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Human and Non-Human Persons in not Inhuman Civilization

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Humanity In-Between and Beyond

Part of the book series: Integrated Science ((IS,volume 16))

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Abstract

When thinking about the future of humanity and our world of existence, one realizes that it is ridden with serious individual and planetary challenges that are produced by technologies, as they reconfigure the human person and his/her/its world structurally, psycho-physically, socially, and on the level of consciousness, mind, and spirit. As a result, the overall space of transindividuation is changed, and other-than-human forms of self-identification are fostered. Technology can produce beneficial or harmful effects, because, as Bernard Stiegler has shown, it has characteristics of the pharmakon. Consequently, it is of vital importance to ponder in what direction the process of technological reconfiguration should be channeled, where our current debate should head, and by what values we should be guided. Ethical questions are also important in the field of contemporary post- and transhuman explorations with their various ways of conceptualizing the human and understanding what “human,” “humanistic,” and “humane” mean. Accepting the evolutionary passage from human persons to different kinds of persons, I argue that a society consisting of various kinds of persons, not only humans, may be less inhuman and even more humane.

[A]n experience of the pharmakon (…) a becoming and a development that we are now facing on a global scale, and that we experience through the profound changes taking place in the psychic apparatus as a result of the technologies of mind and spirit that today serve to destroy the spirit.

Bernard Stiegler [1, p. 65]

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The positive effect of media and communication technologies lies in connecting people, while their negative ramifications include the fact that states and corporations harness them to remotely control ever increasing masses of the global population (in some countries, such as China, the digital surveillance of society is tighter, while in others, for example in many countries in Africa or South America, the presence of digital surveillance is less pronounced). Another charge against media and communication technologies is that they change the modes of knowledge production, information exchange, and claims of validity or rather credibility. However, change, even if inevitable, need not necessarily be negative.

  2. 2.

    Its current version is 3.0. Version 1.0 was written by Zoltan Istvan and presented to the Capitol on 14 December, 2015. Version 2.0 was developed by members of the U.S. Transhumanist Party and adopted via electronic vote on 25–31 December, 2016. Version 3.0 was drawn up by members of the U.S. Transhumanist Party and adopted via electronic vote on 2–9 December, 2018. For details, see https://transhumanist-party.org/tbr-3/.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of History and Theory of Art, Polish Society for Aesthetics, Academy of Art in Szczecin, Szczecin, Poland

    Aleksandra Łukaszewicz

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  1. Aleksandra Łukaszewicz
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Correspondence to Aleksandra Łukaszewicz .

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  1. Medical University of Lodz, Łódź, Poland

    Monika Michałowska

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Łukaszewicz, A. (2023). Human and Non-Human Persons in not Inhuman Civilization. In: Michałowska, M. (eds) Humanity In-Between and Beyond. Integrated Science, vol 16. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-27945-4_7

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