Transitions

This blog post is a little different from the rest, its purpose being a declaration for my “Posthuman Rhetoric” college course. Just so you know, otherwise you’ll have no idea what’s going on should you choose to continue reading.

My project is a bit tricky. On the one hand, I want to use Prezi for it’s ability to create a web of connections; on the other hand, I want to use Weebly to create a board that can continue to accept additions without any end in sight. As I go forward in my explanation of what it is, you’ll probably understand why I lean towards the Weebly.

The subject of study is transition. If you’ve read my Undergraduate thesis paper, about how transitions in linguistic myth create social upheaval as observed in the works of Dostoevsky, you’d think I have a bit of a soft spot for transitions. Indeed, I always want to know how one gets from point A to point B, or why point B is rejected for point C, and every little interconnection you could chart. And so I continue with that theme, but with new points: how does one transition from humanism to posthumanism?

It is quite open-ended, I know, but I would be cheating you if I told you I knew where I would end up. It is the type of project I don’t think could end, because man really is a fickle creature. There are aspects of posthumanism easily accepted, and aspects just as easily rejected. Sometimes ideas of posthumanism are accepted without the individual knowing what it really means, what they are gaining, what they are giving up. Each section of the Weebly is its own extensive close-study of an artifact, and how it exemplifies a certain pathway from humanism and posthumanism with mankind’s reactions therein, explored through use in popular media.

Here are some examples. One section will talk about the perception of human utility and function from both sides, and bring in Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” for study as well as studies of machines taking over human labor. Another section will question the difference between life in artificial reality and life in material reality, their worth, and why so many players in the anime “Sword Art Online” committed suicide as soon as they realized they realized they were trapped in a game. Another section might then question the connection between collective morality and personal enjoyment while exploring the three vastly different endings of Toby Fox’s “Undertale.” My research articles will also vary each post, using such articles as have been provided us by Pepperell, Hallenbeck, and Edbauer, but I shall also do some external digging for the more outlandish considerations and include videos or photos where they are beneficial in understanding such complex topics. I do not have a specific number in mind for posts, but it is for my own benefit as well as for the grade, so I will let Professor Read-Davidson dictate that little detail.

What I do want to limit this to is researching artifacts of popular media. Popular media is the indication of how culture changes, and can be marked in revenue or following, and thereby give us a good idea of what is appealing or becoming acceptable. Charting the transition points along the line between humanism and posthumanism can, like shifts in linguistic myth, give us a rough but workable prediction of where the collective philosophy is going. Or, perhaps, what might keep it from reaching its end goal, whether that be humanism or posthumanism. Once I feel I have enough data, I shall create a final section in which the map of the collective philosophy is explained, at least according to hypotheses from where we have been and where we are now, both in reality and artificial reality.

If you would like to know if I at least have an idea where I will be by the end, I will admit this much: I have a strong suspicion that escapism is a key tenet to the construction of posthumanism. Whether or not the artifacts, besides being methods of escapism in their very nature, lend themselves to this interpretation, and whether that interpretation is inherently positive or negative, remains to be seen. At least until the research concludes.