How we Became Posthuman

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Originally uploaded by andymiah.

Hayles, N. K. (1999). How we became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics. London, University of Chicago Press.

N Katherine Hayles' work has become central to posthuman research. However, the justification for this is not clear. Hayles does not really develop a critical account of the posthuman and relies essentially on its digital or virtual characteristics. The book places the development of computing into an historical context, moving from the development of computing, through to Turing, the Macey Conferences, through to Philip K. Dick's Bladerunner. The reliance on the 'virtual' and the lack of epistemological inquiry in this text is something that I think will be necessary to revisit. Hayles' 'virtual bodies' and the significance of 'information' seems to undermine the context through which virtualness and info are necessarily attached. These attributes re-constitute the virtual and give it a body.