# The People Cheering for Humanity’s End  ## Metadata - Author:: [[Adam Kirsch]] - Full Title:: The People Cheering for Humanity’s End - Category: #articles - URL: https://apple.news/AB85f1CSSRn6IWTtIkOJyWA ## Highlights > With this declaration in [*The Order of Things*](https://bookshop.org/a/12476/9780679753353) (1966), the French philosopher Michel Foucault heralded a new way of thinking that would transform the humanities and social sciences. Foucault’s central idea was that the ways we understand ourselves as human beings aren’t timeless or natural, no matter how much we take them for granted. Rather, the modern concept of “man” was invented in the 18th century, with the emergence of new modes of thinking about biology, society, and language, and eventually it will be replaced in turn. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gpgqw48k8r6zgpnp883c3ypr)) > As Foucault writes in the book’s famous last sentence, one day “man would be erased, like a face drawn in the sand at the edge of the sea.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gpgr45znvevxaft0sr5xx46r)) > human ideas and institutions aren’t fixed ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gpgr4qfcaq6z2bwd0g3e660s)) > This view finds support among very different kinds of people: engineers and philosophers, political activists and would-be hermits, novelists and paleontologists. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gpgr6xzen1zv0r5q456ytsv9)) > The first is Anthropocene anti-humanism, inspired by revulsion at humanity’s destruction of the natural environment. The notion that we are out of tune with nature isn’t new; it has been a staple of social critique since the Industrial Revolution ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gpgr88zd8kybpytyp1qpmqzr)) > Like all truly radical movements, Anthropocene anti-humanism begins not with a political program but with a philosophical idea. It is a rejection of humanity’s traditional role as Earth’s protagonist, the most important being in creation. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gpgraydgh96r2d8d8mq325an)) > Transhumanism, by contrast, glorifies some of the very things that anti-humanism decries—scientific and technological progress, the supremacy of reason. But it believes that the only way forward for humanity is to create new forms of intelligent life that will no longer be *Homo sapiens* ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gpgrbfb5d7mq7gt0n3b98c3m)) > After all, unfulfilled prophecies have been responsible for some of the most important movements in history, from Christianity to Communism ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gpgrdm75es5p2rnp4tqd71xr)) > Since the late 1940s, humanity has lived with the knowledge that it has the power to annihilate itself at any moment through [nuclear war](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/11/poland-missile-strike-russia-nuclear-war/672175/). Indeed, the climate anxiety of our own time can be seen as a return of apocalyptic fears that went briefly into abeyance after the end of the Cold War. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gpgrg88fvwbs09h9hcntknzv)) > The Bible gives the negative commandment “Thou shalt not kill” as well as the positive commandment “Be fruitful and multiply,” and traditionally they have gone together. But if being fruitful and multiplying starts to be [seen as itself a form of killing](https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/01/becoming-parent-age-climate-crisis/604372/), because it deprives future generations and other species of irreplaceable resources, then the flourishing of humanity can no longer be seen as simply good. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gpgrpe3wwd4hgj8qr2cqxzrf)) > This understanding of humanity’s place outside and against the natural order is summed up in the term *Anthropocene*, which in the past decade has become one of the most important concepts in the humanities and social sciences. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gpgrt99n2zk7zpxkw9p3zqkz)) > The celebrated “antinatalist” philosopher David Benatar argues that the disappearance of humanity would not deprive the universe of anything unique or valuable. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gpgrttqy3jh94s49d7ng22g4)) > In the Anthropocene, nature becomes a reflection of humanity for the first time. The effect is catastrophic, not only in practical terms, but spiritually ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gpgrwc1tskgkgh7mpcacjen0)) > Humanists, even secular ones, assume that only humans can create meaning and value in the universe. Without us, we tend to believe, all kinds of things might continue to happen on Earth, but they would be pointless—a show without an audience ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gpgrxtbm00zspf26mk4swkb6)) > Humanity’s sole stewardship of reason is what makes transhumanists interested in “existential risk,” the danger that we will destroy ourselves before securing the future of the mind ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gpgrzdfg7ycmhdrt1m4tnrsg)) > The Israeli thinker Yuval Noah Harari refers to this idea as “Dataism,” describing it as a new religion whose “supreme value” is “data flow.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gpgs19wp6evngabameg4majz)) > The Dutch neuroscientist Randal Koene refers to such patterns as Substrate-Independent Minds, or SIMs, and sees them as the key to immortality ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gpgs4bfb7753sj4sggbv4xe0)) > Neither the sun nor death can be looked at with a steady eye, La Rochefoucauld said. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gpgs5jvjx6pmfknnnkmeq796)) > Anthropocene anti-humanism and transhumanism share this premise, despite their contrasting visions of the post-human future. The former longs for a return to the natural equilibrium that existed on Earth before humans came along to disrupt it with our technological rapacity. The latter dreams of pushing forward, using technology to achieve a complete abolition of nature and its limitations. One sees reason as the serpent that got humanity expelled from Eden, while the other sees it as the only road back to Eden. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gpgs6hs4tk7enw79w48htmbh)) # The People Cheering for Humanity’s End  ## Metadata - Author:: [[Adam Kirsch]] - Full Title:: The People Cheering for Humanity’s End - Category: #articles - URL: https://apple.news/AB85f1CSSRn6IWTtIkOJyWA ## Highlights > With this declaration in [*The Order of Things*](https://bookshop.org/a/12476/9780679753353) (1966), the French philosopher Michel Foucault heralded a new way of thinking that would transform the humanities and social sciences. Foucault’s central idea was that the ways we understand ourselves as human beings aren’t timeless or natural, no matter how much we take them for granted. Rather, the modern concept of “man” was invented in the 18th century, with the emergence of new modes of thinking about biology, society, and language, and eventually it will be replaced in turn. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gpgqw48k8r6zgpnp883c3ypr)) > As Foucault writes in the book’s famous last sentence, one day “man would be erased, like a face drawn in the sand at the edge of the sea.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gpgr45znvevxaft0sr5xx46r)) > human ideas and institutions aren’t fixed ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gpgr4qfcaq6z2bwd0g3e660s)) > This view finds support among very different kinds of people: engineers and philosophers, political activists and would-be hermits, novelists and paleontologists. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gpgr6xzen1zv0r5q456ytsv9)) > The first is Anthropocene anti-humanism, inspired by revulsion at humanity’s destruction of the natural environment. The notion that we are out of tune with nature isn’t new; it has been a staple of social critique since the Industrial Revolution ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gpgr88zd8kybpytyp1qpmqzr)) > Like all truly radical movements, Anthropocene anti-humanism begins not with a political program but with a philosophical idea. It is a rejection of humanity’s traditional role as Earth’s protagonist, the most important being in creation. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gpgraydgh96r2d8d8mq325an)) > Transhumanism, by contrast, glorifies some of the very things that anti-humanism decries—scientific and technological progress, the supremacy of reason. But it believes that the only way forward for humanity is to create new forms of intelligent life that will no longer be *Homo sapiens* ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gpgrbfb5d7mq7gt0n3b98c3m)) > After all, unfulfilled prophecies have been responsible for some of the most important movements in history, from Christianity to Communism ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gpgrdm75es5p2rnp4tqd71xr)) > Since the late 1940s, humanity has lived with the knowledge that it has the power to annihilate itself at any moment through [nuclear war](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/11/poland-missile-strike-russia-nuclear-war/672175/). Indeed, the climate anxiety of our own time can be seen as a return of apocalyptic fears that went briefly into abeyance after the end of the Cold War. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gpgrg88fvwbs09h9hcntknzv)) > The Bible gives the negative commandment “Thou shalt not kill” as well as the positive commandment “Be fruitful and multiply,” and traditionally they have gone together. But if being fruitful and multiplying starts to be [seen as itself a form of killing](https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/01/becoming-parent-age-climate-crisis/604372/), because it deprives future generations and other species of irreplaceable resources, then the flourishing of humanity can no longer be seen as simply good. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gpgrpe3wwd4hgj8qr2cqxzrf)) > This understanding of humanity’s place outside and against the natural order is summed up in the term *Anthropocene*, which in the past decade has become one of the most important concepts in the humanities and social sciences. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gpgrt99n2zk7zpxkw9p3zqkz)) > The celebrated “antinatalist” philosopher David Benatar argues that the disappearance of humanity would not deprive the universe of anything unique or valuable. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gpgrttqy3jh94s49d7ng22g4)) > In the Anthropocene, nature becomes a reflection of humanity for the first time. The effect is catastrophic, not only in practical terms, but spiritually ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gpgrwc1tskgkgh7mpcacjen0)) > Humanists, even secular ones, assume that only humans can create meaning and value in the universe. Without us, we tend to believe, all kinds of things might continue to happen on Earth, but they would be pointless—a show without an audience ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gpgrxtbm00zspf26mk4swkb6)) > Humanity’s sole stewardship of reason is what makes transhumanists interested in “existential risk,” the danger that we will destroy ourselves before securing the future of the mind ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gpgrzdfg7ycmhdrt1m4tnrsg)) > The Israeli thinker Yuval Noah Harari refers to this idea as “Dataism,” describing it as a new religion whose “supreme value” is “data flow.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gpgs19wp6evngabameg4majz)) > The Dutch neuroscientist Randal Koene refers to such patterns as Substrate-Independent Minds, or SIMs, and sees them as the key to immortality ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gpgs4bfb7753sj4sggbv4xe0)) > Neither the sun nor death can be looked at with a steady eye, La Rochefoucauld said. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gpgs5jvjx6pmfknnnkmeq796)) > Anthropocene anti-humanism and transhumanism share this premise, despite their contrasting visions of the post-human future. The former longs for a return to the natural equilibrium that existed on Earth before humans came along to disrupt it with our technological rapacity. The latter dreams of pushing forward, using technology to achieve a complete abolition of nature and its limitations. One sees reason as the serpent that got humanity expelled from Eden, while the other sees it as the only road back to Eden. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01gpgs6hs4tk7enw79w48htmbh))