BEYOND MORTALITY

Beyond Mortality Mixed Media on Paper 30 x 42 cm 2015

 

 

I know the title Beyond Mortality sounds serious and huge...and it is both of these! And, where did the idea come from you might ask?

 

It has come directly from thinking about my own reactions to my university research. I am delving into some pretty hefty topics, that certainly do make me wonder. One of these topics is existential risk posed by emerging technologies...the kind of risk that could cause humanity's annihilation. An associated topic is artificial intelligence and potential threats posed by self-learning entities, seen and unseen. All of this spills over into topics such as transhumanism, singularity and posthuman futures. There's an Australian transhumanism site that you might like to look at HERE. As with most things, there's both positive and negative possibilities associated with many of these topics.

 

BEYOND MORTALITY

You can see where the Beyond Mortality title has come from! Yes, thinking about the future, the role of technological 'enhancements' of the human and what 'existence' might mean. The obvious thought that comes to mind is that 'beyond mortality' means immortality. I suspect it might be, strangely, much more complicated than that...

 

In Beyond Mortality I have taken the Christian idea of ascension, coupled it with binary code, and cosmological time and space.  But, the idea of ascension is not only a Christian one. It is shared by a many religions and spiritual beliefs, including Judaism and Islam. My painting also plays with ideas of resurrection, which is what the binary code is 'instructing'. By combining ascension and resurrection with technology's 'promise' of transhuman and/or posthuman futures I'm playing with questions about existence, re-existence [even de-extinction] and mortality. Needless to say there's no resolution or even a stationary viewpoint, but rather, a intellectual and imaginational 

discursiveness that has stimulated my visual 'play'.

 

And, for regular readers...yes...Beyond Mortality is also one of my untethered landscapes. Even the mountain is unleashed from wherever it came from, Galgotha, Calvary or even 'Metaphor'! Yet, the ribbon of colourful binary code creates a landscape-like contour in space, maybe suggestive of new types of scapes where downloaded consciousness-es might 'exist'? The ribbon also seems like it's giving directions, making a pathway...

I wonder if once we are on the path...are there places to get off, make detours, see other directions?

 

On that kind of sobering note....
Cheers!
Kathryn
www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com  

AD INFINITUM?

                                                 Ad Infinitum Oil on linen 50 x 50 cm

So, will life continue ad infnitum?

Ad infinitum is a Latin phrase meaning without end, without limit, never ending, to infinity.

We know that human life started but a blip ago, when compared with the history of the universe. Yet, all of existence could come under the title of life....couldn't it? I suspect that the majority of human beings believe that human existence... now that it is here manifested in us thinking, breathing, bipeds...will continue ad infinitum. It's a tad scary to think otherwise! But, it depends in what form the ad finitum existence takes.

To ensure the survival and continuance of the human race, are we propelling ourselves towards an 'existence' which muddies the word life? As we deal with seemingly ever increasing ecological and environmental issues, science seems to be proposing a kind of post-human existence which mixes us with machines. Drum roll.....cyborgs! 

So, if we annihilate food producing land, contaminate oceans and air, destroy waterways...we can still exist! We can exist as cyborgs, who presumably are 'fed' by some kind of self replicating nanobot, injected at 'birth', to supply sustenance. These nanobots could be programmed to take our taste sensations from 'Mother's Milk' to grown up foods. The 'sensation' could be enhanced by watching re-runs of quaint old fashioned television shows like 'Master Chef'. These re-runs would be experienced via entertainment device implants.

Is this kind of continuation of life wishful or nightmarish thinking? Is it abdicating responsibility to sustaining and nurturing life as we know it now? Are environmental, economic and sustainability issues becoming so overwhelming that a cyborgian existence seems like a good alternative? Is it too hard to imagine another kind of 'mutation', where thinking, imagination, and creativity cause transformation and transcendence as a physcial and spiritual whole human being, with only minor accoutrements? Indeed, as a cyborg a 'person' could live forever...ad finitum! The individual lives forever! But, what about the human race? 

The merging of human and machine is called singularity. Last year I attended a presentation, by academic and clinical psychologist Dr. Glen Slater, where he explained that for some people singularity is an ultimate goal. He also described how reliance on technology, whilst beneficial in many areas, is also 'prepping' us for this merging of machine and human. Yes, artificial limbs, implants, pace makers, IUDs, etc are all helpful, even life saving devices. But, when there are suggestions that we can download our memories, possibly mixed with another's, into a new 'self' created from stem cells grown from our skin, 'life' gets interesting and peculiar! But, is it an inevitable phase of evolution? To understand the gravity of this question please listen to this TED talk ' 'Will Our Kids Be A Different Species' by Juan Enriquez, a leading world authority on the economic and political impacts of the life sciences. It's a great presentation.

A post human state where 'we' might be cyborgs and/or a 'different species' involves a complex mixture of various types of technologies. But, is it inevitible? Worringly, Enriquez pointed out that since 2000 there has been a 78% increase in autism. I am not sure if this includes across the spectrum from aspergers to severe autism or just the latter. Whatever it is, it is significant. From my experience many people who fall in the autism spectrum have a great affinity with technology. Indeed, they prefer to relate to their gadgets, whether it's a camera [sorry cameras-they like to collect!], computers and other devices. But, have you noticed we are all [well an increasingly proportion of people] relating to devices in a way which is akin to emotional attachment. But, as we relate to the inanimate, what happens to our reltaionships with the animate...and indeed including our self?

Regular readers will know, from my last post, that I attended the University of Queensland's Dean of Medicine's Lecture given by Prof. Michael Merzenich, Professor Emeritus of Neuroscience, University of California at San Francisco: Chief Scientific Officer, Posit Science. I first came across Prof. Merzenich in the fabulous book by Dr. Norman Doidge, The Brain That Changes Itself. With this lecture in mind, I think it's interesting that in his TED presentation Enriquez talks about 'rapid brain evolution' in regards to the trajectory things like the statistics on autism are perhaps suggesting.

I could go on. It is a fascinating issue to think about.

PAINTING AD INFINITUM

In my new painting 'Ad Infinitum?' [above] I have used my much loved transcultural/religious tree-of-life, to suggest ongoing life forces across time. The circles seems to pulse and vibrate. The slightly changed hues in the colours, suggest tansformations and adaptions. Yet, the tree's 'vascular' qualities hold onto life systems. If existence is an ongoing rhythm of expansion and implosion, where does it place human life? Maybe we are destined to be half machine, half human...but then maybe not? Or, maybe 'life' will continue without us at some point in the future? The phrase ad infinitum does not seem to allude to a beginning...maybe life is a series of ad infinitum beginnings? Maybe some kind of a priori concept holds the clue?

                                         Perpetual Beginning Oil on linen 80 x 120 cm
                                                               Previous post HERE 
NEWS

• My painting $oils Ain't $oils - Anymore is a finalist in the Scope Galleries Art and Environment Award, judged by Guy Abrahams of Climarte
• My Blog post Super Heroes was mentioned in Scientific American Science-Art Scumble

Cheers,
Kathryn
www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com