From a Vitruvian Man to a Primo Post Human: Understanding posthumanism
This post aims to discuss the transition from humans being the centre of the universe with the Vitruvian Man, to questioning what we think about the state of being human in the 21st century. It further goes on to understand the concept of Posthumanism with the help of renowned posthumanist theory supporters like Francesca Ferrando and Nick Bostrom, and explore the posthuman capacities described by Bostrom, via examples like brain-machine interface Neuralink, and an artist’s depiction of a posthuman body with Primo Posthuman, and the idea of transhumanism.
Humanistic Approach and the Vitruvian Man
Steve Matthewman’s reading, discussed in one of the ‘Foundations of HCI’ lecture by our instructor Sai Shruthi Chivukula, stated the humanist approach as a way of theorizing technology, where humans take centre stage, and they are the main actors (Matthewman, 2011).
This reminded me of the time as a kid, when I first encountered the Vitruvian Man by the renowned polymath Leonardo da Vinci, in the thriller book Da Vinci Code (Brown, Dan. 2003). Also known as the ‘Universal Man’, it is a geometric interpretation of the ancient Greek Philosophy belief, that man is a microcosm or a miniature embodiment of the whole universe (Livescience, 2012). Leonardo believed that the mechanism inside the human body was an analogy for the workings of the entire universe, and how “Man is the measure of all things.” (Ashbrook, 2012)
Figure 1: The Vitruvian man
Who is a Posthuman?
“We are gradually becoming aware that man is not the center of the universe, and that we need to expand our understanding of what it means to be human today” (Margaret, 2019).
Biologist and Feminist, Donna Haraway has famously stated in her 1985 essay “A Cyborg Manifesto”, about the rejection of rigid boundaries, notably separating “human” from “animal” and “human” from “machine”, and how race, gender, and social class can no longer define a human.
A system or entity in a state which is beyond being human, is known as a posthuman (ResearchGate, 2012). Taking it further, Francesca Ferrando, an NYU professor, calls it an open notion and how the 21st century people know that coexistence consists of not just human beings as a group, but also includes animals, plants, nature and the cosmos (Tec MX, 2021).
Philosopher Nick Bostrom tries to give a more refined form to posthumanism in his 2008 essay, Why I Want to be a Posthuman When I Grow Up, where he states that posthumans have one of the following capacities, which is exceeding the maximum attainable by any current human being:
- healthspan — the capacity to remain fully healthy, active, and productive, both mentally and physically
- cognition — general intellectual capacities, such as memory, deductive and analogical reasoning, and attention, as well as special faculties such as the capacity to understand and appreciate music, humor, eroticism, narration, spirituality, mathematics, etc.
- emotion — the capacity to enjoy life and to respond with appropriate affect to life situations and other people
Increased healthspan with Designer Body “Primo Posthuman”
The human body is continuously undergoing change. Prosthetics, electronic and digitized vocal chords, robotics, chemicals to fine-tune brain functioning, genetic engineering, and cloning organs are just a few of the ways to upgrade our physique (Kurzweil, 2002).
Primo 3M+ is a design prototype of a future body, with superlongevity as its main focus. It is “multi-functional, reliable, changeable, upgradeable, and complete with enhanced senses.” (Natasha, 2002)
Figure 2: Primo 3M+
Figure 3: Comparison chart between the human body and primo body
The Primo Posthuman prototype is synchronous with the Transhumanist view, which portrays a transitional human being that considers human nature as a work-in-progress, with a potential to remodel our basic biological limits. The possibilities can range from an augmentation of human intellectual, physical, and emotional capacities to space colonization with super intelligent beings or advanced posthumans. This can be done with the help of state-of-the-art technologies, like genetic engineering and molecular nanotechnology. (Bostrom, 2003)
Figure 3: The space of possible modes of being
Improved cognition with Brain Machine Interfaces (BMIs)
A brain–machine interface is a technology which translates neural information from the brain into commands, which communicate with external hardware or software like a robotic arm or computer. (Nature Portfolio, undated)
Business magnate Elon Musk’s Neuralink is one such BMI which aims to insert its N1 chipset with a 8 mm diameter, in the human skull, with the help of a robot. It houses wires that are as thick as the neurons in the brain, and thinner than a strand of hair at 100 micrometres.
In fact more than one such device can be placed inside the skull to target different sections of the brain. The platform states that as of now, the N1 chip can connect around 1,000 varying brain cells, and a patient can have 10 N1 chips inserted (Musk, 2019).
Figure 4: Schematic diagram of the N1 implants in the human skull
In order to demonstrate the neural implant’s capability, a pig named “Gertrude” was used as a subject and her brain activity was depicted upon a screen. The processor in her brain sent wireless signals, indicating neural activity in her snout when looking for food. She didn’t appear to be suffering from any ill effects, and was described as “a healthy and happy pig with an implant that is two months old and working well.”
Figure 5: The brain activity of Gertrude, depicted by Neuralink device, as he walks on a treadmill
Elon goes on to talks about the kind of medical problems early BMIs could help:
“The first use of the technology will be to repair brain injuries as a result of stroke or cutting out a cancer lesion, where somebody’s fundamentally lost a certain cognitive element. It could help with people who are quadriplegics or paraplegics by providing a neural shunt from the motor cortex down to where the muscles are activated. It can help with people who, as they get older, have memory problems and can’t remember the names of their kids, through memory enhancement, which could allow them to function well to a much later time in life — the medically advantageous elements of this for dealing with mental disablement of one kind or another, which of course happens to all of us when we get old enough, are very significant.” (Musk, 2019)
Enhanced emotional intelligence with care robots and social humanoid
Health-Tech company, Expper Technologies’ designed a care robot called Robin, to provide emotional support for children undergoing medical treatment. He explains medical procedures to them, and distracts them during treatments, to reduce their perception of pain. He also plays games and tells stories to them, and remembers facial expressions and conversations to create empathy, and build the appropriate dialogue for follow-up sessions. (Discovery, 2020)
Also, Hong Kong-based Hanson Robotics gained recognition for its development of Sophia, the first anthropomorphic social humanoid, capable of displaying more than 60 different emotions (Faraj et al., 2020). She went on to become a Saudi Arabian citizen in 2017, and the first robot to receive citizenship of any country. Sophia can also handle a range of situations, from helping manage large crowds at events, to being a companion for the elderly at nursing homes (Hanson, 2020).
Humanity is continuing to evolve, and so is our definition of being human. Posthumanism is just an attempt to give us a headstart on how our species will evolve to be advanced in terms of biological enhancements and how beneficial it can be to imbibe the posthuman capacities of healthspan, cognition, and emotion in us, with the help of devices designed by current human beings.
Bostrom has also given me food for thought by stating how he is not a posthuman while writing the paper. (Bostrom, 2008) As the transition of becoming posthuman will begin for certain sections of the present human population, we will understand better about their perception of the world, and the future that coexists with species like sentient robots, and conscious humanoids.
References
- Matthewman, Steve. (2011, p. 1–10) Theorizing Technology. Technology and Social Theory. Published in Palgrave Macmillan
- Hayles, Katherine. (1999) How We Became Posthuman. Published in The University of Chicago Press
- Bostrom, Nick. (2008, pp. 107–137) Why I Want to be a Posthuman When I Grow Up, Published in: Medical Enhancement and Posthumanity, eds. Bert Gordijn and Ruth Chadwick
- Andersen, Margaret (2019, March 11). What Does “Posthuman Design” Actually Mean?
- Nature Portfolio. Brain-Machine Interfaces.
- Toraldo, M., & Toraldo, D. M. (2020). Post-Human or Neo-Vitruvian? The Contemporary Neo-Humanist Revolution. Open Journal of Philosophy, 10(01), 36–44.
- Musk, E. (2019). An integrated brain-machine interface platform with thousands of channels. BioRxiv.
- Vita-More, Natasha. (2002) Primo Posthuman.
- Robertson, Sara. (2012)
- Mx, Tec. (2021, June 22).What is Posthumanism?
- Urban, T. (2021, July 13). Neuralink and the Brain’s Magical Future. Wait But Why.
- Transhumanist Values. (2003). NB.
- Haraway, D. (1985). A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late 20th Century. The International Handbook of Virtual Learning Environments, 117–158.
- Ashbrook, Tom. “Leonardo Da Vinci And Humanism’s Blueprint.” On Point with Tom Ashbrook, Boston’s NPR News Station: 90.9 Wbur, 6 Feb. 2012.
- Fearon, Robin. (2020). Discovery. Emotional Robots: Machines that Recognize Human Feelings.
- Hanson Robotics Limited. (2020, September 1). Sophia. Hanson Robotics.
