In my mind, when something is indicated to having reached the state of being post, the original concept or thing is now dead. The idea of post-human was thus extremely hard for me to wrap my very human brain around.

Exhibit A: My train of thought when confronted with the word post-human

Posthuman…after humans…some kind of dystopic (or utopic depending on how you look at it I guess) barren planet earth…or no earth at all even…I, Robot if Will Smith had not prevailed (maybe this one isn’t too far off)…

Through discussing the simultaneous phases of the mask, the gaze and the interface, I came to understand that post-human is something very close by, not so out of reach and perhaps something I interact with and engage with regularly. I need glasses so that I can read faraway text without getting mind-blowing migraines. My glasses then are an add-on, an application if you will, that I add to my body to improve it beyond it’s ‘natural’ state. My clothing, perhaps my cosmetics, plastic surgery, daily medications such as my birth control pill can all in some way be seen to be contributing to a state of post-human being.

Post-human seems to me to suggest the state of being human beyond the need to identify ourselves with different labels, categories and compartments that make up our humanness. It is the deconstruction of the hegemonic narrative of ‘natural’ and coming to terms with the depoliticization of the body and the identity. We as humans today already have an affect that transcends space and time, it makes sense for us to also transcend the physical limits of the body. Anyone anywhere in the world can find a representation of myself through a number of social media websites, can interact with me through games, chatrooms and other such networks.

The phase of the interface, or the post-human is problematic in that it is occurring simultaneously to phases where labels, identity politics and identity markers are being continuously used and created to make sense of concepts that emerge in our everyday lives. To me, it would be impossible to come to a state of post-humanness without basic structures and architectures of society that reinforce and systemise ‘natural’ ways of humanness (that are in fact just inequalities and phony grand narratives)  such as gender binary, sexuality, monogamy, patriarchy etc being completely reorganized to allow a state of transition.Without an idealistic transition to such an ideal world where all kinds of human beings are recognized as individual humans with individual needs, post-humanness can present insidious and dangerous reaffirmations of the status quo that demean and deny the kinds of oppression and conflicts that many kinds of people have had to endure. Post-humanness could almost create layers and structures of inequality that are more challenging to disrupt than they are now, as they are completely denied an existence despite being acted out and participated in.

Basically, I think that post-humanness could be beautiful – a utopia where we don’t have to explain ourselves, we just are ourselves. However I think inequalities are so deeply ingrained into our social power structures that it may be almost impossible to ever reach that kind of acceptance of individualization.

I really engaged with the idea of trans-humanism – however I’ve reached so many words for this post that I might have to come back to that later.

Peace.