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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