Editor's Note

The present volume is dedicated to the 2nd Edition of the National Conference “Human Nature, Culture, Technology (NUCT 2021)” with the theme: Life and Death in the Context of the COVID-19 Crisis—A Posthumanist Approach. The volume provides a really exciting opportunity for the reader, with respect to the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic, analyzed in the posthuman paradigm, to take into account the importance of posthumanist critiques, at a time of great changes at the existential level. The contributors to this volume include several scholars from various fields of analysis including philosophy, ethics, medicine, technology, politics, culture, and communication—and their reflections in the critical posthumanism parameters, with regard to how life and death (both at a human and non-human level) was and still is managed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Posthumanism and the New Ethics of Medical Practice—Epidemiology as the New Deontological Paradigm

In the context of the COVID19 pandemic, during last year all public attention has been focused on Medicine. Epidemiology is no longer just one medical specialty among many others, but became the main paradigm and the unique background of medical science. The individual pacient has turned into the collective pacient. Medical policies are not centered on the pacient anymore, but on its social group. In this article I will try to show how the characteristics of medical practice changed since the pandemic began and which are the deontological implications of such changes. With a short introduction on the medical policies proposed by the WHO during the last decades, I wish to underline the recent history of medical practice and its obvious turning point occasioned by the pandemic. Once the new bioethical vantage points are set, I wonder to which extent posthumanist philosophy foresaw this new deontological paradigm. Having Rosi Braidotti`s “The Posthuman” as my starting point, I maintain that medical doctors no longer practice on a humanist background, but with a sort of commitment that goes beyond the individual. However, this is not an antihumansit pledge, because contemporary medical doctors still adhere to certain humanist principles. As it so often happens, we will be left with even more questions. If the pacient is no longer the individual, but the group of individuals, which is the nature of a symptom and how should we decipher its meaning? How would a new medical science look like if we are to build it not on a human but on a posthuman biology?

What Can the EU's Response to the COVID Crisis Tell us About our Values?

Overall, the EU's response to the COVID crisis can be said to have been one of the most ineffective in the world, overshadowed only by the catastrophic response of the US and Brazil (at least on a per capita basis). Although, one can argue more about the effectiveness or morality of the measures, I would nevertheless, like to take a step back from these discussions and consider what the non-pharmacological interventions the EU has imposed reveal about our values. The main question is: What was the axiological framework on which the EU interventions were based? To provide an answer, I will compare the EU approach with South Korea’s approach in dealing with the pandemic. The former’s approach is a traditional approach, which mostly avoids the use of advanced data analysis and predictive analysis, focusing mainly on restricting free movement through social distancing and quarantine. This is complemented by tests, which are primarily diagnostic. The latter makes full use of the most modern methods, attempting to parallel the minimisation of the use of traditional methods of restricting movement with the minimisation of deaths caused by the virus. After a more detailed presentation of the methodologies of the two sides, I will consider what these modern methods entail and what would have to be sacrificed to use them. This will reveal that giving up confidentiality is the main cost that the European community should have offered in exchange for following the South Korean path. The analysis of the data will show how privacy and other values, such as economic prosperity, education, equality, freedom, mental health and ultimately life itself, were affected by the two strategies. Based on the evidence from the analysis I will conclude that privacy is more important to the average European than any of the other proposed values, including life itself.

The Experience Created by the Social and Cultural Context Constructed by Video Games: A Digitization of Life and Death

Appling the Gadamer’s filter on video games, reveals that they support an intimate connection with real life, built on basic mimesis of simple and, at the same time, coherent and meticulous realities. Video games are not intrinsically real-world escapism but generate a concrete, contextualized life experience that is ultimately connected to social and material realities (Spiridon, 2013, pp. 64-65). Moreover, experiences gained through video games can contribute, same as television, cinema or novels do, to the creation of perceptions that influence the way people relate to various aspects of life. The pivot of this study focuses on the experience created by the social, cultural context, captured by video games, which allow players to make choices of "life and death". Such choices are even more important in the current pandemic context when some people seem not to clearly understand the potential consequences on their own protection or even own survival. The aim of the research is to open a path for a better understanding of how a video game appreciated by critics and very popular among players, especially during the pandemic (DayZ, produced by Bohemia Interactive in 2013) explores social, cultural issues that can create a favorable context for players to be better equipped for the reality of everyday life. The study will include, besides the analysis of the video game itself, wikis, and walkthroughs, the views of other researchers and professionals working in the video game industry.

Swiping, Surfing, Distancing. On Web-Connected Love

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the main features of the technology-mediated communication concerning online love affrairs. The thesis I will support is that emotional connections via internet are framed into a new discourse on personal identity and alterity, creating a new perspective on the culture of intimate relationships, with specific attitudes, behaviours and values, drawing new guidelines of emotivity, methaphors and concepts we use to express our feelings and thoughts. Thus, I will briefly investigate the phenomenon of online love datings as part of a media entartainment culture, the problem of intercorporeality and the paradox of choosing partners on the internet, together with their implications on the ethics of care, intimacy and togetherness. Away from giving verdicts or announcing the end of authentic communication, I will develop a conceptual framework to aid in exploring theoretical traits, combining interdisciplinary approaches in order to reflect them in online love-dating interactions. In the conclusion section, I will enlight on how we can succesfully develop a strong and reliable connection with a romantic partner, using the elements mentioned below, focusing on combining online and offline practices in order to nurture a mature and meaningfull relationship in the age of shifting communication paradigms.

An Official Matter: Life and Death During the Sanitary Crisis. Semiotics and Philosophy in Times of Pandemic

Over a million cases of infected people, thresholds and dramatic records constantly exceeded, the voices of the State and of the civil society covering each other in search of validation, an alienated and disoriented population – this is the general picture of a Romanian society trying, on one side, to understand a global phenomenon and, on the other side, to adapt to situations, norms and regulations that has not been encountered for generations. In an effervescent social, economic and political context, the Coronavirus pandemic tests the whole society and forces the State to react, both through concrete measures (rules, restrictions) and through education and awareness campaigns. The official messages transmitted by the State, through the media and in the form of commercials, advertisements, are subject to an evolution in visual and verbal aspect, which can be questioned both in terms of philosophical theories such as utilitarianism or social contract, and from the semiotic perspective of the meanings carried by these messages. How is the "common good" found in the education and awareness campaigns for wearing protective masks and for frequent sanitation and disinfection? And if Rousseau's "common good" is not fully visible in the mask that "can save your life," is the general goal of the government campaign one of a utilitarian nature? To what extent does the promise of the presence of pleasure and the absence of pain appear, as described by John Stuart Mill, in a campaign built on "saving lives" and "protecting others"? This research advances the proposition of a perception analysis of the meanings conveyed in the television commercials from the official awareness and education campaign regarding the Coronavirus pandemic, between March 2020 and January 2021, decanted in terms of basic semiotic and philosophical concepts and theories.

The Effects of Using Technology in the Human-Nature Relationship, in the Context of the Covid-19 Pandemic

This article aims to answer the question "has technology canceled a possible return to nature?". Provided that this pandemic has given everyone a lot of time to reflect, due to restrictions, all this time has been filled, even more, by the use of technology. There has indeed been talk of the connection between disease and the way in which humanity treats nature, but these have been findings devoid of a call to action. Instead, the time spent in front of the devices increased, in the attempt of people to fill in some way the free time they had at their disposal after work or school that took place, also, in front of a screen. The human-nature relationship was restricted to walks to the store or work, walking in the park being restricted in some respects. My proposal is to highlight both the positive and negative aspects of the use of technology during the past pandemic year. The complete lockdown, an event that completely shocked the whole world in which we live, revealed some aspects that were harder to notice, such as that nature does not need us, but we need it. However, I want to show that, although technology was the only pillar that helped us to maintain a more or less functional society, it also limited our closer observation of nature, and an awareness of its role. Among the hundreds of news, the daily check of the ever-increasing number of cases, the search for entertainment that would divert our attention from the situation we are in, the distance from nature and the closure in a space more and more distant from the surrounding reality, increasingly fictional, it affects man's relationship with nature.

Analyzing the Development and Implementation Posibility of the Robotic Ambulance for COVID Pacients

During Covid pandemic, the automation, robotization and digitization were accelerated, but the results do not meet all expectations. Telecommunications have undeniable successes, but in other sectors the benefits of technological advancement are still missing. The "online school" and the "online procedures" of some institutions have been partially upgraded, but things have been as well in other activities which were less suitable for automation, robotization and digitization. The healthcare sector was highly stressed in the context of COVID-19 crisis, but it has not fully benefited from the advantages of the robotic vehicles. Life and death during COVID-19 crisis has affected most people, either as victims or actors in a reality that took them unprepared. Ambulances have been challenged by events which were not always managed successfully. They must respond promptly to save the lives of those who call for help. Staff in this sector are often overworked and highly stressed. The simultaneous existence of robotic ambulances that can take over some of the victims who need medical services could be both a good idea and a life-saving measure. The paper proposes implementation of existing technology for optimizing ambulance services with robotic tools and suitable for digitization. In this way, complementary solutions can be generated for increasing the quality of life, respectively for mitigating the emotional and physical stress when it comes to near death experiences. When on-site complex resuscitation and first aid maneuvers are not necessary, being required only the lifting and transportation procedures by a medical robot, the ​​use of a robotic vehicle mitigates the ambulance’s personnel from stresses. These solutions are complementary, leading to an improvement in life’s quality.

The Posthumanist Concepts of Life and Death, From the Viewpoint of Paul Ricoeur’s Hermeneutics of the Self. A Critical Analysis

How can the human self face the paradigm shifts that posthumanism mobilizes? We intend to answer this question setting out from the concept of Paul Ricoeur’s hermeneutics of the self. According to this hermeneutics, the self is capable of action, self-reflection, called by Ricoeur “attestation”, and of the fact that it can be accompanied by the moral values acquired. We will notice that Ricoeur’s hermeneutics of the self can be reduced to an ontology of the self deeply engraved by three dialectics, self-reflection, identity, and the relationship between the self-as-another and anothers-as-self. We will subsequently infer that the self holds ontologically the condition of being a self constrained by the manner of being as orientation. This condition represents the fundamental limit of consciousness which, consequently, contributes significantly to an epistemlogy of the consciousness that sketches out the project of a hermeneutics which places both language and consciousness at the centre of the process of differentiation between the posthumanist narratives about life and death.

From Extinction to the Recreation of the Living World: the Creative Dimension of Fatigue in the Posthuman Project

In this article, I will follow the posthuman vision to describe the contemporary era. As Rosi Braidotti illustrates, this moment is defined by a continuous balance between optimism and anxiety. Therefore, we are talking about a culture of fatigue that is more and more present today. On this subject, we find three fundamental forms: theory fatigue, post-work fatigue, and democracy fatigue. I will make a presentation of all these forms, proving that the current capitalist paradigm leads us to a series of crises. Whether we are talking about the health crisis caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, an economic crisis, or an ecological crisis, the current situation is problematic. However, the position promoted by the posthuman project starts from these appearances and tries to develop an affirmative conception. As Braidotti illustrates, this aspect does not mean dismissing the crises in the world. On the contrary, we are talking about understanding the problematic aspects as an appeal for change. Therefore, in the model developed by Braidotti, we encounter a posthuman and post-anthropocentric turn that defines this model of thinking. Then, we observe an extension of the dimension of "us", which eliminates any forms of discrimination. Based on such premises, new disciplines are developed, illustrating the posthuman vision. Consequently, in the last part of the article, I will describe the posthuman project, to illustrate how these crises could be eliminated.