“Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge, and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow.”
— Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1818)
Though it is rarely, if ever, characterized as such, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is one of the most seminal entries in “end-of-world,” post-apocalyptic fiction. The monster summoned by Dr. Victor’s intellectual curiosity represents an end of sorts. The book is about the creator surprised by the life of the created. The established order of creation is upended by this radical inversion and disruption of roles. Instead of just being a gothic horror story or a cautionary tale about scientific hubris, Frankenstein becomes a profound meditation on the potential end of the world as we know it – through our own actions.
The narrative — rich with theological pathos — is driven by themes that Dougald Hine’s new book, At Work in the Ruins, explores: the disruption of ‘nature,’ the collapse of human exceptionalism, the loss of (scientific) innocence, and the emergence of an existential threat…and the monster we must now meet at the end of time. That monster is artificial intelligence, climate collapse, and the ruination of the old myths of human splendor.
In a pivotal scene at the valley of Chamonix, Frankenstein’s monster laments its creator, mirroring the purportedly inanimate world accusing the Anthropos: “I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed.” The monster directly invokes the order of creation and its disruption, positioning himself as both a creation and a disrupter of the established order.
 |
 |
 |
 |
On Wednesday, September 11th at 3:00PM EDT, posthumanist thinker Bayo Akomolafe will be joined by author Dougald Hine, theologian Catherine Keller, and philosopher Alex Forrester at Saint James Place in Great Barrington, MA in spirited conversation around themes of artificial intelligence, the apocalyptic, and the future of being human.
To Be Thy Adam: Agency, Activism, and Collective Intelligence in the Ruins of the Human will further explore topics of agency (who has power), responsibility (how to even begin to talk about it), and the nature of resistance (reparations, commons, community ownership).
Please note: registration is for in-person attendance only. The conversation will be filmed and shared via our eNewsletter shortly after the event.
REGISTER TO ATTEND THE IN-PERSON EVENT
We hope you will join us for Bayo Akomolafe’s final event in the Berkshires during his time as the Schumacher Center’s W.E.B. Du Bois Fellow for Trans-Public Intellectualism.