[ExI] LIT: The Medusa Complex - A Theory of Stoned Posthumanism

[Natasha Vita-More]

What I found interesting is the use of "mirror" and "reflection" and that
posthumans cannot see themselves because they have no sense of identity and
connectiveness to human.  Not my view. 

His biggest mistake, I think is claiming it an "impossibility".

Damien makes a good point that it does fit in transhumanist discourse, but
not with the above views because the transhumanist perspective identifies
with identity as a primarily value.



Nlogo1.tif Natasha Vita-More

-----Original Message-----
From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org
[mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Aware
Sent: Wednesday, May 20, 2009 3:50 PM
To: ExI chat list
Subject: Re: [ExI] LIT: The Medusa Complex - A Theory of Stoned Posthumanism

On Wed, May 20, 2009 at 1:30 PM,  <natasha at natasha.cc> wrote:

> "This is where the posthuman is born - in the embodied reflection of 
> poststructural uncertainty looking for the first time at itself.
> Posthumanism is the postmodern mirror, one that looks into the mirror 
> without recognition, for the boundaries of identity and body have 
> dissolved into the uncertainty of perception, and the self no longer 
> appears, even to itself, without the waverings of its own 
> impossibility. Once the self turns its deconstructive gaze on itself, 
> all other meaning needs to be recontextualized. The gaze is displaced, 
> disoriented, disassociated, and it is not the world that is uncertain 
> but more problematically the very site from which perception and cognition
pretended to be born."
>
> http://74.125.113.132/search?q=cache:0UeuLq1C1SYJ:www.tedhiebert.net/s
> ite/downloads/writings/medusa.pdf+Ted+Hiebert+AND+The+Medusa+Complex&c
> d=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
>
> Well - this paragraph does not reflect my own view, but I was 
> wondering if anyone has any thoughts on it?

I read the first eight pages and got the impression that it was pretty poor
postmodernist poetry of paradox in the style of Sokal.  It stands as an
example of it own point, if of nothing else.

- Jef
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