Abstract Sex: Philosophy, Bio-Technology and the Mutations of Desire

by Luciana Parisi

Astract Sex investigates the impact of advances in contemporary science and information technology on conceptions of sex.
Evolutionary theory and the technologies of viral information transfer, cloning and genetic engineering are changing the way we think about human sex, reproduction and the communication of genetic information.

Abstract Sex presents a philosophical exploration of this new world of sexual, informatic and capitalist multiplicity, of the accelerated mutation of nature and culture.

Genres: Philosophy, Feminism, Theory, Science, Gender, Sexuality, Nonfiction

209 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2004

Reviews

[Christopher Timmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Am I too far gone? I leaned into my screen and shouted a few times over with glee and incredulity the words, "microfeminine particle-forces". I roamed my house a few times through shouting these words happily. Even better was that the author concluded discussing microfeminine warfare, which to my understanding is how abstract sex can operate by. Abstract sex being, the reterritorialization of one strata's mode of generation onto another (bacterial cloning to biodigital cloning). Abstract sex is the abstraction of often ancient methods of generation towards operation on a hypernatural plane, that is, where a specific natural process can be observed and processed to shorter durations and better controlled outcomes -- Artificial evolution, organ growing, etc. But it does not just operate within these contained environments, it's the implications it presents, the implication of human cloning, for example, is the bacterial composing the human in perhaps dangerous retrocausal relations. It is a symbiosis between two strata that unleashes something completely new -- as Lynn Margulis discovered about eukaryotic cells.

Abstract sex escapes the patriarchal attempt in this new interaction between strata to disentangle completely from matter via the cybernetic, utilizing masochistic methods. It is not a society of pleasure, wherein repression clamps down on "divergent" flows to direct it towards continuing disciplinary structures. It operates instead by "microfeminine warfare" (again, I can't overstate how great this sounds), which disrupts the pleasure principle in favoring non-climactic, and thus, divergent desires. Modern-day capitalism has already done this, no longer repressing our desires but multiplying them into rhizomatic entanglements across multiple areas of life. Microfeminine warfare is a blurring between the organic and inorganic, non-resisting, I'm tempted to say, accomodating. I'm not sure what it's supposed to look like exactly in practice, besides that it seems related to masochism and the possibility of new desires, as well as being related to Deleuze's (lots here) notion of "Becoming-woman", which some feminists apparently disagree with because it generally seems to attack the notion of any fixed identity, and understands "woman" as an active merging force, symbiotic.

Would have to read more Deleuze, Margulis, Bergson, and Spinoza to understand this text better, but an interesting book with some creative jargon at times, even has a diagram of different strata in the beginning.

[micha cardenas]

brilliant analysis the implications of biotech on sex and gender, brings together deleuze and irigaray. some of the best writing on gender and sexuality i've read in a long time, highly relevant to my work. Parisi's writing provides tons of inspiration.

[burntpic · Rating 2 out of 5]

Краткое саммари:
Секс и желание трансформируются под влиянием технологий. Биотехнологии меняют основу желания. Виртуальные отношения, связь с ИИ, гибрид био + тех = "абстрактный секс". Нечеловеческие акторы (алгоритмы, роботы, экосистемы данных) в формировании желания - камень в антропоцентричный огород. Биотех превращает все в товар, биг дату. Секс - поток данных, желание - программируемый паттерн. Редактирование генома или нейроимпланты - путь к новым формам влечения.

Технологии лишь создают новые объекты, которые обещают заполнить нехватку, но лишь усиливают её. Генетическая модификация для идеального тела — попытка обрести воображаемую целостность, но даже киборг будет страдать от невозможности стать полноценным, т.к. недостаток - основа субъективности. Весь этот техно-капиталистический фетишизм может обернуться новым символическим порядком, где мы гонимся за идеальной днк из рекламы, цифровое бессмертие доступно лишь элите по вип-тарифу, а рабочий класс апгрейдится на китайском ПО за свой счёт.

[Sigrid]

Hypernature, microfeminine warfare, trade—what's not to love? I've been thinking about cloning and other forms of non-sexual reproduction in my art, sometimes in relation to the readymade and elsewhere with other connections less relevant here, and Parisi's work here feels indispensable to that project... not 100% sure that it will go anywhere, but I thought this book was fun, regardless.

Despite the fact that Parisi addresses some misgivings, toward the end, around anyone's ability to 'become the subject woman'—misgivings that could hardly be surprising to encounter in the feminist climate of 2004—her amplification of D/G's 'becoming-woman' feels useful from the perspective of contemporary gender politics: insofar as we still need a materialist theory of trans identity, I think there are some threads worth picking up in Abstract Sex. In any event, for me the concept of microfeminine warfare immediately recalls the ways that queer/trans/gnc people 'reproduce' through shifting affinities, glances, parodic appropriation, love, joyful encounters (Spinozist and otherwise), and so on. And thinking about how the generic recombination of differences ('abstract sex') ties us to the bacterial strata, where 'the most ancient forms of sex' take place, is really just kind of cool. Moreover it was affirming to read about (queer) microfeminine warfare as a kind of ineradicable, subterranean milieu that precedes and exceeds the strata that try and capture and employ sex for their own aims—because that's how it is, and it's amazing, and no moral panic can do anything to slow it down. The book's last lines: "Abstract sex is seeping into your everyday life. Trade is the only option."

*Recommended for fans of the xenofeminist manifesto who wanted more out of a 'movement' that never materialized~

[E čtvrtnik · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an astral craftsman, I would draw on my previous expertise with Plutonian languages to praise this book for keeping open the tunnel beneath the post-babel pandemonium and allowing a few lucid adventurers to travel without obstruction. My mind is blown. I can't write. I don't know what to do with my life, but I really want a PhD in occult theory, transhumanism and abstract sexuality now. Get it, read it, and when it falls apart from overlove, take the pages and frame them. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO UNDERSTAND A WORD I SAY.

[Lou]

Ultimately gave me what I want which is, in a way, one of the main points of the book.

[LaanSiBB]

Classic transhuman interaction

[Rebecca (赫力)]

i would do anything for dataiba