We have never been human

Abstract

This article proposes a critical analysis of the post-humanist thesis. Examining theories that are directly or indirectly associated with post-humanism, such as those of Leroi-Gourhan, Deleuze and Simondon, the author presents a story about organized complexity, technological mediation and human alienation. The article is divided in three parts. Exploring the thesis of technology as exteriorization of the organs, the first part analyzes posthumanism as a "theory of alienation without alienation" that systematically dissolves the boundaries between the human and the non-human, nature and culture, technology and society. Through an investigation of "machinic heterogenesis", it next argues that Deleuze’s "machinic opera" simply swamps the human into the magma of Life. Finally, focusing on the scientific logic of the techno-sciences, the article concludes by showing that cyber- and biotechnologies of late industrial capitalism are rewriting nature and transforming the relations between the human, life and the machine.