End of Capitalism, End of Humanity?

Abstract

The emergence of biogenetics and the digitalization of our daily lives is an explosive combination, but are the latest tendencies of global capitalism really announcing a new era in which not only the market economy but also the very notion of being-human will be rendered obsolete? Should we celebrate these tendencies as a prospect of radical emancipation, or are they harbingers of a society in which humans will be reduced to cogs in a digital machine? This text tries to move beyond such simple alternatives by way of raising more basic questions: What do we mean by "human" when we speak of posthumanity? Is the vision of posthumanity a realistic prospect or an ideological dream? How can we think about today's postcapitalist forms of domination?