Aesthesis and Perceptronium: On the Entanglement of Sensation, Cognition, and Matter

257 Pages·2019·1.786 MB·English

by  Alexander Wilson

Aesthesis And PercePtronium
cAry Wolfe, series editor
51 Aesthesis and Perceptronium: On the Entanglement of Sensation,
Cognition, and Matter
Alexander Wilson
50 Anthropocene Poetics: Deep Time, Sacrifice Zones, and Extinction
David Farrier
49 Metaphysical Experiments: Physics and the Invention of the Universe
Bjørn Ekeberg
48 Dialogues on the Human Ape
Laurent Dubreuil and Sue Savage-R umbaugh
47 Elements of a Philosophy of Technology: On the Evolutionary History
of Culture
Ernst Kapp
46 Biology in the Grid: Graphic Design and the Envisioning of Life
Phillip Thurtle
45 Neurotechnology and the End of Finitude
Michael Haworth
44 Life: A Modern Invention
Davide Tarizzo
43 Bioaesthetics: Making Sense of Life in Science and the Arts
Carsten Strathausen
42 Creaturely Love: How Desire Makes Us More and Less Than Human
Dominic Pettman
41 Matters of Care: Speculative Ethics in More Than Human Worlds
Maria Puig de la Bellacasa
40 Of Sheep, Oranges, and Yeast: A Multispecies Impression
Julian Yates
39 Fuel: A Speculative Dictionary
Karen Pinkus
38 What Would Animals Say If We Asked the Right Questions?
Vinciane Despret
37 Manifestly Haraway
Donna J. Haraway
36 Neofinalism
Raymond Ruyer
35 Inanimation: Theories of Inorganic Life
David Wills
34 All Thoughts Are Equal: Laruelle and Nonhuman Philosophy
John Ó Maoilearca
33 Necromedia
Marcel O’Gorman
32 The Intellective Space: Thinking beyond Cognition
Laurent Dubreuil
31 Laruelle: Against the Digital
Alexander R. Galloway
(continued on page 244)
AESTHESIS AND
PERCEPTRONIUM
On the Entanglement of Sensation,
Cognition, and Matter
AlexAnder Wilson
posthumanities 51
University of Minnesota Press
Minneapolis
London
Portions of chapter 4 were originally published as “Beyond the Neomaterialist
Divide: Negotiating between Eliminative and Vital Materialism with Integrated
Information Theory,” Theory, Culture, and Society 35, no. 7–8 [special issue on
the New Materialisms] (2018): 97– 116.
Copyright 2019 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher.
Published by the University of Minnesota Press
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upress.umn.edu
ISBN 978-1-5179-0659-7 (hc)
ISBN 978-1-5179-0660-3 (pb)
A Cataloging-in-Publication record for this book is available from the Library
of Congress.
Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper
The University of Minnesota is an equal- opportunity educator and employer.
UMP BmB 2019
this book is dedicAted to the memory of my fAther,
bArry Wilson
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments  ix
Introduction: Nonhuman Aesthetics  1
1 Chaos and Cognition  19
2 Determinism and Drift  65
3 Aesthesis and Prosthesis  109
4 Superposition and Time  155
Conclusion: Aesthesia in the Wild  207
Notes  217
Index  231
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
i could not even have begun to pursue this course of research
without the constant support and encouragement of several key people.
First, if it weren’t for the personal and philosophical generosity of Ber-
nard Stiegler and Brian Massumi, I would never have found the cour-
age. I must extend my sincerest gratitude to all my colleagues at Aar-
hus University; the comfortable postdoctoral position they offered can
be considered among the important “material causes” of this book. In
particular, I thank Jacob Wamberg for the many insightful discussions
and friendly philosophical debates we had in Aarhus, Johanna Seibt for
her constructive critiques of my work as it was developing, and all my AU
students who had the courage to delve into these speculative topics with
me. I would also like to express my appreciation for the brief yet decisive
conversations I had with the following fine thinkers, who each helped
me clarify certain points in the book during the writing process: Karen
Barad, Michel Bitbol, Gabriel Catren, Quentin Meillassoux, and Arkady
Plotnitsky. I thank Cary Wolfe, Douglas Armato, and Gabriel Levin, the
editorial board of the University of Minnesota Press, as well as my re-
viewers, for successfully steering me through. I thank Sara Baranzoni, Jo-
anna Dietzel, Benoit Dillet, Yuk Hui, Iwona Janicka, Anaïs Nony, Erin Sex-
ton, Alexandre St- Onge, Patrick Valiquet, Paolo Vignola, Paul Willemarck,
and Maria Witek for the helpful dialogues that, alas, happen all too rarely.
Finally, I am deeply grateful to Ricarda Bross for having been so support-
ive in the final push. Thanks.
. ix