I agree with you that we need an urgent meditation on human becoming
multiple-selves.
You said what is 'centrism', and you're right is very anthropo-centric, I
would say colonialist on regard of otherness, but what is "centrism"? It is
a culturally driven outlook, a vanishing point through which we retrieved a
position in a realm without 'telos', the question is if today after the
post-psychology, post-sociology, the idea of the ecology of the mind,
centrism is still a valid position, or if we have to retrieve from the past
the polytheistic position in order to set our self in this new realm.
For that reason there is a political issue on this discussion: "In a world
where religious dogma and political hegemony erupt a sense of unity,
connectives, and peace - a focus on Eco-centrism could be a meaningful
antidote." Well we could say a necessary antidote, and it seems to me that
we have to start from the animal kingdom reaching the P. Singer proposal to
extend the debate on Human Rights not only at all humankind but to all
living beings.
Your human enhancement engages immersivity, simulations, experience design
within the field of media arts and the areas of brain-share, and
consciousness expansion, and brain emulation within the fields of cognitive
and neuroscience and the field of artificial intelligence. This will reset
the narcissism but also the basic 'libido' (psychic energy) and also the
concept of Love. That you define "love" a strong positive emotion and
pleasure, love as "well-being". Going directly into the idea of love you got
the point of the installations.
Facing the monotheistic, ego driven vision of the realm, is everyday more
urgent to became capable to open us to a plurality of worlds in which
humankind is hosted, I would quote Roy Ascott:
*Every fibre, every node, every server on the Net is a part of me. **It's a
phase space I'm in, a sort of tele-potentiality. As I interact with the Net,
I reconfigure myself. My net-extent defines me, just as my body defined me
in the old biological culture.I am weightless and dimensionless in any exact
sense. I am the reach of my connectivity.*
As you wrote Natasha: Toward Plurality and Plasticity! That we can change in
Toward polytheistic and dynamic vision of the world.
Facing the enhanced realm of the Net, we need to reconfigure ourselves, from
one side negotiating a new position in the Nature, extending the XV century
debate on native indios to animal and plants, from another side extending in
a radical way the P. Singer proposal, developing the technoetic starting
building a cyber-ethic (is a fact that today's only living philosophy is the
ethic one)
The question is if is correct the idea of the radicalisation of the Singer
proposal, we have to extend the human rights to nature and to technology?
francesco
2010/4/26 Natasha Vita-More <natasha@natasha.cc>
> I respond by placing Francesco's comments in quotes and my response
> direclty
> below his comments:
>
> "The first topic introduced by you is a question on "what ways can
> narcissism and anthropocentrism be applied to a post or trans or meta
> human?", the idea of the artwork that inspires this subject, *Is There Love
> in The Technoetic
> Narcissus?* is clearly against the -centrism, not matter if is
> anthropically
> or animally or technologically driven, from the point of view of the
> humankind we have an urgence to shift from ego-centrism to *eco*-centrism.
> This term is a good start."
>
> Agreed. It would be quite odd to have a single-self narcissism when the
> future human is becoming multiple-selves. I view the issues by framing it
> as "social ecology", and I think that your term "eco-centrism" is in
> keeping
> with this sentiment. But what is "centrism"? It is a political
> philosophical outlook which avoids extremism, and this is a very good
> thing.
> So good, in fact - that it warrants plenty of love.*
>
> In a world where religious dogma and political hegemony erupt a sense of
> unity, connectives, and peace - a focus on eco-centrism could be a
> meaningful antidote.
>
>
> "The term was adopted in Italy by Wu Ming 1 a very well known writer (one
> of
> a group named Wu Ming) in his latest book *New Italian Epic *(Einaudi
> 2009).
> The title is a definition to describe a body of literary works which share
> various stylistic characteristics, thematic constants and an underlying
> allegorical nature. The last chapter is about the new definition of
> eco-centrism: humans are not necessary, we are exempedable: there is an
> urgence to shift from ego-centric point of view to eco-centric."
>
> "So the question is if a Human Enhancement is still a form of hyper
> cultural
> narcisism? And if yet: is the telos of our species? In this case we are
> fundamentally a narcisistic specie, so it is not a neurosis but a
> fundamental routine of our gender?"
>
> This is a timely and important question, since we are existing in the
> throws
> of enhancement and there is no turning back (no matter how much Bill Joy or
> Bill McKibben rally around anti-technological advancements. My answer to
> your question is that "Human Enhancement" is beyond a form of hyper
> cultural
> narcissism because narcissism, by its very nature, suggests that a human is
> the center of love and that this love is better than and more important
> than
> any other love. This cannot be scientifically proven and it is not
> psychologically sound. In fact is psychological unsound and resides in
> very
> close proximity to sociopathic behavior. Thus, "Human Enhancement" must be
> located within a "second-order cybernetics" and must include the tenets of
> a
> social ecology because human enhancement suggests a "connective
> intelligence." It further requires, and I do mean "requires" brain
> plasticity. One might ask "How does human enhancement suggest a connective
> intelligence?" And my answer is that human enhancement engages
> immersivity,
> simulations, experience design within the field of media arts and the areas
> of brain-share, and consciousness expansion, and brain emulation within the
> fields of cognitive and neuroscience and the field of artificial
> intelligence. The transdisciplinary of these fields hedge on the element
> of
> "love" (a strong positive emotion and pleasure) and what I consider to be
> love as "well-being". Well-being is quintessential love because in order
> to
> "love" one must not be in pain or anguish and the freedom of physiological
> pain or psychological anger equals a sense of love. (I can explain this
> further, but I don't' want to get too far off track). But to tie it in to
> your artworks, you will notice that with your plants are green, not yellow,
> which suggests they are healthy. When a blooming flower is at its most
> "love" it is ripe and full of all the chemical components of well-being.
>
>
> "We know the misunderstanding on evolution of species as something with a
> direction or a refinement, in order to really understand the work of Darwin
> we have to speak to differentiation by speciation (that not include any
> given refinement);"
>
> Darwin focused on natural selection. Spencer focused on survival of the
> fittest. It seems plausible that Darwin does have an affinity with
> diversity and differentiation.
>
> "We have to consider the idea of *Chance and Necessity* (New York, Alfred
> A.
> Knopf, 1971), a book of Jaques Monod in which the nobel prize retrieve the
> classic old Greek idea (Heraclitus) on the absence of an aim a *telos*."
>
> Even if John Cage's chance pieces of musical performance were actually
> based
> on chance, Cage still needed to have developed his skills in order to
> perform. So, the necessity of having skill allowed for his chance to be
> music and not noise. Further, Cage's chance music was preformed with
> technology.
>
> "The Human Cultural Narcissism could seems a sort of principle that recover
> the Telos."
>
> Yes, understood.
>
> "So we can go directly to your (natasha) last question: *Nevertheless, if
> and when humans diversify further and into a distributed cognition, what
> image will ego see when looking into a mirror? This reflection could
> frighten us deeply or give us immeasurable psychological relief.*"
>
> "Indeed a frightening image if we keep our monotheistic vision of the
> realm,
> but not if we will be capable to open us to new vision of the world were
> the
> world became a plurality of worlds in which humankind is hosted"
>
> Yes, well said Francesco. Precisely.
>
> Toward Plurality and Plasticity!
>
> Natasha
>
>
>
>
> 2010/4/21 Natasha Vita-More <natasha@natasha.cc>
>
> > Thank you Francesco for introducing this topic. There are many angles
> > to look at and routes to take in setting on a trek through the
> > richness of your material. I'd like to start with a first post, and
> > more will follow:
> >
> >
> > In what ways can narcissism and anthropocentrism be applied to a human
> > who is unleashing biology and engaging a bio-synthetic zone of existence?
> > Human
> > enhancement projects have a goal and that is to take biology out of
> > its fixed nature and turn it into a workable palate. Design labs such
> > as H+ Lab, DIYbio and DIYgenomics encourage new theory and practice
> > for those who want to be at the center of their own evolving
> bio-synthetic
> system.
> >
> > Do-it-yourself human enhancement domain has a certain familiarity. For
> > example, the theory and practice of second-order cybernetics placed
> > its formidable authors-Norbert Wiener, Gregory Bateson and Margaret
> > Mead, as a type of subjective elitism, in a claim that the observer
> > must be included in the system in order for the system to exist. If
> > the mind/brain is central, if not pivotal, to a cybernetic system,
> > would this be the epitome of an anthropocentric, self-referential
> > human-machine? Further, in that technology's tools are most often
> > available to those who partake in highly-financed projects, such as
> > the Biological Computer Laboratory at the University of Illinois
> > (1958-1975), and the lab is referred to as the "Nerve" and its
> > founder, Heinz von Foerster as its head, would that not ever so more
> > characterize this milieu as narcissistic at its best?
> >
> > Alternatively, designating one's experience of existence at the locus
> > of one's future experiences makes sense. Who would know how you think
> > and feel better than you?
> >
> > Nevertheless, if and when humans diversify further and into a
> > distributed cognition, what image will ego see when looking into a
> > mirror? This reflection could frighten us deeply or give us
> > immeasurable psychological relief.
> >
> >
> > Natasha Vita-More
> >
> >
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