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Posthumanism and Somatechnologies

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Posthumanism and Somatechnologies Lucie Dalibert Recently, with the advent of technoscience, and especially the convergence of nanotechnology, biotechnology, information and communication technology and the cognitive sciences (NBIC), has come the prospect of human enhancement. Even though the latter – the technological enhancement of human beings which has coalesced in the figure of the posthuman – has been the object of a heated, polarised, and ultimately deadlocked debate between bioconservatives and transhumanists, crucial dimensions that are needed to understand what is at stake with Posthumanism and human enhancement have been omitted. While putative enhancement technologies are assumed to be dramatically challenging, revolutionising even, for human beings, the very Somatechnologies relations between humans and technologies and the emergence of new configurations are ignored. Rather, a generic yet highly Exploring the Intimate Relations normative and exclusive conception of the human informs the bioconservative and transhumanist understandings of human between Humans and Technologies enhancement. In this context, how to apprehend and conceptualise the relations between humans and enhancement technologies so as to improve the current discussion on enhancement? Posthumanism and Somatechnologies This is the question that guides this thesis; and as argued in the latter, it is by addressing – and attempting to answer – this interrogation both conceptually and empirically that it becomes possible to account for what it means to be human within enhancement technologies, that is, within technologies that are increasingly getting closer to the (human) bodies they offer to modify. Lucie Dalibert Posthumanism and Somatechnologies: Exploring the Intimate Relations between Humans and Technologies Lucie Dalibert Graduation Committee: Chairman: Prof.dr.ir. A.J. Mouthaan, University of Twente, The Netherlands Secretary: Prof.dr.ir. A.J. Mouthaan, University of Twente, The Netherlands Promotor: Prof.dr.ir. P.P.C.C. Verbeek, University of Twente, The Netherlands Assistant promotor: Prof.dr. O. Aydin, University of Twente, The Netherlands Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands Posthumanism and Somatechnologies Members: Prof.dr. N.E.J. Oudshoorn, University of Twente, The Netherlands Exploring the Intimate Relations between Prof.dr.ir. P.H. Veltink, University of Twente, The Netherlands Prof.dr. A. J. Pols, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Prof.dr. H.A.E. Zwart, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands Humans and Technologies Dr. C. Åsberg, Linköping University, Sweden Dr. K. Besmer, Gonzaga University, The United States of America The research for this thesis has been funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) as part of the VIDI project 276-20-008. CTIT Ph.D.-thesis series No. 14-303 Dissertation to obtain Centre for Telematics and Information Technology P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE the degree of doctor at the University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands on the authority of the rector magnificus, prof.dr. H. Brinksma, on account of the decision of the graduation committee, to be publicly defended The research for this thesis was performed at Philosophy Department, Faculty of Behavioural Sciences, University of Twente, PO Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands. on Thursday, April 10th 2014 at 14.45 hrs This thesis was printed with financial support of the Netherlands Graduate Research School of Science, Technology and Modern Culture (WTMC) and the Department of Philosophy at the University of Twente. by Cover image by Keith Peters, artfromcode.com Printed by CPI Wohrmann Lucie Dalibert ISBN: 978-90-365-3651-6 ISSN: 1381-3617 (CTIT Ph.D.-thesis series No. 14-303) born on August 24th 1984 DOI: 10.3990/1.9789036536516 in Châteaubriant, France http://dx.doi.org/10.3990/1.9789036536516 © Lucie Dalibert, 2014 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior written permission of the author. This dissertation has been approved by promotor and assistant promotor: Prof.dr.ir. P.P.C.C. Verbeek Prof.dr. O. Aydin 3. The Cyborg and the Posthuman as Ethico-Political Figures Table of Contents and the Matter of Accountability...........................................................100 3.1. The Cyborg and the Posthuman as Figures and Cartographies of Power.......................................................................100 3.2. The Cyborg and the Posthuman as Posthumanist Figures Introduction.....................................................................................................15 for Liveable Futures.........................................................................104 4. From Posthuman to Posthumanism: Materiality, Normativity and Intimacy of Bodies and Technologies.....................................................109 4.1. Posthumanism as Apprehending Humans Beyond Modern Liberal Humanism...................................................................109 Chapter One: The Journey Towards Posthumanity – 4.2. Prosthetic Beings as the Posthumanist Answer to Mapping The Field Of Human Enhancement...........................21 the Intimacy of Human-Technology Relations?..................................113 1. Human Enhancement and the Posthuman...............................................22 Conclusion.....................................................................................................120 2. Technologies of Enhancement / Enhancement Technologies................26 3. At the Limits of Humanity, The Transhumanist- Bioconversative Deadlock.........................................................................32 3.1. Transhumanism and Human Enhancement: Towards the PosthuMan........................................................................33 3.2. A Claim on Human Nature, A View of Technology: Chapter Four: Somatechnologies and The Intimate Relations of Bioconservatives and the HuMan........................................................44 Humans and Technologies.....................................................123 Conclusion – The Human and Technology as Blackboxes...........................53 1. Philosophical Anthropology – The Organicity of Technology...............125 2. Anthropotechnologies as/and Somatechnologies.................................130 2.1. Originary Technicity, Biotechnogenesis and Corporeal Intertwinement...................................................................130 2.2. Anthropotechnologies and Rules for the Human Zoo.......................135 Chapter Two: Human Enhancement as Normation?…...................................55 2.3. Anthropotechnologies and the Making of Human Subjects: 1. Human Enhancement, Ethical Issues and the Spectre of Eugenics.......56 Bodies and Normativity......................................................................139 1.1. Human Enhancement as an Ethical Issue.............................................56 2.4. Somatechnologies – Materiality and Normativity in Intimate 1.2. Human Enhancement and The Spectre of Eugenics...........................58 Human-Technology Relations.............................................................143 2. Human Enhancement as Normation.........................................................62 Conclusion.....................................................................................................146 2.1. Human Enhancement as a De/valuation of Dis/abilities.....................62 2.2. Human Enhancement as Normation....................................................65 3. Unpacking Human Enhancement: The Intertwinement of Bodies, Technologies and Humanness...................................................................70 3.1. Antiseptic Enhancement and Reinforcement of Modern Dualisms...............................................................................70 Chapter Five: Living with a Somatechnology: Exploring the Intimate 3.2. Remaking Bodies with Technologies, Enacting Humanness: Relations between Bodies and Technologies.....................149 Cosmetic Plastic Surgery as Example.........................................................74 1. Spinal Cord Stimulation and Prostheses As Somatechnologies............152 Conclusion: Materialising Bodies in Technologies, Enacting humanness...79 1.1. Accounting for Somatechnologies in Practice...................................152 1.2. Prosthetics and Spinal Cord Stimulation: The Complexity of Somatechnologies..........................................................................156 1.3. Towards A Postphenomenological Approach? Somatechnologies as Instances of Mediation..................................................................170 Chapter Three: Of Cyborgs and Posthumans: Rewriting Posthumanism....81 2. Becoming Intimate with Somatechnologies, A Learning Process........176 1. Cyborgs and Posthumans, An Ambiguous Genealogy............................82 2.1. Technologies Outside the Configuration of Use, Processes of 1.1. Posthuman Extensions: The Cyborg and Space..................................83 Embodiment at Stake.........................................................................176 1.2. Cybernetics, A Frustrated A-Modern and Posthumanist Potential....85 2.2. ‘Doing’ Intimacy: Learning to Live with a Somatechnology..............181 2. The Cyborg as Redefining Human Ontology and Igniting 3. Living with a Somatechnology, Re-exploring Bodies in Intimate A-Modern Posthumanism..........................................................................93
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