Transcending Embodiment: Communication in the Posthuman Condition
Year: 2014
Type: article
Abstract: In Speaking into the Air: A History of the Idea of Communication, John Durham Peters argues that soul merger between humans is impossible because communication could never transcend the existential barrier between self and other. I contest Peters’ argument by constructing my own history starting from where Peters’ history leaves off. I show how disembodied communication is imagined in William Gibson's classic science fiction novel, Neuromancer, how cyberfeminist artists import embodiment into virtual realities, and how Ray Kurzweil's “the Singularity,” the notion that in our not-too-distant future humans will evolve into machines, makes posthuman communication a coming reality.
Source: Southern Communication Journal
Author: Thomas S. Frentz
Language: English
Subfield: History and Philosophy of Science
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W1505701416