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Vitor Moura Lima Defying the Gods and the Odds

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Vitor Moura Lima Defying the Gods and the Odds Vitor Moura Lima Defying the Gods and the Odds: on Being a Cyborg Tese de Doutorado Thesis presented to the Programa de Pós-graduação em Administração de Empresas of PUC-Rio in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doutor em Administração de Empresas. Advisor: Prof. Luís Alexandre Grubits de Paula Pessôa Co-Advisor: Prof. Russell William Belk Rio de Janeiro April 2020 Vitor Moura Lima Defying the Gods and the Odds: on Being a Cyborg Thesis presented to the Programa de Pós-graduação em Administração de Empresas of PUC-Rio in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doutor em Administração de Empresas. Approved by the Examination Committee. Prof. Luís Alexandre Grubits de Paula Pessôa Advisor Departamento de Administração – PUC-Rio Prof. Russell William Belk Co-Advisor York University Prof. Alessandra de Sá Mello da Costa Departamento de Administração – PUC-Rio Prof. Marcus Wilcox Hemais Departamento de Administração – PUC-Rio Prof. Hélio Arthur Reis Irigaray Fundação Getulio Vargas Prof. Maribel Carvalho Suarez Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro Prof. Denise Franca Barros Universidade do Grande Rio Rio de Janeiro, April 3rd, 2020 All rights reserved. Vitor Moura Lima MSc in Business Administration at FGV/EBAPE, Executive MBA in Marketing at FGV, BA in Advertising with extension in Branding at ESPM, and Digital Marketing Strategy Executive Certificate at Harvard University. He is the academic coordinator of the Executive MBA in Digital Marketing and Digital Media Analyst program at FGV. Frequently, he collaborates with mass media companies, such as O Globo and BBC. His research interests are: Consumer Culture Theory (CCT), Transhumanism, Biohacking, Cyborgs, Artificial Intelligence, Robots, Digital Marketing, and Semiotics. Bibliographic data Lima, Vitor Moura Defying the gods and the odds : on being a cyborg / Vitor Moura Lima ; advisor: Luís A. G. de P. Pessôa ; co-advisor: Russell W. Belk . – 2020. 190 f. : il. color. ; 30 cm Tese (doutorado)–Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, Departamento de Administração, 2020. Inclui bibliografia 1. Administração – Teses. 2. Transumanismo. 3. Ciborgues. 4. Self Estendido. 5. Self Interativo. 6. Semiótica. I. Pessôa, Luís A. G. de P. II. Belk, Russell W. III. Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro. Departamento de Administração. IV. Título. CDD: 658 To my family. Acknowledgements My research would never have been possible if it were not for the freedom I was given to follow my own ideas, thanks in large part to the kindness, friendship, and mentoring offered by Luís Pessôa, my advisor, and Russ Belk, my co-advisor. I have not only been learning how to do research properly but also how to be a better person. Thank you so much for having me under your guidance. My admiration and gratitude are immeasurable. You have no idea how important each one of our talks was to me. Please, never forget what you have done for my family and I. One day, I hope I can do the same for a student. I am truly blessed. Thank you. I am indebted and thankful to Alessandra Costa and Marcus Hemais for their guidance, care, and also for being role models throughout the whole Ph.D. course— it was tense and intense. I must also thank Detlev Zwick, Eileen Fischer, and Ela Veresiu for their kindness, priceless advice, and, above all, encouragement to do and to be. Thanks to all other professors and co-authors with whom I discussed my ideas throughout the years. A special thanks to Arthur Irigaray: if it were not for you and EPO (and Goffman), I would not be here (Thanks, "dad"). I am also honored and thankful to Maribel Suarez and Denise Barros for serving on my thesis committee; I could never forget to thank my friend Marcelo Boschi for all his mentoring and, of course, for introducing me to Luís Pessôa during a conference in 2015. I would like to thank all of the people both at PUC-Rio and Schulich who have made these years such a great opportunity to learn and evolve: Alessandra, Rafael, Renata, Diana, Flávia, Leila, Natália, Laís, Lorenna, Augusto, Shirley, Sheila, Viviya, Gülay, Jennifer, Rowan, Anupama, Claudia, and Pouyan. The faculty and many Ph.D. students who visited the Marketing departments and made them such interesting and diverse environments to be in. I am also extremely grateful to my dear friend Clara and her gift of: the first Android-based smartphone to setup my microchip. I am also very thankful to all the members of biohacking communities who shared their time and knowledge with me, online and offline, with an open heart, mind, and data. Keep calm and get chipped! I would like to thank my loving and gorgeous wife, Thássia, for her unwavering support and for "being my constant". My gratitude also goes to my friends for their encouragement and for understanding my absence throughout the years and for providing comfort and joy during our rare gatherings. To my family, with our soap opera history of ups and downs, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for being there for me. I always say that "life doesn't pause for your doctoral course," and for that reason, life happens the way it happens. Unfortunately, my grandmother Reuza, who paid most of my undergraduate studies, passed away in the middle of the course. My uncle/godfather Flávio, who always kept asking for my Ph.D. title to hang on his wall, recently lost his battle against drug addiction. All my love to you. Finally, I am also grateful to PUC-Rio for my academic excellence award and the VRAc-I scholarship. This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES) - Finance Code 001. Abstract Lima, Vitor Moura; Pessôa, Luís Alexandre Grubits de Paula (advisor); Belk, Russell William (co-advisor). Defying the Gods and the Odds: on Being a Cyborg. Rio de Janeiro, 2020. 190p. Tese de doutorado - Departamento de Administração, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro. Humanity's fascination for achieving something beyond what is given by an Almighty divinity can be found in many episodes since ancient times. Our quest for creation, extension, and controlling different forms of life, such as gods do, has been semiotically echoed through religions, myths, SCI-FI productions, and, of course, science. From the magical creation of Homunculi to the Altered Carbon dystopian setting, several issues arise from this complex relationship, perhaps mainly because of the rebellious act of benevolence committed by Prometheus, the fire (technology)-bringer. Although prior studies investigated technology consumption from different perspectives, they mostly employed a Heideggerian approach to them and, thus, viewed the technological device as only a tool. Given the consumption of insideable technologies, the way that we have been experiencing the dissolving boundaries between humans and machines, and the emerging changes in the human ontological status, the ensuing consequences, remain overlooked. To explore this singular phenomenon, based on abductive reasoning, I developed my theorization on the Interactive Self, mostly based on Sartre's latter existential-phenomenology approach. To do so, I had a prolonged and intensive immersion in the biohacking context, specifically grinding (cyborgs), that began in 2017 with a combination of netnography, ethnography, phenomenological interviews, and autoethnography. To analyze the large collected dataset, I followed the French Semiotics postulates, especially taking into account the existential- phenomenological turn in the Parisian School of Semiotics. As a result of this inquiry, my theoretical claim is that the Interactive Self is sustained by the process of the externalization of the internal and the internalization of the external in dialectical and perpetual dynamics. To sustain this argument and answer my research questions, I present this novel concept in two ways: First, I describe the conceptual components for the ontological condition of being a cyborg by means of NFC microchip consumption. Subsequently, I promote an articulation of Sartre's modes of existence within the aspect of volitional cyborgization, which places humanity one step closer in its ancient and ongoing dream of performing god-like miracles. In considering technology not as a mere tool to an end, as Heidegger would, I argue that it is a living, magical, and vibrant matter that has the power to change our ontological condition as human beings. In doing so, my research contributes to discussions on technology consumption, identity projects, and, tangentially, bioethics in consumer research within the context of Transhumanism. Keywords Transhumanism; Cyborgs; Extended Self; Interactive Self; Semiotics. Resumo Lima, Vitor Moura; Pessôa, Luís Alexandre Grubits de Paula (orientador); Belk, Russell William (co-orientador). Desafiando os Deuses e as probabilidades: sobre ser um cyborg. Rio de Janeiro, 2020. 190p. Tese de doutorado - Departamento de Administração, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro. O fascínio da humanidade por alcançar algo além do que é dado por uma divindade pode ser encontrado em diversos episódios desde os tempos mais remotos. Nossa busca por criação, extensão e controle de diferentes formas de vida, assim como os deuses fazem, ecoa semioticamente por narrativas religiosas, mitos, produções de ficção científica e, certamente, ciência. Desde a criação mágica dos Homúnculos até a distopia de Altered Carbon, várias questões surgem desse relacionamento complexo, provavelmente devido
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