Human Precarity and Posthuman Ontology in the Anthropocene

Posthumanism as an ontological philosophy contemplates the nature of reality and existence, and the notions of being and becoming in a techno-modified world. Posthumanism displaces man from his privileged position as the master of his universe and generates multiplicity of interpretations and theoretical perspectives. Technological and evolutionary theories of human enhancement and radical life-extension, constructed around the idea of the posthuman, position man firmly within his material milieu where he co-habits with other non-human life forms. The traditional notion of the human body as a sacrosanct entity has given way to the concept of the human as an embodied and embedded being. Technological posthumanism debilitates the grand narrative of anthropocentricsm and celebrates plurality, hybridity and diversity as the defining traits of future humanity. In the age of the Anthropocene, humans have evolved into a geological force directly influencing and determining the fate of millions of non-human species. The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the vulnerability of the corporeal frame hastening our march towards the posthuman era as we seek ways to transcend the limitations of our body with the aid of technology. The proposed paper tries to understand how the pandemic has reconstituted traditional notions of the corporeal self, human subjectivity and identity in the age of the Anthropocene. The paper would also consider technology as an ontological manifestation, in the specific context of the pandemic, focusing on its potential to re-engineer 'human' in anticipation of the posthuman future.