Lecturer, Victoria University of Wellington
Contributor, Platypus, The CASTAC Blog
Research Interests
Cyborg Anthropology | Human-machine interaction | Japan | Robotics | Science and technology |
About Grant
Grant Jun Otsuki is a lecturer in cultural anthropology at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.
Contact
Contributions to Platypus, The CASTAC Blog
View all of Grant's posts on Platypus, The CASTAC Blog.
Anthropos beyond the Human
In their thoughtful provocation, Jon Bialecki and Ian Lowrie focus our attention on anthropos, and suggest that in transhumanists, anthropologists might find kindred spirits. Though our approaches and traditions may differ, we share “the same conceptual terrain.” Concerned as we all are about shifts in our ways of living and being in a “rapidly accelerating technological contemporary,” transhumanists and anthropologists may indeed have much to learn from each other about future forms of anthropos. But implied in their discussion is a convergence between “anthropos” and “human.” What is at stake in making this equation? Transhumanists and anthropologists alike are tuned into the future of the human, but we should also remember that futures are never very evenly distributed. My work has focused on figuring out the contours of a similar problem space. My main ethnographic study was on a network of researchers in Japan who make what they call ningen-chūshin (read more...)