Posthumanist Manifesto

We Americans have known only late forms of humanism, and few of us realize how resplendently many-sided humanism was at the time of its birth in Italy in the time of Pico della Mirandola and Marsilio Ficino. Now, as humanism finally fades, this sense of enhanced possibilities is appearing once again, especially in Italy. In Posthumanist Manifesto, Roberto Marchesini provides us with a much-needed guide to the exciting yet bewildering new ways of thinking that are starting to emerge. --Boria Sax, Mercy College What kind of future lies ahead of us? How should we face it? Why is posthumanism an everyday practice rather than just a vacuous philosophical word? By analysing the ways in which technology, the human, and the rest of the living world have always been intertwined and have mutually shaped each other, the 30 theses that constitute this essential work offer a sharp and lucid portrait of how relationships constitute the basis of all forms of existence - biological, social, and technological. By countering certain persistent humanist views and rejecting both the illusion of a disembodied existence envisaged by transhumanism and the nostalgic and anachronistic ravings of those who seek a return to the past, Marchesini reclaims the needs of the body and uses scientific knowledge to awaken numb consciousnesses (including political ones). What emerges are concrete and feasible scenarios that draw on both existing and developing resources to help redress sick tendencies and prevent dangerous solipsistic deviations. They rely on one of the human's fundamental motivations: caring for the other. --Cosetta Veronese, International Society of Zooanthropology