scholarly journals GENETINIS DISKURSAS MEDIJŲ KULTŪROJE: GUNDYMAS PREKINIU NEMIRTINGUMU

Problemos ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 76 ◽  
pp. 52-65
Author(s):  
Vytautas Rubavičius
Keyword(s):  
Genetically Modified Organisms ◽  
Private Property ◽  
World View ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Media Culture ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Proper Form ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Universe

Straipsnyje grindžiama nuomonė, jog postmodernybė yra iš modernybės kylantis kapitalizmo sistemos būvis, kuriam būdinga gyvybės suprekinimas ir suišteklinimas. Postmodernybę charakterizuoja populiariosios ir medijų kultūros išplitimas. Tos kultūros apima ne tik kultūros prekes, bet ir vartojimo būdus, įgūdžius ir jų lavinimą. Pastaruoju metu jos kuria nemirtingumo vaizdiniams bei nuojautoms palankią kultūrinę, intelektinę ir pasaulėvaizdinę terpę, kurioje struktūriškai įsitvirtina genetinis diskursas ir jo nustatomos žmogaus ir jo gyvenamo pasaulio aiškinimo gairės. Svarbus šio diskurso bruožas yra technologinis inžinerinis jo pobūdis, išryškėjęs susiejant nano ir biotechnologijas, kuriomis tikimasi įveikti gyvąją ir negyvąją gamtą skiriančią prarają, iš reikalingų atomų bei molekulių kuriant reikalingų ląstelių dalis ir klonuojant gyvas būtybes. Gyvybė suprekinama ir suišteklinama patentuojant gyvybės elementus – genus ir su jais susijusius procesus. Daroma išvada, jog visi genetikos, informatikos ir kitų mokslų laimėjimai, teikiantys žmogaus gyvenimo ilginimo galimybių, kurios palaiko gundančią nemirtingumo idėją, jau yra persmelkti prekinių santykių, tad ir pats nemirtingumas įmanomas tik kaip prekė. Aptariami kai kurie evoliuciniai ir religiniai techno sapiens sampratos aspektai. Detaliau gvildenamos dvi „nemirtingumo“ versijos: Z. Baumano, kuris nemirtingumo pažadą sieja su kompiuterinės technikos plėtra prasidėjus „Antrajai medijų erai“, ir J. Baudrillard’o, tegiančio, jog klonavimo technologijos „apgręžia“ evoliuciją ir žmogų gundo virusiniu ar vėžiniu belyčiu nemirtingumu.Pagrindiniai žodžiai: genetinis diskursas, klonavimas, medijų kultūra, nanobiotechnologijos, nemirtingumas, suprekinimas.Genetic Discourse in Media Culture: Temptation by Commodified ImmoralityVytautas Rubavičius   SummaryPostmodernity is maintained as a stage of the development of capitalism. The difference between modernity and postmodernity is explained in relation to the new sphere of commodification and resourcification, namely, that of life and of all natural living processes. Postmodern media culture, or popular culture, is peopled by signs of immortality and various kinds of immortals – cyborgs, clones, zombies, immortal human beings and others. Thus, culture accustoms a consumer to immortals and immortality which is concidered as the main goal of a human being and evolution. By nano-bio-technologies and genetic discourse this goal is made scientifically valid, thus reachable. Genetic discourse is becoming the fundamental world-view providing focal landmarks for the emerging future. Media culture supports the spreading of genetic discourse and facilitates its understanding. The temptation by immortality can be considered as a version of modernist ideology of human liberation from various natural, social and heavenly bonds. This liberation, and also secularization, is supported by a scientific genetic technological discourse which is becoming a stimulating factor of postmodern media production. The genetic explanation of the world is particularly handy for technological reflexivity: the entire world is as if encapsulated into human genes, which become the principle explaining the mystery of life, evolution and the future of humanity, thus rendering power to produce the human proper form and the future of people. All the possibilities stemming from the new genetic and biotech discoveries fell under the regulation of property relations by patenting, thus making “immortality” – as a temptation and brand – not only an exeptional commodity, but also a political tool and a commodifying force. As the relationships of private property have penetrated natural biogenetic diversity and, having turned it into a resource, the cognitive subject has reached the goal to secularise the Universe, which he has set for himself: only he as the owner and producer of genes lures people with the eternal shapes of the clones and their genetic information, which will be sustained in any location of the Universe. The temptation by “immortality” will become even stronger when the genetic code is mastered. The future of humanity is related to the mixed forms of life, trans-genic or otherwise genetically modified organisms and techno-human forms that will help to postpone, and later to conquer, death. Even thinkers with religious tendencies perceive the technological improvement of human beings as their evolution towards the techno sapiens and consider such a development as an advancement towards the Kingdom of God. The technologization of human beings is imagined in terms of their divination. Yet in this case the character of contemporary science secularising God and obliterating the perception of divinity is overlooked. Two versions of immortality are analyzed more closely – that of Z. Bauman, who links it with the development of computer technologies, and that of J. Baudrillard, who gives a warning that by cloning technologies humanity is trying to inverse the evolution and to return to the undifferentiated state of cells. The conclusion is drawn that regardless of how we understand ‘immortality,’ argue over its reality or unreality, all possibilities to prolong human life granted by genetics, informatics and other advances in science and technologies, which support the tempting idea of immortality, have already been penetrated by commodity relationships; therefore, “immortality” itself will be available only as a commodity.Keywords: cloning, commodification, genetic discourse, immortality, media culture, nano-bio-technologies.

A Rapture of the Nerds? A Comparison between Transhumanist Eschatology and Christian Parousia

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 343-367
Author(s):  
Roberto Paura
Keyword(s):  
Human Brain ◽  
Point Theory ◽  
The Body ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Human Species ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Universe

Transhumanism is one of the main “ideologies of the future” that has emerged in recent decades. Its program for the enhancement of the human species during this century pursues the ultimate goal of immortality, through the creation of human brain emulations. Therefore, transhumanism offers its fol- lowers an explicit eschatology, a vision of the ultimate future of our civilization that in some cases coincides with the ultimate future of the universe, as in Frank Tipler’s Omega Point theory. The essay aims to analyze the points of comparison and opposition between transhumanist and Christian eschatologies, in particular considering the “incarnationist” view of Parousia. After an introduction concern- ing the problems posed by new scientific and cosmological theories to traditional Christian eschatology, causing the debate between “incarnationists” and “escha- tologists,” the article analyzes the transhumanist idea of mind-uploading through the possibility of making emulations of the human brain and perfect simulations of the reality we live in. In the last section the problems raised by these theories are analyzed from the point of Christian theology, in particular the proposal of a transhuman species through the emulation of the body and mind of human beings. The possibility of a transhumanist eschatology in line with the incarnationist view of Parousia is refused.

scholarly journals Human Fetal Development And The Ways Of Asthabrata As An Idea In The Creation Of Sinjang Batik Tulis

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 96-106
Author(s):  
Danang Priyanto ◽  
FP Sri Wuryani
Keyword(s):  
Fetal Development ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Development Stages ◽  
The Sublime ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Human Fetal Development ◽  
Full Protection

Human beings which are wired as leaders should live based on the practice of transcendent value and total clarity on noble deeds. It functions as a guideline in living to avoid the crisis of morality that often occurs today. One of the values in this leadershipquality is the teaching of asthabrata containing the noble deeds of a leader who symbolized in the elements of the universe: the fire, the ground, the water, the air, the moon, the clouds, the sun, and the stars. The stage of human fetal development occurs from the age of one to nine months. These stages, along with the teachings of asthabrata become the base of an idea in the creation of batik art. The idea comes from the question of how to process the development stages of human fetal and ways of asthabrata as a base on creating the batik artwork which conveys sublime values about leadership. The purpose of this batik artwork creation are:incorporating the concept of human fetal development as part of human life cycle with the tradition of batik; Conveying the sublime sublime of leadership based on the asthabrata which refers to human nature as a natural born leader. The creation processcovering the method of design exploration, design process, and batik as a result of design by establishing the combination ofhuman fetal development and the asthabrata. The result shows nine sinjang batik tulis artworks, covering; Hamasesa Tan Pilih Warna (manage without seeing the color), Sukci (sacred), Hanguripi Sagung Dumadi (give strength to all life), Girise Kang Samya Miyat (be who you want to see), Sorota Hayem Angayomi (make peaceful and full protection), Jembar Tanpa Pagut(sincerity without limit), Muntir Tan Ana Pedhote (infinite rotation), Panengeraning Keblad (signpost), and Ngudi Kasampurnan(sharpening perfection). 

Philosophical Values and the Future of Civilization

1943 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 156-176
Author(s):  
John U. Nef
Keyword(s):  
Human Beings ◽  
Positive Science ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Universe

In An article published in the July 1942 number of the Review of Politics, I suggested that contemporary learned men who deny the existence of truth, virtue, or beauty, are led into a dilemma. Either they must confine truth to positive science, where the results are always tentative and incomplete with respect to the universe in which human beings have to move, or else they must believe that people generally will be inclined towards good and wise actions even though learning refuses to admit the existence of standards, apart from the rules of conduct that can be derived from positive science. The second view, we suggested, involves the admission that impersonal standards do exist, independent of positive science. We might conclude that the nourishment of these standards by means of the intellect, and with the help of results obtained by science, ought to be the supreme task of learning.

Themistius on Evil

Phronesis ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guy Guldentops
Keyword(s):  
World View ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Universe

AbstractAlthough Themistius does not develop a theodicy, his observations on evil are fairly consistent. Both in his paraphrases of Aristotle and in his speeches, he argues that since God is the intelligent and powerful cause of all good things in the universe, evil is due to the στ ρησιsigma in matter and to the νοια of human beings. Despite some (Neo-)Platonic and Stoic influences, Themistius defends a basically Peripatetic world-view, in which evil is minimized.

scholarly journals Pendidikan Islam dan Upaya Membumikan Kesadaran Pluralisme

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 144-157
Author(s):  
Nur Khoironi ◽  
◽  
Abdul Muhid ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Context Awareness ◽  
Scientific Work ◽  
Islamic Education ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Positive Side ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Culture Education ◽  
The Universe

This scientific work is the result of a literature review about efforts to popularized pluralism awareness through the approach of Islamic education. As we know, that pluralism is a reality that really occurs in our daily lives, both in religion, culture, education, race and ethnic. The existence of diversity is nothing that become a part of sunnatullāh. That is, diversity is the part of God‟s will as the creator of human beings and all life in the universe. Of course, with the aim of making the positive side of the difference taken as a guide for cooperation, selfintrospection, and help. Because, if God wants a uniformity then surely Allah will make a single human, one tribe, one nation, one religion, but in fact it is not. In the holy Qur‟ān, God explicitly states that deliberately makes us diverse so that we able to know each other. In Indonesian context, awareness of diversity needs to be and must continue to be maintained for the integrity of the nation and state, as the Prophet Muhammad kept the integrity of Medina city above the differences in religion, ethnic, race and tribe.

scholarly journals Angelic Dynamism: Humanity in Paul Klee’s Drawing Series of 1939–1940

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 512-531
Author(s):  
Sergey P. Purgin ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Walter Benjamin ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Time History ◽  
Main Theme ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Temporal Dimension ◽  
Artistic Style ◽  
European Tradition ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The Universe

Since Walter Benjamin in “The Theses on the Philosophy of History” showcased Paul Klee’s angels, they remain mysterious figures that represent time, history or soul. The article focuses on the series of drawings that were created in the artist’s later period (1939−1940). The series can be regarded as the artist’s final will and testament as it expresses Klee’s condensed philosophy and mature views on man’s place in the universe. It also reflects the master’s cherished artistic methods and techniques, consistently honed in on during the course of his life. The author studies the relations within the series and the series relation to other artworks by Klee. It is demonstrated that it is humankind that is the main theme of the series. By contrasting human and angelic forms in his drawings Klee reinvigorates the European tradition of defining humanity through its relation to angelic orders and through its position on the hierarchy of creation. However, Klee strives to re-imagine the universe as a whole, for him it is not the ladder of perfections, which rises to angels and God. Therefore, the relations between human and angelic creatures are intimately familial rather than hierarchical. The author highlights that the artistic style and techniques emphasize visual dynamic and form creation (“formation”). In depicting angels, the artist brings forth his concern with temporal dimension of human nature and its significance in human life. Thus, in this dynamic interrelation, human beings become “angelic grotesque” with their own ontic temporality. This temporality specific to human creatures is defined as the “moment that transcends itself ” — since the latter is essentially “ecstatic” and “self-propelling”.

scholarly journals Antropogeneza i jej związek z ewolucją wszechświata w teilhardyzmie

2007 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-102
Author(s):  
Grzegorz Baczewski
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Evolutionary Process ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Human Race ◽  
Main Concept ◽  
Common Information ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
Spiritual Reality ◽  
The Universe

This paper deals with the connection between the origin of the human race and the evolving universe in the works of Teilhard de Chardin, the French thinker analysed this problem from different points of view: scientific, philosophical and theological, showing its different aspects.The results of his reflections on this topic form a system of thought in which Teilhard tried to explain the mystery of man and the universe, the main concept of this system is the evolution of the whole universe from a material into a spiritual reality. Part of this cosmic evolutionary process is also the origin of the human race (considered by Teilhard as a species of living creatures and only accidentally as individual human beings). Creation of the world and man according to Teilhard is also a continual process in which God uses the natural law of evolution. Man is the best part and the summit of this cosmic process, the human race has been craeted by God as one philum (monophiletism) and not as a couple (Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden) or many phila (poliphiletism). While creating human souls, God also uses the material elements of the world, sublimating them into spirit, these opinions created many problems for the Catholic Church and were not accepted. Teilhardian analyses of the future of the universe and mankind are very interesting and inspiring and have been used by many modern thinkers. Teilhard wrote about one global society united by science and technology (globalisation). In the future people will also form one sphere of human spirit, the sphere of common information (noosphere). Eschatologically, the whole universe along with the human race will be united with God as the mover and final cause of the cosmic evolution (its point Alpha and Omega).The end of the history of all created reality will be the transformation into spiritual reality of the Cosmic Christ, thus anthropogenesis will be fulfilled in cosmogenesis and finally in Christogenesis.

Plato’s Philebus

Classics ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvain Delcomminette
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Hierarchical Classification ◽  
Cosmological Argument ◽  
Scholarly Work ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The World ◽  
Relative Neglect ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The Universe

The Philebus is almost unanimously considered as one of Plato’s last dialogues, probably written around the same time as the Timaeus. Unlike other late dialogues, however, it takes the more conventional form of a conversation between Socrates and two interlocutors: Philebus and Protarchus. Philebus in fact refuses to discuss and remains silent for most of the dialogue, leaving to Protarchus the task of defending hedonism against the attacks of intellectualism championed by Socrates. The Philebus is a particularly rich and difficult work, which has often been viewed as messy. Although it has received the subtitle “On pleasure” since Antiquity, it contains, besides a lengthy examination of pleasure that notably argues for the possibility of false pleasures, a reflection on the relations between unity and plurality, an exposition of dialectic presented as a “god-given” and “heavenly” method, a fourfold classification of “all there is,” a cosmological argument purported to show that the world is governed by intelligence, and a hierarchical classification of the different kinds of knowledge. All these elements are integrated in a quest for “the good,” which at the beginning of the dialogue is identified to the best human life, but at the end seems to gain greater generality and concern not only human beings but also the whole or the universe. Are all these themes supposed to connect somehow, and if they are, in what manner? This question was already debated by the Neoplatonist commentators and was taken over by modern scholarship since the 19th century. Another question that has provoked scholars is the relation between the “metaphysics” exposed in the dialogue and Plato’s “unwritten doctrines” referred to by Aristotle. However, the greatest part of scholarship on the Philebus is currently devoted to scrutinize a theme or a portion of the text itself. After a relative neglect, this dialogue has indeed become the focus of much scholarly work during the last decades. The present bibliography had consequently to be highly selective and favors the most useful starting-points for further explorations of the wealthy literature devoted to this fascinating text.

How to Reason about the World

2008 ◽  
pp. 184-198
Author(s):  
Azamat Abdoullaev
Keyword(s):  
Intelligent Systems ◽  
Possible Worlds ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Intelligent Machines ◽  
The Core ◽  
Reasoning Systems ◽  
The World ◽  
Ontological Ground ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Universe

Along with substances of all kinds, states of all manner, and changes of all types and exemplifications, relationships of all sorts and instances appear to be among the prime constituents of the universe as a whole and its realms, regions, and domains as the world of nature, the universe of society, and the domain of minds. Hence, knowledge of relations, as the causeeffect relationship, constitutes the basic core of real knowledge and, consequently, the logical fundament for all basic kinds of reasoning about the world. Since all reasoning upon reality, its particular classes, parts and features, is eventually to be founded on the underlying relations of substances, states, changes, and analogies, as well as on the meta-relations of whole-part, comparison, contrast, identity, resemblance, and difference. To adequately represent and consistently reason about reality is vitally important not only for human beings but also for prospective intelligent machines driven by the ontological models of the world comprehending the logical models of possible worlds. A widely practiced logical tradition to represent the world in terms of abstract classes, properties, and relations or purely mathematical objects, functions, and relations looks to be a main conceptual obstacle to creating effective reasoning systems. Since the likewise artificial conceptualizations of the world are missing out the core of things, their nature and reality, providing the ontological ground and making true the truth. These would-be reasoning systems will not work effectively because of their built-in incapacity to work out any complex real problems or situations or challenges. Above all other things, such intelligent systems will be unable to see the difference of physical, mental, or social objects so that to recognize their attributes, qualities, properties, states, changes, and relations.

Images at Work

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Morgan
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Independent Action ◽  
Rational Agents ◽  
The World ◽  
Action At A Distance ◽  
The Universe

Advocates of the ideology of modern progress and rationalism are fond of regarding human beings as rational agents and the universe as a collection of inanimate things that obey laws and do not exhibit agency. Yet evidence of nonrational practices of enchantment abounds in every part of human life: people commonly regard things as capable of independent action and expect the universe to respond to their desire for magic, miracles, and action at a distance. Clearly, rationalism is not as pervasive or singularly influential as some would insist. Enchantment consists of the things we do and how we do them to make the world go our way. This book argues that enchantment is not simply an irrational, primitive impulse that needs to be curbed or eliminated, but should be understood as problem solving. Images are ways of working on the world to achieve what people need. Images at Work explores how images operate, what their effects on viewers are, and how enchantment can be understood as visual dynamics that we need to take seriously. Enchantment is more than religion and is not identical with magic. And its effects are not fully discernible apart from its material culture because enchantment is about things and our engagement with them.

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