This book works to delineate some of the major routes by which science and art intersect. Structured according to the origin myths of the posthuman that continue to shape the idea of the human in our technological modernity, this volume gives space to narratives of alter-modernity that resonate with Ursula K. Le Guin’s call for a new kind of story which exposes the violence and exploitation driven by a sustained belief in human exceptionalism, anthropocentrism, and cultural superiority. In this context, the posthuman myths of multispecies flourishing given in this collection, which are situated across a range of historical times and locations, and media and modalities, are to be thought of as kernels of possible futures that can only be realized through collective endeavour.
List of Figures List of Contributors Acknowledgments Introduction: An Orientation Grant Hamilton & Carolyn Lau Section 1: ELIZA (1964-1966) Chapter 1. Posthuman Bodies: Why They (Still) Matter N. Katherine Hayles Chapter 2. Quantum Machine Intelligence Alessandra Di Pierro & Luca Viganò Chapter 3. Berty Angela Su Chapter 4. Simulation in the Post-reality Feedback Loop Kenny K. N. Chow Chapter 5. An Object Misplaced in Time Jule Owen Section 2: Anansi (1526) Chapter 6. An Interview with Rosi Braidotti Grant Hamilton, Carolyn Lau & Rosi Braidotti Chapter 7. Technogenesis as White Mythology Stephen Cave & Kanta Dihal Chapter 8. The First Virs Danbee Kim Chapter 9. In the Lap of the Synth Stephen Oram Chapter 10. Utopianism in the Technological Age Lizzie O’Shea Section 3: R.U.Radius (1921) Chapter 11. Raised by Robots: Imagining Posthuman ‘Maternal’ Touch Amelia DeFalco & Luna Dolezal Chapter 12. Tender Bodies Zheng Mahler Chapter 13 Smartwatch Jennifer L Rohn Chapter 14. The Tablet Stroker, Redux Christine Aicardi Chapter 15. CHOM5KY vs CHOMSKY: A Reflection on Machines, Meanings, and Metaphors Sandra Rodriguez Chapter 16. Biospheres Ta-wei Chi Section 4: Anansi, Reprised (1526) Chapter 17. Storying Relations as Posthuman Ethics Carolyn Lau Chapter 18. The World After, Lost Eons David Blandy Chapter 19. Hello, World! Hello, Poetic Zombies! Winnie Soon & Susan Scarlata Chapter 20. Foreign Bodies Pippa Goldschmidt Chapter 21. Melanin Object Ari Larissa Heinrich Chapter 22. An Interview with Jes Fan Ari Larissa Heinrich & Jes Fan Section 5: Potnia Theron (6,000BC) Chapter 23. Beyond Transcendence: From ‘human’ to ‘Human’ in Tchaikovsky's Children Series Sheryl Vint Chapter 24. Scoby skin, Yellow soup HSURAE Chapter 25. Posthuman Spirituality Francesco Ferrando & Debashish Banerji Chapter 26. The Left-hand Click and the Left-hand Lay: Intersecting Technology and Folk Belief in Posthuman Spirituality Evelyn Wan Chapter 27. Towards a Low-Trophic Theory in Feminist Posthumanities: Staying with Environmental Violence, Ecological Grief, and the Trouble of Consumption Cecilia Åsberg & Marietta Radomska Bibliography Index
Grant Hamilton is Associate Professor of English Literature at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He teaches and writes in the areas of literary theory, twentieth-century world literatures, African literature, and computational literary studies. He is the author of The London Object (2021), The World of Failing Machines (2016), and On Representation (2011). He is the co-editor of A Companion to Mia Couto (2016), and editor of Reading Marechera (2013). Carolyn Lau teaches and researches on global speculative fictions, contemporary literature, and narrative futures in the Department of English at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She is the author of Posthuman Subjectivity in the Novels of J.G. Ballard (2023).
