Anxiety about non-human intelligent machines has been a longstanding theme of cultural production and consumption (think anything from Frankenstein to Black Mirror and beyond). It is rooted in the possibility that non-conscious entities may turn out superior to biological life forms, ultimately surpassing and possibly subjugating biological forms of intelligent life in what has been dubbed “the Singularity.” Although today’s AI still falls short of this level of sophistication, Mark Kingwell in his latest book, Singular Creatures: Robots, Rights, and the Politics of Posthumanism (McGill-Queen’s 2022), argues that we are already more than human in important ways. Our immersion in technology, now comprehensive to the point of invisibility, has altered forever what it means to be alive. The politics of posthumanism flow directly from our own situation, at once dependent on technology and afraid of its effects on current and future experiences.
To learn more, listen to Kingwell discuss the book and the topics covered in it on the Connected Intelligence podcast with Sonia Sennik or read this review of Singular Creatures by Alexander Sallas in the Literary Review of Canada.
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