WORKSHOP
“HOW TO BECOME POSTHUMAN”
Conference "Envision", Princeton University
- What does "posthuman" mean to you?
- How can we become posthuman now?
- What prevents us from being posthuman now?
- What allows us to be posthuman now?
-> How to achieve multi-species justice that addresses
both human as well as (organic and inorganic) non-humans?
Introduction
General Presentation + Participants's interests
General Presentation + Participants's interests
Part 1
Please, choose between one of these areas of interest:
1 INDIVIDUAL AGENCY (BEHAVIORS; DIETS; CONSUMPTIONS ETC.)
2 TECHNOLOGY (ECO-TECHNOLOGY AND PRODUCTION; ETHICS OF TECHNOLOGY)
3 ECOLOGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT
4 NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
5 LAWS AND ECONOMICS
Please, choose between one of these areas of interest:
1 INDIVIDUAL AGENCY (BEHAVIORS; DIETS; CONSUMPTIONS ETC.)
2 TECHNOLOGY (ECO-TECHNOLOGY AND PRODUCTION; ETHICS OF TECHNOLOGY)
3 ECOLOGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT
4 NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
5 LAWS AND ECONOMICS
Part 2
We are going to form 5 groups (no more than 5 people for each group).
These are some of the questions you may want to answer:
1. Individual agency
2. Technology
3. Ecology and the Environment
4. National/International Politics
5. Laws/Economics
We are going to form 5 groups (no more than 5 people for each group).
These are some of the questions you may want to answer:
1. Individual agency
- How could altering your diet help achieve interspecies justice?
- As a consumer, what are some choices (e.g when choosing what clothes to buy, when ordering beauty products) you can make that will help achieve interspecies justice? How?
- How could choices could you make while commuting/traveling have an impact on interspecies justice?
- What are choices one could make when disposing of waste that would help achieve interspecies justice? Are there ways to create less waste? Reflect on the impact on other species.
- Think about your plans for the future. Where will you live? How many kids will you have? How will this affect other species, and what choices could commit to in the future to achieve interspecies justice?
2. Technology
- How can we produce technology in ways that are more just for other species? Do we need to change methods of gathering resources/assembly?
- What sort of new technology can we implement that will assist us in achieving interspecies justice?
- Is there existing technology that perpetuates interspecies injustice/ that we should stop using?
- How could technology change the framework of interspecies justice? Consider robots and AI: where do they fall within this umbrella?
- Does the view of “technology” as a uniquely human endeavor separate us from other species? How can we overcome this when trying to achieve interspecies parity?
3. Ecology and the Environment
- Can certain common practices (e.g industrial livestock production) be said to oppress animals and the environment? What should we do instead?
- Is climate change accelerating multispecies injustice? How can we approach it in a way that addresses the concerns of every species?
- We are approaching the Earth’s 6th mass extinction event: a huge environmental loss. How will this loss affect us (humans) and our multispecies relationships? What efforts can we make to stem this loss?
- Humans look at much of the environment as a resource to be exploited (rainforests, fish, rivers). How can we reframe this perception of other species to achieve multispecies justice?
- Indigenous people are more heavily affected by the destruction of the environment. Do we also need to address their needs to achieve multispecies justice? Can we learn from their interactions with their environment?
4. National/International Politics
- Do organizations within the US do enough to address interspecies justice? (E.g the EPA) What should they do to be more effective?
- Why is it necessary for countries to work together/across borders to achieve interspecies justice?
- Do we have transnational organizations that do enough for interspecies justice? Think of the UN, for example. How could they be more effective?
- How do histories of capitalism and colonialism and their related exploitation shape interspecies relationships today? How can we ameliorate this in the future?
- How human politics such as class, gender, and ethnicity shape interspecies relations? Do we need to first escape our dichotomies in order to truly achieve interspecies justice?
5. Laws/Economics
- Should other species have the same rights as humans? For example, should killing other species carry the same penalty as killing a human?
- How do the parameters of “ownership” apply to interspecies justice? Should wild wolves belong to the country they live in? Should rainforests? Should pets belong to their owners? Should other species be the legal property of humans, for them to do with as they wish?
- If a human is kept under certain conditions it is a violation of their human rights ( access to healthcare, adequate nutrition, freedom of speech, community, etc.). What should be the inalienable rights of all species?
- What laws should be created to ensure interspecies justice? Why is it necessary to address the interlocking rights of humans, the environment, and animals within these laws?
- Is the way our society is structured perpetuating interspecies violence (think of capitalism, trade, and market economies)? What are some possible solutions?
Part 3
Each group present their proposals.
General Discussion.
Conclusions
Presenting our proposals at:
NY Posthuman Research Group & 4th Posthuman Global Symposium.
Acknowledgments
Thanks to my NYU students,
and to Anna Sophia Kiknadze, Emily De George and Julian Boilen,
for helping developing the workshop with vision and inspiration.