FOREIGN  OBJEKT

Symposium and Workshop: Posthumanism and Worldbuilding:
More Details about the program and workshops

The idea of Posthumanism and Worldbuilding has at least three facets:

Renegotiation of our positions with regard to future intelligence, and looking at the critical and ethical concerns of posthumanism and methods of world building.

The ability to make a different world than the one that has already been given to us, and in which we already live.

An understanding of the posthuman location and its function in the context of a broader environment, or world.

Here we are starting with a forensic approach to our world-building: How should we build this world? This is ultimately predicated on the kind of detective work we do in regards to the fabric that surrounds us within the context--it might be scientific, political, or it might be social, etc. But here, for us, the context is simply our world. How can we talk about the world coherently without relapsing back onto the Anthropocentric image?

Here we need models--computational models, mathematical models, etc. However, when we get into scientific theorization we notice that things get messier as we move forward. As we explicate our concepts, we are refining the ways in which we distinguish an aspect of reality. We move toward more fine-grain snapshots of reality, but not only do they get more refined, they actually change their shape.

Our notions by which we organize our perception of reality can also be changed--space and time, forms of intuitions. We can no longer see space and time as psychological, rather we see them in the physical sense, in the history of science or ..., So this project is a kind of reframing of a narrative of what enlightenment is about.

We are starting by looking into the world. How can we do it? Looking into the world is not by any means an easy task.

In the workshop we can go through a series of studies, combined with some writings--optional--but at the same time, this can be in conjunction with the presentation and further development of your personal project, through the lens of world-building.

Part One:
Each participant picks two or more sets of concepts; one relates to human and one to posthuman:
Example:
(Examples are suggested by participants)

Human Identity vs. Posthuman Existence
Dualism vs Post Dualism
Bound vs Unbound

Through examination and model making, we can renegotiate the construct of our reality and subjectivities. Also, we can look at the relationship between the posthuman models or archetypes and their environment through the construction of world models.

Part Two:

We started with two types of models.

In this method, we detect two types of words that refer to human and posthuman intelligence as Bound and Unbound. Now we are dealing with the question of ethics, which starts at the impasse between Bound and Unbound. This problem is caused by our way of abstracting dialectical world models. Especially Aristotelian models, such as Kant’s.

What is the unbound world of posthumans? Can we imagine these worlds? Or can it happen by way of perturbations in dynamic systems?
Suddenly there is so much unfolding at this point, and we can get lost, or fall into another liberal point of view.

We will tackle this problem with world-building, but I think it's best if we do a little studying at this junction and take a look at the debate between David Roden and Reza Negarestani.

David Roden:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-3AO50cbMZdfEiE9BhawnJS_3c5liJkY/view?usp=drivesdk

Reza Negarestani:
Start at 21 minutes into the video:
https://youtu.be/_1S1WX8KIQY

Part 3: Reading of Ways of Worldmaking by Nelson goodman

Part4: