Transhumanist Aesthetics: A Theoretical Approach to Enhanced Existence

Natasha Vita-More spoke at the MetaNexus Institute conference July 18-21, 2009.

The emergent course of our human bio-technological transition is leading toward a species transformation. In light of this, approaches to transhumanism are varied and some are without clear conceptual apparatus; people want to extol its far-out promise or decry its fearful premise. How can the forecasts of converging sciences and technologies be better understood? Discussions need to include how we might experience an enhanced existence. I suggest aesthetics as a means by which we can gaze onto the topography of human enhancement and into the core of transhumanist experience.

Human enhancement aesthetics pursues a perceptual grasp of human futures, including the cyborg, transhuman, posthuman, and possible whole-brain emulation upload. The qualities of each of these transitional stages must be gauged by the uniqueness of each stage. The elements of aesthetics that cultivate perception are brought about by new experiences. The aesthetics of human enhancement suggests that the link toward understanding enhanced existence is located in the “experience”, not in a proviso for human preconditions as critical reflections on the current state of existence. That would be like a shamanistic Bushman preconsidering a human life by his standards and needs, without any awareness of a thing called the Internet. Therefore, if we are to discuss transhumanism, we must engage in transhumanist experiences in order to perceive what the transhuman or posthuman might value.

The basic concepts of aesthetics of enhanced existence could be imagined by introducing new media’s immersive, interactiverole in constituting experience (Dewey). This offers an opportunity to partially, if not naively, experience the sentiment of what enhanced existence might be like.In media aesthetics, logical description cannot replace personal participation (Schirmacher).Yet, there still remains a tension between the act of experiencing the world and a need that it depict a world worth living (as a precondition) (Nozick).

Enhanced existence evokes dramatic narratives, which generate uncertainty. Taking it from one posthumanist perspective, embodiment will give way to its reconfigurement by the machine (Hayles); from another it would upload (Kurzweil). Taking it from alate-transhumanist perspective, identity will give way to multiple selves or distributed selves (Vita-More). The scenarios, if approached like events, forgo the experiential exploration into aesthetics of enhanced existence. Life simply is not a blatant shift in materiality; it includes sensory and emotional experiences along the way.

Nevertheless, the issue remains: How can we thoughtfully assess an enhanced human existence if we cannot identify and gauge the existence through our current sensory-emotional apparatus? My task is to address this question.

2009 07 19 Transhumanism-PerilsAndPromises Vita-More-H.264 800Kbps from Metanexus Institute on Vimeo.

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