#contemporary philosophy

[bored-philosopher-corner]

PhD Journal - 27 10 2024

I was reading this article on Aristotle's ideas on human and animal rational abilities, and some things the author wrote struck me.

He wrote "The world, however, looks very different to humans. Things can appear red or painful to an animal, but not noble or unjust", I simply think this is untrue in many ways.

The statement seems to dismiss the possibility that animals can perceive qualities beyond basic sensory or emotional experiences. While it’s true that human perception of concepts like nobility or justice is deeply tied to our social structures and language, it’s a bit presumptive to assume animals don’t have their own complex experiences or social behaviors that might parallel some of our more abstract ideas.

For example, certain animals exhibit behaviors that suggest a sense of fairness or altruism. Elephants have been observed mourning their dead, which could indicate some level of emotional complexity that goes beyond just pain or pleasure. Similarly, primates have shown behaviors that suggest a rudimentary sense of justice or fairness.

Dismissing these possibilities might be limiting our understanding of animal cognition and consciousness.

I think that we can't know what is going on truly in another's mind, whether it might be a human or an animal, an if we presume that other people have the same notion of what is just or unjust as we do, then why not presume animals also have that ability or that notion? It wouldn't be that much of a stretch either.

Indeed, assuming we can know with certainty what is going on in another's mind—whether human or animal—is a profound leap. My understanding about assuming that other people share our notions of justice and injustice opens up a fascinating angle: if we grant this assumption to humans, it’s a small step to extend it to animals as well.

Different cultures and individuals can have varied perceptions of justice, shaped by their experiences, social structures, and personal beliefs. Similarly, animals, with their own social structures and behaviors, may possess their own notions of fairness or injustice that we simply don't fully understand yet. Observations of animals showing empathy, cooperation, and even mourning behavior hint at complexities in their social interactions and emotions that may parallel human experiences in some way.

Moreover, Aristotle’s idea that humans are “social/political animals” highlights our inherent need for community and governance, but it also suggests that social structures aren't unique to humans. Many animals exhibit social and political behaviors within their groups. Take wolves, for example—they have complex social hierarchies and cooperation mechanisms. Elephants demonstrate empathy and mourning, which indicate an awareness of right and wrong within their social context.

Assuming that humans, as animals, are the only ones capable of moral reasoning ignores the nuanced behaviors of other species. The same principles that govern human social and ethical behavior can often be observed in the animal kingdom, albeit in different forms. So, it's quite reasonable to propose that animals might have their own versions of what is morally right or wrong based on their social structures and interactions.

Recognizing that animals might have their own notions of right and wrong, based on their social behaviors, encourages us to approach them with greater empathy and respect. It challenges us to rethink our interactions with all creatures, fostering a sense of shared existence.

Greater consideration for animals and insects can lead to more compassionate and protective actions on our part. This might mean advocating for their habitats, reducing our ecological footprint, and ensuring that our advancements do not come at the expense of their well-being. Embracing this perspective not only enriches our ethical frameworks but also enhances the way we coexist with the natural world.

Further along in this article, the author wrote "This story commits Aristotle to the claim that non-human animals are incapable of restraint. Nothing we have said so far suggests a view about animal cognition without restraint. One possibility is that, without restraint, the perceptual/imaginative stream has no effect on behavior, as a car's engine does not power its wheels when the car is stuck in neutral. But that account seems absurd, since animals get around just fine without rational cognition and therefore without restraint". Which, I still find myself conflicting with. I would argue that animals have some imagination, some phantasia in the aristotelian sense, like, say, squirells who imagine a hard winter and pile up, or bears who eat a lot before hibernating in preparation, having had phantasmata, of a hard winter.

I would think this personal interpretation aligns with a nuanced understanding of Aristotle. Aristotle did acknowledge that animals possess phantasia (imagination), which allows them to perceive and respond to their environment in complex ways. This phantasia involves the ability to form images or representations of things not immediately present, influencing behavior.

When Aristotle discusses animals and restraint, he distinguishes between rational restraint (unique to humans) and non-rational restraint. Humans use rational deliberation to exercise restraint, while animals rely on a form of non-rational restraint guided by phantasia.

Examples like squirrels hoarding nuts or bears preparing for hibernation illustrate that animals anticipate future needs based on imagined scenarios (phantasmata). This anticipation shapes their behavior, indicating that animals do have a form of cognitive processing that impacts their actions, albeit different from human rationality.

However, while it's traditionally thought that animals operate on instinct and phantasia rather than rational planning, recent studies suggest that some animals do engage in what appears to be foresight and planning. Squirrels caching nuts and bears preparing for hibernation might indeed involve more complex decision-making processes. These behaviors could indicate a form of non-human rationality, shaped by environmental cues and learned experiences. It’s a fascinating area where philosophy and ethology intersect, challenging our understanding of cognition across species.

The idea that animals may exhibit a form of rational behavior—distinct from human rationality—opens up fascinating possibilities. It challenges us to consider cognition on a broader spectrum, recognizing that animals might plan and make decisions in ways we don’t fully understand.

By acknowledging our limitations as humans in comprehending animal cognition, we invite a more nuanced appreciation of their capabilities. This perspective underscores the importance of approaching animal behavior with humility and curiosity.

Later, the writer stated : "he comparison to animals is still explicit: appearances cause movement in humans against their better judgment, in animals because they have no better judgment". Still, I find it difficult to agree with such a statement. For, from my experience and understanding, we see animals hesitate, like humans, out of doubt, out of fear, because they, like us, don't have enough information to be sure of their movements.

Observing animal behavior often reveals moments of hesitation, suggesting a level of decision-making complexity akin to human doubt and uncertainty. Animals, like humans, can exhibit caution and deliberation when faced with unclear situations, indicating that they do possess forms of judgment that guide their actions.

This implies that animals’ responses aren't merely automatic reactions to stimuli but involve a form of assessment based on available information. Thus, dismissing their actions as lacking "better judgment" underestimates their cognitive abilities.

The author continues, stating that "When Aristotle claims that animals acquire experience (empeiria), I think he means to tell this kind of story. He makes that claim in the opening chapter of the Metaphysics, in yet another comparison between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom. Humans have craft (technê) and reasoning (logismos) to help them get by, while beasts do not. Beasts live by their imagination, memory and apparently a small share of experience: But anyway, the other [animals] live by imaginings and memories, and have a small share of experience (empeiria), but humankind [lives] also by craft and reasoning". I still find myself disagreeing with this.

Indeed, I'd argue we should challenge such an interpretation. Bees producing honey, birds communicating through song, and animals using strategies to overcome obstacles all suggest a level of technê (craft) and practical reasoning in animals. Aristotle's distinctions might reflect the perspectives of his time, but contemporary ethology shows that animals possess complex skills, problem-solving abilities, and social behaviors that go beyond mere imagination and memory.

Bees, for instance, exhibit sophisticated behaviors in honey production, which involves communication through the waggle dance and precise construction skills. Birds, like parrots, use vocalizations that serve meaningful social functions, similar to human language. Many animals demonstrate problem-solving skills and the ability to devise and execute plans, reflecting a form of reasoning.

I would, in the end, perhaps argue that we should ackowledge modern perspectives, which might highlight the evolution of thought and encourage readers to reflect on how our understanding has progressed. It’s a way to show the growth of knowledge and the necessity of questioning and adapting ancient ideas to contemporary insights. Because, not acknowledging modern perspectives on animal cognition could indeed limit the relevance and adaptability of Aristotle's thoughts today. To truly honor the evolution of knowledge, it's essential to integrate current understandings while recognizing the historical significance of past thinkers.

[abjectionporn-blog]

There is no democracy in any love relation: only mercy.

Gillian Rose

[gregor-samsung]

Selbstkritik eines bürgerlichen Hundes [Self-Criticism of a Bourgeois Dog] (Julian Radlmaier - 2017)

[sinterhinde]

Haraway, 1985

Donna Haraway’s concept of the cyborg is a radical archetype for emancipatory self-construction that models conscious reshaping of socially imposed identities. The cyborg represents the plasticity of our socially constructed identities: our ability to transcend the limits of prefabricated identities and overwrite oppressive, socially imposed roles. Understanding social construction through this lens gives social workers and clients the conceptual tools to deconstruct rigid identities—particularly those of gender identity—imposed by society. These identities are the subject of active political contestation; they are the product of economic, social, and cultural relations and institutions. The concept of the cyborg provides an emancipatory model that denaturalizes and destabilizes rigid essentialist binaries and instead recognizes the chimeric multiplicity of the individual.

Abstract by Nicholas D. Tolliver, 2022

https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/mar4-1k48

We are all cyborgs: How machines can be a feminist tool

By Nour Ahmad

Upon hearing the word “cyborg”, perhaps the first thing that comes to mind is a fusion of human and machine. Our imagination might even drift to an image of Frankenstein’s monster or a depiction such as Major Mira Killian in the anime Ghost in the Shell. A cyborg is actually just a hybrid — part mechanism, part organism. The cyborg, as a concept, is associated with scientist, innovator and musician Manfred Clynes, who deployed it in his 1960’s article Cyborgs and Space, where he argued for altering the human body to make it suitable for space travel.

We, thus, might perceive this concept as being in the future, far from the here and now. However, Donna Haraway, an American biologist and feminist, claims the opposite. She believes that we are all already cyborgs. More significantly, she posits that the advent of cybernetics might help in the construction of a world capable of challenging gender disparities, a proposal she made in her 1985’s essay titled A Cyborg Manifesto. 

How, then, would the notion of cybernetics make for a post-gender understanding of the world? And how would it be a tool for women to undermine the roles imposed on them by society? 

Cyborgs and human nature

The investigation into human nature has always been an essential pursuit for schools of philosophy and a basic assumption made by political ideologies. The answer to the question “what does it mean to be a human?” determines the orientation of a political movement or an ideology. Patriarchal societies have historically adopted an essentialist interpretation of human nature, so as to justify male domination over women. It makes the claim that each of the sexes has a specific role to play and, ultimately, considers the feminine to be secondary to the masculine and thus subjugates women. In such societies, predetermined sets of values and behavioural patterns are strictly enforced on both sexes.  

In A Cyborg Manifesto, Haraway explores the history of the relationship between humans and machines, and she argues that three boundaries were broken throughout human history which have changed the definition of what is deemed cultural or otherwise natural. The first such boundary was between humans and animals, and was broken in the 19th century after the publishing of On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin. As the biological connection between all organisms was discovered and publicised in this book, it served as a rejection of notions of human exceptionalism and superiority, turning the evolution of the organism into a puzzle. It also introduced the concept of evolution as necessary for understanding the meaning of human existence.  

The second boundary-breaking event relates to the relationship between machines and organisms (be they human or animal). As the industrial revolution arrived, all aspects of human life became mechanised. As human dependence on machines surged, machines became an inseparable part of what it is to be human; an extension of human capability.

As for the third boundary, it concerns the technological advancement that has produced evermore complex machines which can be miniscule in size or, in the case of software, altogether invisible. First came developments in silicon semi-conductor chips that now pervade all of life’s domains. As these machines are practically invisible, it is then difficult to decide where the machine ends and humans start. This machine thus represents culture intruding over nature, intertwining with it and changing it in the process. As a result, boundaries between the cultural and the natural became more and more intangible.

“…the advent of cybernetics might help in the construction of a world capable of challenging gender disparities.”

In this context, Haraway uses the cyborg as a model to present her vision of a world that transcends sexual differences, expressing her rejection of patriarchal ideas based on such differences. Because a cyborg is a hybrid of the machine and the organism, it merges nature and culture into one body, blurring the lines between them and eliminating the validity of essentialist understandings of human nature. This includes claims that there are specific social roles reserved for each of the sexes which are based in biological differences between them, in addition to other differences such as age or race.

You are cyborg!

Since first practicing agriculture, using tools to increase production and developing language and writing, humans have been able to boost capabilities and expand their potential. Today, the implantation of artificial organs has been a vital development in the field of medicine, while the smartphone, for example, serves as an extension of human memory, our senses and our mental functions as well. The advancements made in GPS and communication technologies allow us to be present remotely and even grant us the ability to exist outside of the limitations of our time and space frameworks. All these aspects of technology are an expansion of human beings and an augmentation of our physical and cognitive abilities.

Taking all of this into consideration, the cyborg seems present here and now. In an interview with Wired magazine, Haraway said that being a cyborg does not necessarily mean having silicon chips implanted under one’s skin or mechanical parts added to one’s body. The implication is, rather, that the human body has acquired features that it could not have been able to develop on its own, such as extending life expectancy. Indeed, in our current state, cybernetics exist around us, and in simpler forms than futuristic visions. Even maintaining our physical fitness is today cybernetic, from the use of exercise machines to the many food supplements available as well as clothing and footwear engineered for athletic activity. Moreover, the culture surrounding fitness could not have existed without viewing the human body as a high-performance machine whose performance can be improved over time.

On the other hand, a cyborg is “a creature of social reality as well as a creature of fiction” according to Haraway’s manifesto. The internet has brought about profound changes in human consciousness and human psychology. Virtual reality does not only surround us, but it also involves us in its own processes. The social dimension to technology plays a role in the construction of our identities, whether through online games, discussion forums or social media, where our identities can be as multiple as the online platforms that we use.     

Therefore, we can now say that we are all cyborgs, as technology “is not neutral. We’re inside of what we make, and it’s inside of us,” as Haraway formulates it. In modern life, the link between humans and technology has become inexorable to the extent that we cannot tell where we end and the machines begin. 

Cybernetics and feminism

Feminist issues lie at the heart of the concept of cybernetics, since the latter’s prospects erase major contradictions between nature and culture, such that it is no longer possible to characterise a role as natural. When people colloquially use the word “natural” to describe something, this is an expression of how they view the world, but also a normative claim about how it should be as well as a statement on what cannot be changed.

In this context, the cybernetics erase gender boundaries. For generations, women have been told that their “nature” makes them weak, submissive, overemotional and incapable of abstract thought, that it was “in their nature” only to be mothers and wives. If all these roles are “natural” then they are unchangeable, Haraway said. 

Conversely, if the concept of the human is itself “unnatural” and is instead socially constructed, then both men and women are also social constructs, and nothing about them is inherently “natural” or absolute. We are all [re]constructed when given the right tools. In short, cybernetics have allowed a new distinction of roles, based on neither sex nor race, as it provided humans the liberty and agency to construct themselves on every level.

“Because a cyborg is a hybrid of the machine and the organism, it merges nature and culture into one body, blurring the lines between them and eliminating the validity of essentialist understandings of human nature. This includes claims that there are specific social roles reserved for each of the sexes which are based in biological differences between them, in addition to other differences such as age or race.”

Therefore, through her notion of the cyborg, Haraway calls for a new feminism that takes into account the fundamental changes that technology brings to our bodies, to reject the binaries that represent the epistemology of the patriarchy —binaries such as body/psyche, matter/spirit, emotion/mind, natural/artificial, male/female, self/other, nature/culture. Technology is simply one of the means by which the boundaries between identities are erased. Cyborgs, in addition to being hybrids, transcend gender binaries and can thus constitute a way out of binary thinking used to classify our bodies and our machines and accordingly “lead to openness and encourage pluralism and indefiniteness.”

Haraway’s idea is based on a full cognisance of the ability of technology to increase the scope of human limitation and thus open opportunities for individuals to construct themselves away from stereotypes. And while Haraway describes A Cyborg Manifesto as an ironic political myth that mocks and derides patriarchal society, she still claims that cybernetics lay the foundation for a society in which we establish our relations not on the basis of similarity, but on harmony and accord.

(mediasupport.org)

[crowleyspriestess]

René Girard - Il Capro Espiatorio

[philosophika]

[re-strictedaccess]

Hi! Teddie here.

In December, 2022, Oliver Misraje published this article in Zine, “The Internet is a Graveyard”. Misraje talks about four case studies in which ghosts have infiltrated the online realm – from AI "reviving" lost loved ones, to immortal memorialization on the internet, the freelance writer reveals the less-than-lively aspects of our generated world. As a philosophy fanatic, the thing that spoke out most to me in this article was Misraje’s final case study, labelled “Future Ghosts”.

Briefly, in the history of philosophy there has been endless back and forth regarding the immortality of the human soul or mind. Essentially, whether or not we exist after we die. And the implications of this reach all the way back to Plato, who claimed that death should be the philosopher’s ultimate goal, so we can more or less finally free our minds from the physical world and become omnipotent/transcendent beings.

But as someone who does consider life a wholly unique and miraculous experience, this cheap acceptance of death does not come easy, and I feel a need to believe that there is something more to the mortal world that we are missing. I think a lot of people would agree with me there.

Misraje explains, in the fourth case study of the article, an old event in 1994 where “techno-pagans” reframed the internet as more than a realm for enhanced globalization and human connection – where the internet becomes a hub for a kind of “magical evocation”. Misraje also connects this to the more recent paper by Melanie Swan, in which she coins the term “cloudminds”: a form of transhumanism (the idea that humans can evolve beyond our bodies and minds), where we have some processing power that is entirely virtual (think crypto-currency, but instead of having monetary value it makes decisions for us). We would be able to upload our minds (our experiences, memories, decisions) to an online database where our own individual knowledge and histories could connect and collectively be used in a kind of uni-mind (credit to Marvel), which could be used to solve much more difficult, large-scale human problems. Apart from completely eradicating the importance of human engineers, though, what does this mean for the rest of us? What might that tell us about life and death?

I’d love to take this in a non-conventional direction, so bear with me. Let’s pretend that the afterlife does not matter, whatsoever. It doesn’t exist, it doesn’t get experienced, it doesn’t affect anyone living or anyone dead. Imagine it as a junk drawer, or a trash bin: out of sight, out of mind. Now, we introduce this cloudmind: instead of our knowledge being carried with us into the trash, we keep a record of all of it, every experience and memory and thought. Everything except our physical bodies and brains would remain in our mortal world, where it could forever be interacted with and investigated. The living can interact with every intangible quality of the dead. Is this what it looks like to achieve immortality?

Short answer: No. Even if we could capture every essence of one person on some sort of virtual hard drive, if we could upload it into a computer so we could “ChatGPT” it, or if we could plug it into some sort of rain-proof, life-sized sex doll, this is not immortality. The essence (for lack of better term) of this being would be trapped in this state of simultaneous existence and non-existence, where it no longer feels or senses the way a human does, it doesn’t interact with its environment or manipulate the objects in its life the way a human does. Regardless of if it ever gains its own consciousness, it’s the same thing as taking a human mind and soul and welding it to a rock instead of a body – think of “Everything, Everywhere, All At Once”.

So, yes, Plato might be proud – we found a way to potentially transcend, to tether a part of human consciousness to an immortal virtual world. But if our consciousness is primarily connected to our human experiences, perceptions, and memories, would you want to be rock? A computer? A ChatGPT?

[hoyatype]

We aspire by doing things, and the things we do change us so that we are able to do the same things, or things of that kind, better and better. In the beginning, we sometimes feel as though we are pretending, play-acting, or otherwise alienated from our own activity. We may see the new value as something we are trying out or trying on rather than something we are fully engaged with and committed to. We may rely heavily on mentors whom we are trying to imitate or competitors whom we are trying to best. As time goes on, however, the fact (if it is a fact) that we are still at it is usually a sign that we find ourselves progressively more able to see, on our own, the value that we could barely apprehend at first. This is how we work our way into caring about the many things that we, having done that work, care about.

agnes callard, aspiration: the agency of becoming

still a little upset tbqh that everyone was dunking on agnes callard in march, after that one new yorker article…i don’t care what she’s done in her (entirely consensual and imo ethically permissible) first and second marriages…her work has changed my life and that is something to honour in a contemporary academic philosopher.

aspiration is what taught me to not be afraid of trying to become someone new. to not be embarrassed of aspiring towards something before having attained it. to see my self-conscious striving towards a different self as something admirable about me, worth cherishing instead of criticising.

[book0ftheday]

Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer, cover design by Gray318, published 2009.

[bored-philosopher-corner]

Phd Journal - 25 10 2024

I recently read about the concept of digital immortality, in a social science, probably more specifically communication, thesis. It is a fascinating concept, both because it is highly interesting and deeply of our time, and also, at the same time and in the same expansive manner, deeply troubling for a plethora of reasons.

Digital immortality, storing our minds, our memories, the aspects of our personalities in a digital format to, so to speak, live on after our deaths, the deaths of our physical self, brings up questions about identity, consciousness and what it means to be humans. As a student of philosophy, the ethical implications are massive. Who controls these digital selves? How do we protect the privacy and the dignity of these entities, if and when they might exist, if it even is the correct terminology. What happens to our relationships with the dead and the living? All those questions are unsettling. I've thus found myself thinking that it was deeply related with transhumanism and transhumanists' want to enhance human beings, to...somehow, defy death itself. Transhumanists strive to transcend human limitations, by aiming to preserve consciousness and personality digitally, they envision a future where mortality is less definitive and rather is more of a state to be navigated and perhaps even overcome. However, does the/a digital version of ourselves truly represent our identity?

The metaphor or "defying" death captures another problem altogether : it's not just about exetnding life, but rather more about transforming our very nature.

Indeed, if human-beings were one day, in the future, digitally immortal, it would change not only the human-nature ; if there is such a thing as human nature, thinkers have been discussing this idea for thousands of years and there are still not one but many definitions of the concept of human nature ; but it would also potentially change the nature of Artificial Inetlligence. Which would be an entirely new concern. If, human-beings achieve true digital immortality, it could redefine what is means to be human and AI. The blending of human consciousness with AI could lead to a new kind of entity, neither fully human nor fully AI. Which poses new ethical and metaphysical challenges. As a student of ethics, I consider that human-beings cannot serve as tools, which would be deeply unethical, human-beings cannot be means to others' ends, which is very kantien, but I like his deontology. While AIs are by their very nature tools and can be used to further one's ends. Kant's categorical imperative champions the inherent dignity and worth of human-beings, emphasising that they should never be treated merely as means to an end. AIs, on the other hand, are specifically designed to serve as tools to facilitate human activities, according to some definition. This disctinction is fundamental between beings with intrisnict value and those created for a specific utility. All of which, when considering digital immortality, is a fine line to thread. Whith digital immortality, human-beings who become thus immortal would then be...what? They were, when living, moral agents, according to Kant's terms ; which I would like to use in my research ; and then, in their "false death", since they become immortal digitally, they would be AI-like or AI-powered, and thus somewhat tool-like? I see here that if a digitally immortal human-being, once a moral agent, becomes more AI-like, they moght straddle a complex line between their previous agency and being a tool, which, if they still have their consciousness while digitally immortal might pose a problem, but then, we are facing the immense problem of defining consciousness. On one hand, theyr would retain a form of their identity and consciousness (with all of its problems), but on the other hand, they would lack the autonomy of a living human and potentially become a means to others' ends. This hybrid existence therefore challenges the traditional ethical frameworks we are accustomed to. Do these human beings who become immortal digitally still possess the inherent dignity Kant assigns to humans, or do they transition into a different category of existence altogether?

This concept of digital immortality redefines our understanding of moral agency and ethical responsibility in the age of advanced technology. Though, assuming digital immortality is a real thing, we are not even sure that we will maintain our consciousness. And even then, which one? The one we had at the moment of our death, a compilation of our memoried (which might differ entirely from consciousness altogether accoridng to some definition, and I would agree that memories are not the same as consciousness) ? What kind of consciousness could a person, who, say, once knew the feeling of ice-cold air on their skin, the way a feather could fall, how their cat liked to be pet, the way their grandma cut fruits, how to braid their own hair, etc. how could such a full person still be considered conscious during their…non-life in the digital realm so to speak ? Indeed... The richness of human experience—those sensory details, emotional moments, tactile memories—are almost impossible to digitize fully. Digital immortality might capture data, memories, or patterns, but it might fall short of preserving the authentic consciousness or the depth of human life. Consciousness isn't just a compilation of memories but the ongoing, dynamic experience of being alive, which involves emotions, perceptions, and interactions with the world in real-time. Those nuances—like the specific feel of ice-cold air or the unique way your grandma cut fruits—are tied to the physical and temporal presence, things a digital format might not replicate. This line of thought highlights the potential disconnect between the data-driven immortality and the living, breathing essence of a person.

Then, would it mean that the idea of digital immortality stems froms the idea that everything can be put into mathematical data, thus abandonning the incredibly important quality of the full experience of life we get from living it? The concept of digital immortality does seem to arise from the belief that all aspects of reality can be reduced to data. Phenomenology, however, argues that the essence of the human experience is richer than any data set. Digital immortality thus misses the depth and richness of actual lived experience, and who would want that for themselves or for anyone? If the irreplaceable and fundamental aspects of being human are our free will ; the ability to make choices and understand the implications of those choices is a cornerstone of our humanity, it allows us to forge our own paths and embrace our individuality ; our feelings of both the physical world and the emotional world ; of paramount importance because our physical and emotional experiences shape our lives in ways that are deeply personal and often indescribable, joy, sorrow, love, pain, the sense of smell, of hearing, etc.—all these emotions, feelings and senses create a rich tapestry of human experience ; and, to name only three, the fact that we constantly create ; the act of creating—whether through stories, music, art, or any other form of expression—embodies our need to understand and share our experiences, it connects us to one another and to our shared history ; then digital immortality means nothing to us, because it does not capture and does not permit free will, feelings and/or creation. Digital immortality reduces these rich, multifaceted aspects of humanity to mere data, stripping away the very essence of what makes us truly human. Without free will, we can't make authentic choices. Without our feelings and senses, we lose the depth and richness of our experiences. Without the ability to create, we forfeit a core part of our identity. In this sense, digital immortality transforms us from beings into tools, mere shadows of our former selves. We lose the dynamic, ongoing experience of life that defines human existence. So, while the idea of digital immortality may hold allure, it ultimately fails to capture the true essence of being human, reducing us to something far less.

I mean to say that digital immortality, by missing these core human qualities, ultimately renders us non-existent in the true sense of what it means to be human.

[mailmiocuoredipietratremaancora]

È nota la parabola sul regno messianico che Benjamin (che l'aveva udita da Scholem) raccontò una sera a Bloch e che questi trascrisse in Spuren: «Un rabbino, un vero cabalista, disse una volta: per istaurare il regno della pace, non è necessario distruggere tutto e dare inizio a un mondo completamente nuovo; basta spostare solo un pochino questa tazza o quest'arboscello o quella pietra, e così tutte le cose. Ma questo pochino è così difficile da realizzare e la sua misura così difficile da trovare che, per quanto riguarda il mondo, gli uomini non ce la fanno ed è necessario che arrivi il messia». Nella redazione di Benjamin, essa suona: «Fra gli chassidim si racconta una storia sul mondo a venire, che dice: là tutto sarà proprio come è qui. Come ora è la nostra stanza, così sarà nel mondo a venire; dove ora dorme il nostro bambino, là dormirà anche nell'altro mondo. E quello che indossiamo in questo mondo, lo porteremo addosso anche là. Tutto sarà com'è ora, solo un po' diverso».

Da La comunità che viene, G. Agamben, 2001

[echoesoftheinfinite]

I'm a pile of unfinished things, unsaid feelings, unthought thoughts, and unlived lives.

[sinterhinde]

Haraway, 2016

In the midst of spiraling ecological devastation, multispecies feminist theorist Donna J. Haraway offers provocative new ways to reconfigure our relations to the earth and all its inhabitants. She eschews referring to our current epoch as the Anthropocene, preferring to conceptualize it as what she calls the Chthulucene, as it more aptly and fully describes our epoch as one in which the human and nonhuman are inextricably linked in tentacular practices. The Chthulucene, Haraway explains, requires sym-poiesis, or making-with, rather than auto-poiesis, or self-making. Learning to stay with the trouble of living and dying together on a damaged earth will prove more conducive to the kind of thinking that would provide the means to building more livable futures. Theoretically and methodologically driven by the signifier SF—string figures, science fact, science fiction, speculative feminism, speculative fabulation, so far—Staying with the Trouble further cements Haraway's reputation as one of the most daring and original thinkers of our time.

dukeupress.edu

[juan-francisco-palencia]

𝙌𝙪𝙤𝙩𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙚 𝙌𝙪𝙤𝙩𝙚𝙨.

❝seem at times, we have to accept that some people can only be in our hearts, not in our lives.❞

—  Juan Francisco Palencia.

[vaxolang]

" Shitty Philosophy "

Acrylic painting on Canvas.

Size 23 x 30 cm.