection – vs – Optimization Eugenics – vs – Population Control Hygiene – vs – Stress Management Microbiology, tuberculosis – vs – Immunology, AIDS Organic division of labour – vs – Ergonomics Reproduction – vs – Replication Organic sex role specialization – vs – Genetic strategies Public/Private – vs – Cyborg citizenship Nature/Culture – vs – Fields of difference Co-operation – vs – Communicatins enhancemenet Sex – vs – Genetic engineering Labour – vs – Robotics Mind – vs – Artificial Intelligence

Cyborg as a critical metaphor Haraway, D. (1985). Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, technology, and social feminism in the 1980s. Socialist Review, 80: A cyborg is a cybernetic organism, a hubrid of machine and orgnism, a creature of social reality as well as a creature of fiction…it has no truck with …seductions to organic wholeness through a final appropriation of all the powers of the parts into a higher unity. The cyborg does not dream of community on the model of the organic family, this time without the Oedipal project. The cyborg would not recognize the Garden of Eden; it is not made of mud and cannot dream of returning to dust.

Posthuman Hayles, Katherine (1999). How we became posthuman: Virtual bodies in cybernetics, literature, and informatics. University of Chicago Press. Flickering signifier Critique of the liberal humanist subject Cybernetics

Flickering vs Floating: the new order of sinificaton Flickering signification extends the productive force of codes beyond the text to include the signifying processes by which the technologies produce texts, as well as the interfaces that enmesh humans into integrated circuits. As the circuits connected technology, text, and human expand and intensity, the point where quantative increments shade into qualitive transformation draws closer (Hayles, 1999).

The conventional definition and beyond Human is a linguistic, social and cultural construct (Fuss, 1999). Qualities of a liberal humanist subject (Macpherson cited in Hayles, 1997): autonomy rationality free will agency consciousness identity

The machine is not an it to be animated, worshipped, and dominated. The machine is us, our process, an aspect of our embodiment (Haraway, 1985).

Cyborg subjectivity and the future of social activism Cyborg Feminists (Haraway, 1991) Multitude (Hardt & Negri, 2000; 2004) the Women of Color (Haraway, 1985) Mestizaje (Sandoval, 1995) Nomadic Subject (Braidotty, 1994) Narrative selfhood (MacIntyre, 1984)

Cyborgs actually do exist… [A]bout 10% of the current U.S. population are estimated to be cyborgs in the technical sense, including people with electronic pacemakers, artificial joints, drug implant systems, implanted corneal lenses, and artificial skin. A much higher percentage participates in occupations that make them into metaphoric cyborgs, including the computer keyboarder joined in a cybernetic circuit with the screen, the neurosurgeon guided by fiber optic microscopy during an operation, and the teen gameplayer in the local videogame arcarde (Hayles, 1995). [M]odern war is a cyborg orgy, coded by C3I, command-control- communication-intelligence, an $84 billion item in 1984'sUS defence budget (Haraway, 1985).

Bibliography Braidotti, Rosi. (1994). Nomadic Subjects. Embodiment and Sexual Difference in Contemporary Feminist Theory. New York: Columbia Univ. Press. Deleuze, G. & Guattari, F. (1983). Anti-Oedipus Capitalism and Schizophrenia. (T. Conley, Trans.). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Foucault, M. (1986). Care of the Self: The History of Sexuality. Volume 3. (trans Robert Hurley) New York: Random House. Gane, Nicholas. (2006). When We Have Never Been Human, What Is to Be Done?: Interview with Donna Haraway. Theory Culture Society. SAGE, London, Thousand Oaks and New Delhi), Vol. 23(7–8): 135–158 Gonzalez, J. (1995). Envisioning Cyborg Bodies Notes from Current Research. I n Chris Gray (ed), The cyborg handbook. New York: Routledge. Gorunova. Olga. (2000). Osobennosti Net-kultury i iskusstvo. Teoria # 1. Karnavalnoe myshlenie v Internet [Specifics of the Net-culture and fine arts: Theory #1. Carnival thought in the Net]. Russkii Zhirnal. Retrieved March 3, 2006, from Graham, Elaine. (2004). Post/human conditions. Theology Sexuality, 10, SAGE Publications. Retrieved June 11, 2008, from Gray, Chris. (2001) Cyborg Citizen: Politics in the Posthuman Age. New York & London: Routledge. Gray, Chris, Figueroa-Sarriera, Jennifer, and Mentor, Steven. (1995). Cyborgology: Constructing the Knowledge of Cybernetic Organisms in Chris Gray (Ed.), The Cyborg Handbook. (pp. 1-14). New York: Routledge. Haraway, Donna. (2001). Situated Knowledge: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective. In Simians, Cyborgs, and Women The Reinvention of Nature. (pp ). London: Free Association Books. Haraway, D. (1985). Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, technology, and social feminism in the 1980s. Socialist Review 80: Hardt, Michael, and Negri, Antoni. (2000). Empire. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Hayles, Katherine. (1997). Prosthetic Rhetoric and the Posthuman Body. Presentation by Katherine Hayles Penn State Conference on Rhetoric and Composition, July 6-9. Retrieved September 12, 2007 from Hayles, K. (1999). How we became posthuman: Virtual bodies in cybernetics, literature, and informatics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Hekman, Susan (1992). The Embodiment of the Subject: Feminism and the Communitarian Critique of Liberalism. The Journal of Politics, Vol. 54, No. 4: Kaplan, David (2004). Recent philosophy of technology. In D. Kaplan, ed. Reading in the philosophy of technology. (pp ). Lonham, Boulder, New York, Toronto, Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, inc. Latuor, Bruno. (2004). A collective of humans and nonhumans. In David Kaplan (Ed.), Reading in the philosophy of technology. (pp ). Lonham, Boulder, New York, Toronto, Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. (Original work published 1999). Paasonen, Susanna. (2003). Cyborg& Cyclops: the vision of a man-machine. In Tanja Sihvonen & Pasi Väliaho (eds.), Experiencing the Media: Assemblages and Cross-Overs. (pp ). University of Turku,. Retreviewed june 2007 from Sandel, Michael. (1982). Liberalism and the limits of justice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Sandoval, Chela. (1995). New sciences: Cyborg feminism and the methodology of the oppressed. In Chris Gray et al. (Eds.), The cyborg handbook. (pp ). London: Routledge. Sweeny, R. (2004) net_work_ed: Simulated bodies and objects intertwined in cyberplaces and art educational spaces – threads of a critical digital pedagogy. Unpublished dissertation. The Pennsylvania State University. Wiener, Norbert. (1950). The Human Use of Human Beings. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

The Promises of Monsters theorizing human impact of the (bio)technological advancement Lika Rygina, PhD student GSSR IFiS PAN Sociolbiology October, 2008