hito steyerl on baruch gottlieb’s ‘most-human condition’

Gottlieb riffs on the trope of post-humanism to explore what it means to be human today. The notion of humanity has come under fire in recent decades for being imperialist, racist, etc., as well as enabling the so-called Anthropocene in which humans started terraforming the planet, thus warming the climate and exterminating lifeforms. Gottlieb argues however that there is no convincing way for humans to exit the human condition either. Humans can’t just pretend to be minerals, quarks or bacteria in order to ‘decenter’ human violence. Cosplaying critters is no solution. Humans have specific ways to perceive, a specific relation to gravity, light, sound and the environment of this planet. Additionally, the idea of overcoming our humanity in some way echoes the current project of technofascist post-humanism to get rid of most people altogether. Humans are themselves in the process of being overtaken and partly made redundant by technical systems. According to corporate wishful thinking, humans are no match for robust self-propagating systems like capitalism or so-called AGI, and will soon be marginalized by these systems. Gottlieb’s book is a good guide for an age which is in the process of moving past the Anthropocene — as humans are voluntarily relinquishing control to more and more powerful technical systems.

~ Hito Steyerl

’The books that influence Hito Steyerl’ in Frieze (20 May 2025): https://www.frieze.com/article/books-that-influence-hito-steyerl-2025