Ethical Processing Units

Levinas. He's a dude. Or, he was a dude; he's dead now, just another name in the long list of them that people like me use to sometimes convey a complex point - a sort of shorthand to be used when in appropriate company - sometimes these names are used to cover a lack - we aren't as well read as we think or act like we are, so we use well-known names we're somewhat familiar with to try and avoid admitting that we can't get into the details - and sometimes we use these names simply to impress the unwashed (or seemingly so) masses. From here on out, forget that I ever said (typed) that name.

Fuck you.

That's right, I said it. I've always imagined that someday I'd find myself in the position of having an audience, having a platform, having the assurance (or at least the impression) that I could speak, and “the world” would listen. That's stupid. That's narcissistic. That's retarded. Nevertheless, that's my objet a - “having my voice heard.” I never really stopped to think about what I'd say when I finally achieved this great feat (maybe because I knew, deep down, that I'd never achieve it, maybe because I'm too stupid to think that far ahead even in my fantasies), until recently. A few months ago Dave

Theory Underground

asked me to think that far ahead. I drew a blank. I figured it out tonight.

Fuck you.

That's what I'd say if the world was listening.

Why?

Who gives a shit?

Clearly I do; I'm the asshole sitting here writing this on my phone at midnight in a hotel in Fargo.

Tonight Will The British CameraMan With Good Teeth Who Happens To Be Much More Than A CameraMan (I know, it’s a mouthfull, we’re trying to find a solution to this problem of The Name) and I talked about The Chip, the human brain-computer interface technology that'll be here before any of us are ready for it - save the few people who actually think data collection and the population control it facilitates is a good thing, and the Psychoanalysis perverts - and we came upon a horrifying truth. Once we have technology that opens up interiority to external scrutiny, we'll be able to “solve” analysis.

Now, many people (wink wink) reading this will miss the point I'm trying to make here, and maybe that clarification can be found later in this piece, or in the ongoing conversation that it's part of, but if you didn't really get that, just try and go with the flow, because the real conversation happens after that point.

The seemingly flippant "Fuck you" is not mere adolescent rebellion; it's a desperate cry for the preservation of the human. It’s the primal scream against the encroaching tide of a technologically-induced unity that threatens to erase the very conditions of possibility for human subjectivity and ethical life. This unity, facilitated by technologies like The Chip, promises a world without conflict, misunderstanding, or the anxieties of the unknown Other. But this promise is a Faustian bargain, a deal that trades the essence of our humanity for a sterile, machinic existence.

The Self is not a pre-existing entity but emerges through a dialectical process, a constant negotiation with what it is not. This constituent negativity, the inherent contradiction between the Self and the Other (and thus, the Identity, as the identity is rooted in the world of the Other), is not a flaw to be overcome, but the very engine of self-consciousness. We become who we are through the struggle to understand and be understood, through the friction and resistance encountered in the face of the other's difference. If this difference were to be abolished, if the interiority of the Other were rendered completely transparent and accessible, as The Chip threatens to do, then the dialectic collapses. There is no longer a not-I against which to define the I. The self, deprived of its defining opposition, dissolves into a homogenous, undifferentiated mass. We cease to be subjects and become mere nodes in a network, cogs in a machine.

This is where the ethical dimension, hinted at with the discarded name of Levinas, becomes crucial. The encounter with the Other is not, and should not be, easy. It is inherently risky, a leap into the unknown. The Other is not simply a reflection of ourselves, nor is the other a puzzle to be solved. The Other is an infinity, a source of constant surprise and challenge, a face that calls us to responsibility without offering any guarantee of reciprocity. This ethical call, this burden of responsibility, is not a constraint on our freedom but the very ground of it. We become free, we become Human, through the choices we make in response to this call, through the risks we take in engaging with the Other on their own terms, without the assurance of complete understanding or control.

A world where The Chip makes interiority transparent eliminates this risk. It transforms the ethical encounter into a computational process, a calculation of optimal outcomes based on complete information. There is no longer any need for trust, for faith, for the leap into the unknown that characterizes genuine Human interaction. Ethics becomes a matter of following pre-programmed rules, a set of regulations designed to minimize friction and maximize efficiency. This is the essence of the machinic existence that is headed our way if we don't do something about it. It’s not about robots replacing humans; it is about humans becoming robots, acting according to pre-determined algorithms rather than engaging in the messy, unpredictable, and often painful process of ethical deliberation.

The horrifying prospect of "solving" psychoanalysis through such technology perfectly illustrates this point, if I've failed to do so with my wishy-washy talk of Ethics. Psychoanalysis, at its heart, is a journey into the depths of the unconscious, a realm of hidden desires, repressed traumas, and unresolved conflicts. It is a process of exploration, of interpretation, of confronting the inherent opacity and contradictions of the human psyche. The analyst and the analysand embark on this journey together, navigating the treacherous waters of the unconscious with no guarantee of success. If The Chip were to render the unconscious transparent, making all thoughts and feelings readily accessible, the entire process would become meaningless. The very difficulty, the struggle to make sense of the fractured and often contradictory nature of our inner lives, is what gives psychoanalysis its transformative power.

The phrase More Human Than Human does not refer to a transcendence of human limitations, but to a descent into a sub-human state. It is the ultimate triumph of the machine, not in the form of external robots, but in the form of internally mechanized humans, operating according to pre-programmed routines, devoid of the negativity, the risk, and the ethical responsibility that constitute genuine human existence.

Fuck you is not an insult, but a desperate plea, a refusal to be assimilated, a declaration of the irreducible singularity of the human spirit in the face of a homogenizing technological tide. It is the affirmation of the messy, contradictory, and ultimately beautiful reality of being human, a reality that is worth fighting for, even – or especially – at midnight in a hotel in Fargo.