Transcending Embodiment: Communication in the Posthuman Condition

Abstract

In Speaking into the Air: A History of the Idea of Communication, John Durham Peters argues that soul merger between humans is impossible because communication could never transcend the existential barrier between self and other. I contest Peters’ argument by constructing my own history starting from where Peters’ history leaves off. I show how disembodied communication is imagined in William Gibson's classic science fiction novel, Neuromancer, how cyberfeminist artists import embodiment into virtual realities, and how Ray Kurzweil's “the Singularity,” the notion that in our not-too-distant future humans will evolve into machines, makes posthuman communication a coming reality.

Acknowledgments

An abbreviated version of this paper was presented as a lecture at the University of Texas, Austin, on April 17, 2013. I would like to thank my colleague, Stephanie Schulte, for her insightful comments, and Monica Anne Moore for her editing skills.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Thomas S. Frentz

Department of Communication, University of Arkansas