Pestering Capitalism. Thinking with Halyomorpha halys about multispecies relations and ecological unsustainability

Many non-human species trouble human-oriented forms of multispecies life, which leads to classifying some of these species as pests. One of the fields of daily life most disturbed by the action of pests is modern capitalist agriculture, leading to different types of pest management by which human beings attempt to eliminate pests’ opposition to the anthropogenic appropriation of the work/energy of multispecies assemblages, an appropriation which is essential for capital circulation. In dominant modern capitalist cosmologies, the disturbances caused by pests automatically justify and require their attempted extermination. Without denying that pests are troubling, I argue that the technoscientific framing of our relationship with these species is insufficient as a way of understanding and interacting with them. Rather than exclusively seeing pests as a problem, the manner in which humans interact with these species points us to several foundational - and in themselves problematic – aspects of modern capitalist world-ecology. Taking my research on networks concerned with kiwifruit farming and commercialization in Portugal as a basis for my arguments, I look at how actors in these networks propose to deal with Halyomorpha halys, the brown marmorated stink bug, in an attempt to think with this species about the (inextricably connected) socio-ecological unsustainability of modern capitalist world-ecology and the bio-thanato-political strategies of immunization employed to deal with non-human species in this political ecological system.

Digital Labour: Digital Capitalism and the Alienation of YouTube Content Creators

YouTube is a digital platform that allows content creators to stream their videos in exchange for money earned through the YouTube Partner Program mechanism, motivates many people to join YouTube. However, what they do not realize is the hidden effect YouTube brings in the form of alienation experienced by YouTube content creators as digital labour. This article discusses this phenomenon of alienation experienced by digital labours. Using a qualitative approach with a descriptive research design, it offers a narrative research strategy to examine the narrative and discourse of alienation of content creators on YouTube. The unit of analysis of the study is the content of YouTube creators as digital labour. The findings show that YouTube is mainly a vehicle used by digital capitalism for the sake of profit accumulated by exploiting content creators from the videos they make. Content creators receive disproportionate or even no financial compensation from YouTube for the videos they produce for YouTube. As a result, YouTube content creators as digital labour experienced alienation from their work, their work activities, from themselves as a human species and from other humans.

Towards Biopolitics beyond Life and Death: The Virus, Life, and Death

By engaging with Giorgio Agamben’s article on the Italian government’s measures during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, we argue that COVID-19 points to the limits of the classical biopolitical and thanatopolitical logics of analysis and therefore requires a new conceptual framework. The outbreak of COVID-19 is an example of zoonotic globalisation in which the human species as a biological and geological actor is merely one among many other species that influence biological and geological processes on Earth, thus challenging humanist conceptualisations of politics. Here, the human role in politics is decentralised by thinking the virus as one of the actors that exert influence on how the political sphere is governed. We argue that the virus is the epitome of the ungovernable – an entity or broadly a historical challenge that cannot be subjected to existing mode(s) of governing – due to its interstitial and borderline character, resting between the ontological roots of the dominant modes of governing bios (life) and geos (nonlife), and challenging them by merely existing. We draw upon the works of Ghassan Hage, Nils Bubandt, Elizabeth Povinelli, and Donna Haraway to interrogate the limits of biopolitics and diagnose theoretical conundrums stemming from the division of nature vs. culture and life vs. nonlife entrenched in the existing social-political paradigms. Rather than providing finite answers about the role of the virus as a non-human actor in the political sphere, we raise questions as to how and why it should matter.

Bendroji organologija: tarp organizmo ir mašinos

In this article, I discuss the theory of organology, which examines the interaction between the organism and the machine. The term “organology” was proposed by Georges Canguilhem in his text “Machine and Organism”. Referring to his predecessors, such as Ernst Kapp, Alfred Espinas, and André Leroi-Gourhan, Canguilhem argues that tools and technologies can be understood as an extension of biological organisms. Thus, organology examines the relationships between organisms and machines as well as redefines machines as organs of the human species. In a similar manner, Simondon examines technical objects as belonging to general ontogenesis, which encompasses both living and non-living beings. Later, this idea is significantly elaborated by Bernard Stiegler who creates his own theory of “general organology” and asserts that human life can be maintained only through the invention of tools and the organization of the inorganic. The notion of “general organology” is taken further by Yuk Hui who argues that technical objects are becoming organic in the sense that they incorporate organic properties, such as recursivity and contingency. Thus, not only does “general organology” question the opposition between mechanism and vitalism but also inscribes technical objects into the continuum of living beings.

Góry — dom dla zwierząt czy schronisko dla ludzi?

When thinking about nature, it is impossible to overlook fauna, which contributes to its constant transformation, mainly through the development of new species. The author of the article sheds light on the current situation of animals living e.g. in national parks, focusing on pro-environmental activities on social media and non-virtual media, and on destructive human behaviour. The growing tourism- and economy-related infrastructurisation of the mountains as well as their increasingly frequent exploration by humans force animals to change their familiar habitats. Owing to the animals’ natural territorialism as well as instinctive fight for species survival, in the case of stronger specimens we often see altruistic actions to protect the group under threat. The interference of humans with the natural environment forces animals to acquire social behaviours which are a consequence of a long adaptation process. The author of the article also examines selected aspects of ethology, that is study of inherited and acquired animal behaviour. However, the appropriation of the mountains by humans and their adaptation to human needs are characterised by a relatively high awareness of the impact on animal life, a fact reflected in numerous ecological and faunistic campaigns seeking to protect natural habitats and their indigenous residents. The article also features an analysis of campaigns and projects that are to make people sensitive to the fact that they are guests at a home of species other than the human species.

Indonesia’s contribution in tracing the human ancestor

Since Darwin’s postulated the origin of the human species from an ape-like ancestor, the search for the missing link between ape and human had begun. In 1887, Eugene Dubois traveled from the Netherlands to Indonesia to search for the missing link. He eventually discovered human fossils in Wajak, Kedungbrubus, and Trinil to which he named Pithecanthropus erectus. The research was then continued by Ter Haar (1931) in Ngandong, Dujfyes, and his assistant, Andoyo (1936) in Perning, Mojokerto, and Von Koenigswald (1936-1940) in Sangiran, who successfully discovered many Homo erectus fossils. Since the 1960s, Sartono (ITB), T. Jacob (UGM), and Geological Research and Development Centre (Indonesia) continue the study, adding the collection of the specimens. Collaboration with the National Museum of Science and Nature, Tokyo concluded that Indonesian Homo erectus went through local evolution instead of static evolution condition. Indonesia is rich in natural resources and environmental conditions that were suitable for the evolution of early humans as shown by the discovery of several Homo erectus skeleton fossils that were not found in most other countries. This is a blessing left by early humans to us.

The Ethics of Human Enhancement and Ferrando’s Philosophical Posthumanism

Francesca Ferrando's book Philosophical Posthumanism concentrates on some of the ethical issues connected with genetic alteration of the human species. In sympathy with her analysis, this brief article (commentary) elaborates on a parallel topic: the ethical implications of current projects to modify humans and their society with digital emerging technology.

CORREDORES ECOLÓGICOS URBANOS: UM ESTUDO PARA CONECTAR PLANTAS, ANIMAIS E PESSOAS NA CIDADE DE VITÓRIA – ES

Ecological corridors are territorial strips that aim to reduce the impacts of fragmentation of ecosystems, restoring the interconnection between them, in order to facilitate the movement of species, enabling seed dispersal and gene exchange between isolated populations. The relevance of the theme lies in the contribution to sustainable urbanism, aligning with biophilia, with benefits for living beings, including humans, with better walking conditions, thermal and psychological comfort. The general objective of the work was to delineate an urban ecological corridor in the continental portion of the city of Vitória/ES, in order to connect three isolated Environmental Protection Zones and benefit their essential occupants: the human species, the flora and the fauna. Exploratory studies and field visits were conducted, supported by Urbanism and Ecology literature, based on the definition of the connection axes and the recomposition of road profiles. The result achieved is an ecological corridor adapted to the existing roads, from the intensification of forestation and the implementation of gantries and elevated walkways for animal crossings. The insertion of aerial crossings and biodiversity corridors will bring a differential to the quality of life and ecological diversity for the local population.

Computer Mediated Automatic Detection of Pain-Related Behavior: Prospect, Progress, Perils

Pain is often characterized as a fundamentally subjective phenomenon; however, all pain assessment reduces the experience to observables, with strengths and limitations. Most evidence about pain derives from observations of pain-related behavior. There has been considerable progress in articulating the properties of behavioral indices of pain; especially, but not exclusively those based on facial expression. An abundant literature shows that a limited subset of facial actions, with homologs in several non-human species, encode pain intensity across the lifespan. Unfortunately, acquiring such measures remains prohibitively impractical in many settings because it requires trained human observers and is laborious. The advent of the field of affective computing, which applies computer vision and machine learning (CVML) techniques to the recognition of behavior, raised the prospect that advanced technology might overcome some of the constraints limiting behavioral pain assessment in clinical and research settings. Studies have shown that it is indeed possible, through CVML, to develop systems that track facial expressions of pain. There has since been an explosion of research testing models for automated pain assessment. More recently, researchers have explored the feasibility of multimodal measurement of pain-related behaviors. Commercial products that purport to enable automatic, real-time measurement of pain expression have also appeared. Though progress has been made, this field remains in its infancy and there is risk of overpromising on what can be delivered. Insufficient adherence to conventional principles for developing valid measures and drawing appropriate generalizations to identifiable populations could lead to scientifically dubious and clinically risky claims. There is a particular need for the development of databases containing samples from various settings in which pain may or may not occur, meticulously annotated according to standards that would permit sharing, subject to international privacy standards. Researchers and users need to be sensitive to the limitations of the technology (for e.g., the potential reification of biases that are irrelevant to the assessment of pain) and its potentially problematic social implications.