Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the. Transhuman Body. .... The Uncanny Valley hypothesis, developed by Masahiro Mori (himself a robo cist), holds that ...
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
In my talk today, I want to share with you some images -‐ and some thoughts -‐ about a changing human body as it arises from emergent new sciences and technologies. I want to demonstrate how these New Sciences produce visions of a future humanity and, by fuelling an age-‐old fantasy of human superiority, aesthe>cally prepare for a profound altera>on of the very idea of “the human”. On this background I am mainly interested in nascent future designs of the human body – an area that may as well develop into a new design discipline, maybe as the study of biocyberne>c design.
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
1
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
Modifica>on of the human body is possibly as old as humanity itself: mythology and religion, tribal tradi>ons, cultural art and an ever-‐pervasive beauty culture are full of splendid examples.
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
2
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
3
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
4
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
5
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
49 Cosme>c Surgeries. www.cindyjackson.com.
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
6
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
What is different between the ancient dream of bodily modifica>on and the promises of the New Sciences is the prospect to alter the very no>on of what it means to be human – and such not only conceptually but also materially. This involves the remodelling not only of the human blueprint and an altera>on of all biological processes, but also a reinven>on of human ma\er itself, the substrate of the body and of all human life.
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
7
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
8
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
It is the amalgama>on of various emergent technologies of the New Sciences, which is thought to bring about these changes: a merging of nano-‐engineering, biotechnology, robo>cs, informa>on technology and cogni>ve sciences. While several heralded technologies of the New Sciences are yet rather specula>ve, once realised they would give full access to all building blocks and genera>ve processes of the body.
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
9
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
10
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
For some proponents of the New Sciences, especially the movement of the extropists and transhumanists, the aims of such superbiology is not merely to cure disease, repair human defects and to enhance exis>ng capabili>es, but to create ground up en>rely novel human systems that might be living, semi-‐living, embodied or distributed across various networked components. According to transhumanists, such new and greatly enhanced human systems would be personalised to individual needs and desires, changeable alongside shi`ing environmental reali>es, …
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
11
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
…and in any case much superior in human capability than we are today. (image: Nick Bostrom)
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
12
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
There is no lack of hopes, visions and promises of the New Sciences: Remaking the human, co-‐crea>ng a new humanity, and custom-‐manufacturing away your individual gene>c flaws. This is all happening right now. (image: University of Bri>sh Columbia, Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeu>cs, 5-‐part lecture series, January 2010)
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
13
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
(image: 35th Anniversary IIIHS Interna>onal Conference, July 2-‐11, 2010 “to celebrate once again the unfolding drama of a Crea>ve and Evolu>onary Consciousness within the human psyche and all living beings”. The Interna>onal Ins>tute of Integral Human Sciences & The Spiritual Science Fellowship)
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
14
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
15
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
“Symbio>cA is an ar>s>c laboratory dedicated to the research, learning, cri>que and hands-‐on engagement with the life sciences” at the University of Western Australia. The 2010 symposium brochure states: “The body is increasingly being transformed into commodity and media, put on display, fragmented, manipulated, preserved and rearranged. Scien;sts, ar;sts, lawyers, historians and social scien;sts will come together to trace the radical shi=s in our understanding of the body – and life itself – and inves;gate how these emergent reali;es influence our no;on of being human while simultaneously challenging the rela;onship to the ‘Other’ that is living or semi-‐living.” The body is no longer perceived strictly as a unified whole let alone as solely human, and bodies and parts of bodies are being traded and manipulated as part of the global economy.
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
16
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
My ques>on is: “What will these new humans look like?”
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
17
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
Likely, superbiology does not create that class of cyborgs portrayed in popular sci-‐fi or fantasy imagery such as Joachim Luedke’s coverart here.
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
18
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
Unlikely, superbiology would afford the flaws of a Michael Jackson’s vanity surgeries. (Michael Jackson (1958-‐2009), history of a face.)
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
19
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
And, even less likely, superbiology would exhibit much of the mechanics of its interven>ons as here in Lucy & Bart’s vision of a Lowtech Plas>c Surgery.
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
20
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
We do have a number of design sketches and conceptual drawings of the future body: here the full-‐body design of the Primo Posthuman by Natasha Vita-‐More, a core member of the Transhumanist movement and a founding member of the more radical Extropists. Vita-‐More’s main interests lie with the conceptual and visual design of a future humanity – though we have very li\le concrete examples beyond the Primo Posthuman.
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
21
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
More common are pseudo-‐scien>fic illustra>ons of the enhanced body through prostheses and other enabling devices.
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
22
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
Most of this class of prostheses is augmen>ve – they are not merely therapeu>c but add an array of typically non-‐natural features to the body thus enabling new capabili>es and novel experiences.
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
23
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
Compared to a rigorous deployment of the New Sciences, prostheses appear clean and in many ways comfor>ng. Maybe less so the wet and messy processes of biocyberne>cs, which enables to grow human ma\er in bits and pieces. These processes, while sugges>ve of natural organic processes, appear uncanny for they are removed from their normal >meframes and their rela>onship to a holis>c human organism. How will these separately grown wetware pieces interface with each other to form a human organism that we can recognize and iden>fy with?
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
24
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
Will these organisms from the bio-‐lab look like Jason Hopkins’ body sculptures? For biocyberne>c creatures, there might be no need to confirm to a tradi>onal human form, or any form at all for that ma\er.
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
25
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
Even the renown performance ar>st and pioneer of bodily modifica>on, Stelarc, in many ways, failed to demonstrate a purposeful alterna>ve to the tradi>onal human body; a body that he considers to be obsolete. Stelarc’s bodily performances and crea>ons, while opening new conceptual spaces, nevertheless do li\le to produce plausible models of a future human. And indeed, the problem of plausibility, acceptability or familiarity of alterna>ve designs of the human body appears to be rather profound. The real challenge of designing ar>ficial human systems may lie exactly with their ar>ficiality – aesthe>cally as well as materially. It appears to me that solving the technological problems of the New Sciences may provide the least challenge; real challenges are with their psychological acceptance and their socio-‐cultural integra>on into society.
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
26
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
27
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
28
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
The robo>cist Hiroshi Ishiguro at the University of Osaka created a series of robots that are an exact double of real people. Here, it is a robot in Ishiguro’s own likeness. While facial features are iden>cal, perceived likeness is not. In this image, we can clearly iden>fy the robot and the human being.
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
29
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
30
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
And how about in these images?
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
31
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
32
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
“Many people say they find such imagery eerie, creepy, scary, freaky, frightening. One explana>on for such visceral reac>on is that our sense of familiarity with robots increases as they become more humanlike -‐-‐ but only up to a point. If lifelike appearance is approached but not aEained, our reac>on shi`s from empathy to revulsion.” (Erico Guizzo, 2010) (image: Geminoid F. Photo: Osaka University)
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
33
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
The Uncanny Valley hypothesis, developed by Masahiro Mori (himself a robo>cist), holds that anthropomorphism in non-‐human creatures has a ‘breaking-‐point’ where a high human likeness tends to cause an emo>onal rejec>on of the creature, an iden>fica>on of that creature as “Other”. The graph here charts human-‐like creatures along the axes of human likeness and a sense of familiarity. The more human-‐like a creature is, the more familiar it appears to us. However, in even MORE human-‐like creatures, their non-‐human characteris>cs seem to frustrate our sense of familiarity, and the creature appears uncanny.
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
34
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
Freud once said that what is fearful is “everything uncanny that ought to have remained hidden yet comes to life”. In this transgender study, a “normal” teen is compared with a transgender woman based on physical similari>es. The image quite clearly suggests that it is the teen who is “normal” and the transwoman who is an imita>on, a diversion from the real and familiar. If I were to extrapolate the same effect on the enhanced transhuman body, the ques>on of iden>ty only becomes more pressing: Am I the basic organic self that I used to be or the enhanced en>ty that I just became?
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
35
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
In the famous Brain in the Vat thought experiment, it is unclear “who is the who”. Is the brain, the simula>on or the percep>on by the self of the associated persona? Is there, once consciousness and body are separated, a self, a persona at all? The material change of the body is likely to have a significant impact on a self-‐recogni>on as “me”.
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
36
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
In New Science crea>ons, the uncanny valley locates at the threshold between Science Fic>on and Science Fact. The more “real” – the more scien>fic – science fic>on becomes, the greater the sense of uncanniness of its crea>ons. (e.g. compare Frankenstein with the Replicants in Blade Runner). Yet, ….
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
37
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
…there is an equal chance that the New Sciences will produce human bodies, which locate at the bo\om line of the uncanny valley. At least at the moment it might be difficult to predict whether and how the gap in human expression between ar>ficial creatures and natural persons may close.
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
38
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
Science fact allows changing gender – a transfer of gender-‐based bodily appearance, func>ons, and behavioural a\ributes. Nevertheless, we not always recognise the transgender body to locate at a wholesome end of the transi>on. At >mes, the transgender body appears unresolved, unusual, o`en agonised, maybe fraught – and usually uncanny. What is it that is so troublesome with this photo? Is it the sight of an undernourished body? Or the discrepancy of perfectly moulded breasts on a frail torso? The richness of gender characteris>cs compared to an impoverished framework? The mismatch between male and female propor>ons? The bodily altera>ons resul>ng from the sex change do not seem to aesthe>cally agree with the body that carry them. The body’s individual regions appear familiar and yet the overall appearance of this body remains inaccessible and unfamiliar.
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
39
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
The pregnant man here is Thomas Bea>e, who famously underwent sex change from woman to man resul>ng in a body equipped with both a fully func>onal womb and produc>ve male genitals. As a man, he gave birth to three children. A`er his 10-‐year marriage broke up, he now tries for another baby with his new partner, Amber Nicolas. He says: “It is even -‐possible we could both be pregnant at the same >me. Amber suggested we both try to get pregnant and -‐whoever gets there first goes through with it.” (Bea>e, Sept 2012)
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
40
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
41
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
In 2007, the technology enthusiast Kevin Kelly declared that “humans are the sex organs of technology”. His main argument goes that technology is an autonomous force that causes humans to make more technology – and in this way procreates its own “species”. Kelly reckons that once technology has learned to procreate all by itself without human media>on, the human race would not be required anymore. With technology systems becoming smarter and ul>mately exceeding highest human intelligence (as per the Singularity hypothesis), technology will not be able to help but to get rid of humanity. With Kelly’s ideas in the backdrop, how would we look at this image here? Technology posing as sexy in order to en>ce us to make more (sexy) technology?
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
42
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
In his book “Designer Evolu>on, A Transhumanist Manifesto” (2006) Simon Young writes a fic>>ous le\er to nature poin>ng out numerous design faults with the human organism. This here is one of my favourites [on screen]. What would be your sugges>on for a redesign?
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
43
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
Others decry the cold func>onality of prostheses and muse about improved features of replacement limbs – why not include a GPS compass, a MP3 player, a smartphone or an USB s>ck?
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
44
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
45
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
Or how about a handy toolset or Swiss Army nails?
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
46
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
Designer Evolu>on promotes personalised, individual designs of one’s body. What about barefoot high-‐heels, the latest fad for the beach? Definitely, the technologies of the New Sciences combined with the aspira>ons of transhumanists who “believe that humanity’s poten>al is s>ll mostly unrealized” envision “possible scenarios that lead to wonderful and exceedingly worthwhile enhanced human condi>ons” (Transhumanist Manifesto, Bostrom et al, 1998). Indeed so they are. (image: Julie Rap, Overstepping)
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
47
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
Whereas Julie Rap’s high heels are an ar>st’s impressions, other aesthe>c addi>ons to the body are already commonplace. The LED eyeshadow, a recent example of e-‐ tex>les, are available in fashion shops in Japan and China.
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
48
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
At the moment, transhumanist designs appear fashionable and they are indeed driven by an aesthe>c avant-‐garde. The difference between make-‐up (Lady Gaga) and implants (Vampire Woman) may seem irrelevant at the moment – but it is possibly this small difference that will decide the pathway to a future humanity: does transhumanism merely exercise an aesthe>c avant-‐garde or prepare for a profound material altera>on of humanity?
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
49
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
Avant-‐garde aesthe>cs are s>ll familiar, no ma\er how unusual they may appear at first. We can s>ll connect to their visual and cultural roots.
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
50
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
51
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
Will future designs close the gap of the Uncanny Valley and will we move closer to the ancient dream of the superhuman?
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
52
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
Or will the uncanny gap widen and we move further into non-‐humanity – unhuman both as creators of uncanny creatures and as our own crea>ons?
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
53
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
The ar>st Piccinini says about the “The Young Family” that she is “interested in the dis>nc>on between human and animal characteris>cs: Not so much her humanity, but the 'animalness' in us”. She points out that it would be “impossible to be objec>ve about these issues when you are emo>onally involved […]. These are not simple issues with easy answers: It is one thing to talk about an idea and another to be confronted by the emo>onal reality of a creature, and yet another to be in need of what that creature might provide.”
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
54
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
The New Sciences will provide us with the knowhow and the technologies to alter and to create just any creature. Amongst a number of philosophical, ethical, aesthe>c, and poli>cal/economic ques>ons, we are yet to figure out the thresholds between human and non-‐human, enhancement and deployment, necessity and vanity, considerate and malign use. (Angelina Jolie, Word1000)
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
55
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
And this might be a rather unnerving undertaking.
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
56
Uncanny New Sciences: Visions of the Transhuman Body.
Thank you for your a\en>on.
Gudrun Frommherz (2013)
57