Sixteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

In “A Radio Speech” from 1947, Bertolt Brecht expresses the hope that in the automated age a type of person may emerge not who rejects machines, but who resists being changed by them. “What matters most,” he writes, “is that a new human type should now be evolving, at this very moment, and that the entire interest of the world should be concentrated on his development….It is my belief that he will not let himself be changed by machines but will himself change the machine; and whatever he looks like he will above all look human.” This statement could be interpreted as Brecht’s vision of a post-tech human, a figure who destroys her roots in the oligarchic technocracy and embraces a mastery of technology toward the common benefit of humankind. But this is not the direction we have moved in since. Drawing on the work of rhetoricians Kenneth Burke and Richard Weaver, I’ll consider the recent rhetoric of machine ethics, popular science, and posthuman theory to illustrate a cultural orientation toward a powerlessness that grows in step with technological advancement. Drawing on Brecht’s theoretical and dramatic writing and the work of technology and culture critics like Jaron Lanier and Evgeny Mozorov, I will argue for a cultural transition to a stance of post-tech humanism that embraces technological advancement in service of social democracy and freedom.