Tuesday, December 16, 2003
I am Iron Man
Virilio has some interesting thing to say about Stelarc in the chapter titled 'From Superman to Hyperactive Man' his book 'The Art of the Motor' which I'm now perusing. The Nietzschean cross-reference was compelling. I quote here at length:
"When the law of natural selection is no longer thwarted by faith in the transcendence of being alone, bu by some law of artificial selection-the sudden advent, beyond GOOD and EVIL, of a TECHNICAL FUNDAMENTALISM, as opposed to the old MYSTICAL kind-what is left of the 'great health' of Nietzsche's superseded man? The imminent production of biotechnological SUPERVITALITY will surely undermine the very foundation of the philosophy of the 'superman.'
The question of what will happen to DESIGN, or more precisely, to 'postindustrial' METADESIGN, finds its basis here--I would go so far as to say its METAPHYSICAL basis. It is just a step from last century's evolutionary superman to the hyperactive, postevolutionary man of the coming century, just one more step into the gloom of postscientific obscurantism."
"When the law of natural selection is no longer thwarted by faith in the transcendence of being alone, bu by some law of artificial selection-the sudden advent, beyond GOOD and EVIL, of a TECHNICAL FUNDAMENTALISM, as opposed to the old MYSTICAL kind-what is left of the 'great health' of Nietzsche's superseded man? The imminent production of biotechnological SUPERVITALITY will surely undermine the very foundation of the philosophy of the 'superman.'
The question of what will happen to DESIGN, or more precisely, to 'postindustrial' METADESIGN, finds its basis here--I would go so far as to say its METAPHYSICAL basis. It is just a step from last century's evolutionary superman to the hyperactive, postevolutionary man of the coming century, just one more step into the gloom of postscientific obscurantism."
