Description and basic ideas of Lyotard and the Inhuman

We will synthesize the 9 chapters of the book Lyotard and the inhuman. We provide a brief description of the content and basic ideas of the chapter. For ease of reading we divide the sum into three parts. Each of them, present them in a different entry.

On the death of the universe, Jean François Lyotard question that might mean for humanity the death of the sun. This reflection of the book written in 1988 The inhumanity. In the inhuman suggests that humanity has acquired some new enemies to replace the grand narratives - totalitarian ideologies, until then in force. Lyotard expresses his fear that computers are programmed to get the power, in order to prolong life when death occurs from the sun. The result is the progress of the inhumanity of the human with the support of the technocracy, a conglomerate that combines science, technology, advanced capitalism and multinational corporations. Lyotard's response is to call a campaign against technoscience and its products.

In Living with the inhuman, inhumane thing is with us in a variety of forms and the technology is breaking the physical barriers of our bodies. We rely too much inhumanity to the functioning of society, communication systems, transportation systems, financial systems ... - and for the maintenance of human life in the form of machines that control vital body functions, pacemakers, dialysis, ... -. Lyotard draws our attention to the artificial intelligence (AI): technocracy is developing artificial intelligence at the expense of inteligenciahumana (IH). Artificial intelligence is another form of advanced life competing with us for domination of the planet and its resources. Living with the inhuman, is one thing to be subservient to his will would be very different.

In The death of humanism?, We live in a post-humanist world according to Lyotard.

The humanismono enjoys credibility and excitement in intellectual circles. He identifies with modernity, with the cult of reason and the belief in unlimited material progress. It is synonymous with advanced capitalism, environmental destruction and the planet's renewable resources and the grand narratives of humanity, Marxism, liberal democracy or capitalism. The posthumanism emerges from this feeling of horror where we have taken the exercise of reason in the twentieth century. While humanism may have started as a movement that frees humanity from the dead weight of tradition, has become a tradition and in turn oppresses humanity. That is why we must resist and undermine their bases.

In the ascent of the inhuman, is taking a turn to the inhuman: a deliberate suppression of the lines between humans and machines. The inhumanismosupone a new review of the human and the realignment of our relationship with technology. The more we consider this point, the more we are forced to accept the inhuman become an integral part of our lives. So where and when we are willing to allow it to reach the development of this phenomenon is an interesting moral dilemma. Lyotard asks: "So what happens if you own humanity was being inhabited by the inhuman?". This question goes directly to what it means to be human and our vision of our place in the universe. It is a dilemma that confronts us increasingly as the technology requires major changes in our lives. We live in a culture that is totally dependent on computers for the operating system itself. Becomes clear how much of our autonomy we have given to systems controlled by computers and how computer systems controls us and not vice versa. But computers can not have an optimal functioning of our society.

As you achieve new levels of sophistication, we become more vulnerable than ever to that technology. Medical technology confronts us with interesting problems concerning the inhuman: "Are we less human if key parts of our bodies are not natural fabrics synthetic ?"."¿ many parts of the body can bear before losing what is" proper " to mankind? " "Is consciousness affected, for example, by a body that contains significant amounts of non-natural tissue, or a dependent of a regulatory body for normal functioning computer?".

The area of ​​conflict raises more inhuman is artificial intelligence (AI), considered by many scientists as a way of living in their own right. The complexity theory could suggest that, at a certain level of development of AI systems can spontaneously mutate to become more highly organized process, even to the point of producing and self-consciousness. We are talking about "that" which is "proper" inhumanity. Artificial life-VA-can have totally different objectives from those of the VH-human life, and call it "artificial" the question arises: how do we know or how we can prove that we are the only way "real" life or the most developed? Mark Ward argues that it is a misconception that is special about life in general and about humanity in particular. For its part, Langton in 1989 said of artificial life-VA-will literally "genuine life, just be made of other stuff that life has evolved here on Earth." If so, this makes us think of a conflict of interest between artificial life and VA-VH-human life. Lyotard is just one of many voices warning of the emerging conflict.

Maria Dolores Fuentes

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