Sandra Meeuwsen (Bio)

Affective AI and the Cyborg

The keynote will explore Brian Massumi‘s affect theory alongside the thought of Donna Haraway and Bernard Stiegler on a ’cyborging‘ humanity. She will discuss:

• A Lacanian perspective questioning the symbolic position of both the ’natural‘ body and the ’artificial‘ in general — and ’cyborg‘ bodies in particular. The very distinction creates desire and lack, reciprocally. We either identify as ’still natural‘ — those who defend this notion in a rapidly changing world — or we accept technology as a given reality and forget our bodily roots in nature.

• Drawing on Giorgio Agamben’s philosophical archaeology, she will trace the birth of this distinction and, as such, the binary logic populating our current debate on AI. She will show how Stiegler articulated this line of thought more explicitly.

• She will address a crucial affective turn required to make sense of artificiality. As Lacan argued that we are structurally broken, which part of our personality do we draw upon when we condemn or welcome AI? The ongoing dance between the Symbolic and the Real continues to prevent us from finding a way through this confusing era. It is this structural ambiguity that we need to embrace in order to move forward. To this end, she will also draw on Julia Kristeva‘s thought on the political task of philosophy, moving beyond Lacanian discourse.

• The talk will conclude by actualising Haraway’s at once harsh and ludic analysis within a post-Lacanian framework.