The Techno-Cultural Übermensch: Hybridity and Disembodied Subjectivity in the Posthuman Age

The image of the Posthuman has commanded considerable critical attention and academic speculation in recent times. The prospects of radically transforming the human species with the interpolation of biotechnological and informatics technologies converge on the vision of the techno-modified, cognitively augmented human, shattering the multicultural perception of humanity as a civilisation structured in terms of race, class and gender. The prevalent techno-cultural discourse of the 21st century finds a vibrant manifestation in the phenomena of Transhumanism and Posthumanism. With the integration of technology into our lives, the self-concept of the humans has undergone a transformation giving rise to the concept of the posthuman - a techno-cultural Übermensch. This transformation becomes evident in space explorations, cybernetics, artificial intelligence and the creation of bionic organisms that have become the defining aspects of the techno-scientific age. It presages the erasure of the natural self and materializes at the point where human intelligence is theorized as being co-produced with machine intelligence. The transition of humans as a species is towards a more cognitively enhanced autonomous variant of its current state of being. It envisions a techno-modified cultural space where the traditional parameters of race, class and gender are thoroughly refurbished. Placing the concepts of transhumanism and posthumanism within the larger context of cultural and interdisciplinary studies, this paper investigates the notion of cultural identity, human hybridity and the erasure of embodiment that the new techno-modified cultural scape of the twenty-first century ushers in.