{"id":73410,"date":"2023-02-09T14:47:23","date_gmt":"2023-02-09T14:47:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alabamadigitalnews.com\/2023\/02\/alleviating-existential-angst-eurozine\/"},"modified":"2023-02-09T14:47:23","modified_gmt":"2023-02-09T14:47:23","slug":"alleviating-existential-angst-eurozine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alabamadigitalnews.com\/2023\/02\/alleviating-existential-angst-eurozine\/","title":{"rendered":"Alleviating existential angst | Eurozine"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Imagine a world in which Franz Kafka was free to write at leisure. Would the insurance officer\u2019s existential angst have been eased by not having to fit his stories in between handling compensation claims? Would life have been more satisfying had his \u2018bread and butter\u2019 been writing, as opposed to his free time being filled with more work?<\/p>\n

\u2018One morning Gregor Samsa woke in his bed from uneasy dreams and found he had turned into a large verminous insect\u2019 \u2013 the opening line to Metamorphosis<\/em> speaks to all those who feel trapped by societal constraints; the travelling salesman, dramatically transformed from one day to the next, can no longer feign fitting into a productive work scheme, a respectable home life.<\/p>\n

Recognizing modern slavery<\/h2>\n

The undeniably deadly fate of Gregor Samsa is a given, but his limited condition, kept in his room, could also be read as time to reflect \u2013 finally. Jean-Miguel Pire, writing on the otium<\/em>, highlights that contemplative time is still not valued enough. Despite ancient precedents where \u2018productive withdrawal\u2019 was associated with \u2018intelligence \u2026 as a human right\u2019, the new norm is what anthropologist David Graber, referenced by Pire, calls \u2018bullshit jobs\u2019, precarious positions where even time for eating and sleeping is sacrificed to work.<\/p>\n

\u2018All their time is vulnerable to being overtaken \u2026 Lives, barely worthy of the name, are completely vampirized by repetitive, meaningless micro tasks, which are no more than units of time sold to algorithms that are often the only point of contact for these unfortunate employees,\u2019 writes Pire. In defense of the overworked and underpaid, he concludes, \u2018long considered an aristocratic privilege, otium<\/em> should be seen for what it really is: a human right that could enable all of us to become the protagonists of our own lives\u2019 \u2013 Samsa\u2019s daydream.<\/p>\n

But where does time out for reflection come from when trying to make ends meet?<\/p>\n

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Photo by \u00a9 Hans Hillewaert via Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The values of a new sobriety<\/h2>\n

Downsizing tackles the conundrum of contemporary slavery from a different angle. Reducing outgoings and, therefore, needing less money can potentially result in gaining time, simultaneously saving resources.<\/p>\n

However, many experience existential fears over broad lifestyle changes. When it comes to energy consumption, restrictions are unpopular. \u2018In capitalist democracies, access to energy is expressed either as a right for the poorest or as a freedom for the richest. As such, efforts to green these democracies \u2026 give rise to fears of insecurity among some and, among others, the sense that their freedom and way of life are under threat,\u2019 writes Swen Ore.<\/p>\n

\u2018Could the principles of rationing offer an alternative to the current state of rising energy poverty amid ecological crises\u2019, Ore asks, offering a practical \u2018energy sobriety\u2019 solution. \u2018Under this system, the first kilowatt-hours consumed are inexpensive and prices then increase in stages. A progressive tariff thus guarantees that essential needs are met, while large consumers pay a premium. A well-known formula by political scientist and journalist Paul Ari\u00e8s sums up this approach: \u201cfree use and expensive misuse\u201d.\u2019<\/p>\n

Unlike the carbon footprint model, where big business coerced individuals into perceiving their consumption as the main negative impact on the environment, shifting the blame and shame away from industry, \u2018this principle can also be applied to businesses and industries based on their ecological, social and economic impacts in order to maintain and increase our collective power to live with dignity,\u2019 writes Ore.<\/p>\n

More-than-human intelligence<\/h2>\n

This notion of dignity for all is being expanded further, encompassing other entities also dependent on a healthy planet. \u2018The ingenuity and inventiveness of the natural world, its complexity and its collaboration, are becoming harder and harder to deny,\u2019 writes Jay Owens. \u2018Some people are even calling it intelligence.\u2019<\/p>\n

Octopuses, bees, slime molds, mushrooms \u2013 Owens describes the new protagonists of literature addressing more-than-human intelligence. In an interview, the British artist and technologist James Bridle, author of Ways of Being: Beyond Human Intelligence<\/em>, tells Owens,<\/em> \u2018We\u2019re all desperately searching for a way of making sense of a world that has clearly gone quite horrifically in the wrong direction, and is proceeding further in that direction all the time \u2026 And so there\u2019s a need for new knowledge and new understandings \u2026 It requires thought, it requires the construction of new models and metaphors of how the world works.\u2019<\/p>\n

Any writing on more-than-human intelligence would be incomplete without mentioning AI. Products such as ChatGPT, which propose algorithmic solutions to creative tasks, are receiving mixed reviews: the potential to relieve workers of certain jobs may open up time for more developed thinking but replacing the human touch is regarded with scepticism. Owens describes, for example, how \u2018\u201clongtermist\u201d thinkers fret over the risks of artificial general intelligence \u2026 Bridle describes this as \u201ca new Copernican trauma\u201d, \u201cwherein we find ourselves standing on a ruined planet, not smart enough to save ourselves, and no longer by any stretch of imagination the smartest living things around.\u201d Through ecology and technology both, we come to a new cosmology in which man is no longer the centre of the universe \u2013 which may be, for some, a shock.\u2019<\/p>\n

Owen adds: \u2018We live in a doubly existential moment. We have named an entire geological era, the Anthropocene, for our abilities to terraform the planet \u2013 and yet we fear that we are unable to terraform our own culture enough to make it compatible with sustaining life.\u2019 In seeking dominance over other aspects of the natural world, we, humans, have forced a division. Perceiving everything extraneous to the self as other has led to a sense of control, which can easily pivot from intended security to feelings of insecurity. We have never been nor will we ever be impervious. But how we handle that awareness is open to interpretation.<\/p>\n

\u2018The ultimate gift of this more-than-human thinking might be to make us more humane,\u2019 concludes Owen. Indeed, a definite boon in the new sense of interconnectivity might be that we no longer need feel so isolated. Perhaps another level of the existential angst in Kafka\u2019s Metamorphosis<\/em>, the travelling-salesman-turned-insect unable to communicate, is on the verge of being better understood.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Before writing this editorial, I attempted to run an AI writing trial. Perhaps I could have freed up my time for open contemplation. But on attempting to create an account, I received this notification: \u2018ChatGPT is at capacity right now\u2019. Back to the drawing board for now.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Imagine a world in which Franz Kafka was free to write at leisure. Would the insurance officer\u2019s existential angst have been eased by not having to fit his stories in between handling compensation claims? Would life have been more satisfying had his \u2018bread and butter\u2019 been writing, as opposed to his free time being filled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":73411,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alabamadigitalnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73410"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alabamadigitalnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alabamadigitalnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alabamadigitalnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alabamadigitalnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alabamadigitalnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alabamadigitalnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alabamadigitalnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alabamadigitalnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alabamadigitalnews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}