Fourteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

Paradoxically, although the premise of the Anthropocene is the realization of human agency as geophysical force, the Anthropocene simultaneously implies the redundancy of human agency by placing it within an expanded timeframe. It invites us to think of the world without assuming humanity as a fixed component therein. This paper explores one manifestation of this paradox: the technofossil. ‘Technofossil’ is a term devised by geologists to refer to anthropogenic artefacts as disparate as Styrofoam, the Barbican, and artificial radionuclide deposits from atomic bombs. I assess how such artefacts are refashioned as geologically significant via the category of the fossil. What can the history of the fossil and its application to contemporary artefacts reveal about the way geological knowledge operates? I argue that the technofossil is a construct devised to reorient the epistemological and temporal foundations of contemporary geology. That is because those geologists who wish to achieve formal recognition of the Anthropocene as a geological unit must communicate the planetary agency of humans within a discursive framework that is operationally indifferent to such a concept. In a discipline that operates according to a timespan of 4.4 billion years, how does one illustrate the significance of a nuclear bomb detonation from 1945? The technofossil is a media apparatus with which non-geological phenomena (anthropogenic climate change, overpopulation, Gross Domestic Product) may be rendered legible according to the established protocol of disciplinary geology.