If the twentieth century was haunted by the specter of communism, ours is haunted by the specter of human extinction. The 6th mass extinction is unfolding within the global climate crisis. An uncontrolled experiment in Artificial Intelligence is being thrust upon us and integrated into the infrastructures on which our contemporary lives depend. Microplastics churn through our organs as a global fertility crisis projects an imminent and dramatic population decline.
If the 20th century was haunted by the specter of communism, we are today haunted by a radically different specter:
that of human extinction. Shane Greene knows we've become numb to alarmism.
Homo Terminus takes a refreshing approach to our collective demise, owning its inevitability with the courage required for both wisdom and dark humor. Extinction is part and parcel of the inevitable transformations of life on Earth. Taking the anthropological ideas of Octavia Butler as a central influence, Greene examines the hard reality that "the only lasting truth is Change" through a wide range of cultural lenses.
In punchy, accessible essays, Greene expertly blends cultural criticism, ethnography, and speculative anthropology to sketch a series of novel thought experiments that guide us from paralyzing anxiety toward a wider palette of meaningful action.
A collaboration between Greene and artists Raphael Cornford, Tevin Garcia, and Rossana Mercado-Rojas,
Homo Terminus includes nine original works of art that visually distill each chapter.
如果說二十世紀被共產主義的幽靈所纏繞，那麼我們的時代則被人類滅絕的幽靈所纏繞。
第六次大滅絕正於全球氣候危機之中展開。一場失控的 Artificial Intelligence 實驗正被強加於我們，並整合進當代生活所依賴的基礎設施之中。當全球生育危機預示著迫在眉睫且急遽的人口下降之際，微塑膠也正不斷在我們的器官中流動。
如果二十世紀被共產主義的幽靈所纏繞，那麼今天纏繞著我們的，則是一個截然不同的幽靈：人類滅絕。
Shane Greene 知道，我們已經對危言聳聽感到麻木。《Homo Terminus》以令人耳目一新的方式面對我們集體走向滅亡的命運，以面對其不可避免性所需的勇氣，兼具智慧與黑色幽默。滅絕是地球生命不可避免的轉變之一，也是其中不可分割的一環。Greene 以 Octavia Butler 的人類學思想為核心影響，透過廣泛的文化視角，檢視「唯一永恆不變的真理就是變化」這一殘酷現實。
在一系列簡潔有力且易於理解的文章中，Greene 巧妙融合文化批評、民族誌與推測性人類學，勾勒出一系列嶄新的思想實驗，引導我們從令人癱瘓的焦慮，走向更廣泛多元且富有意義的行動可能。
《Homo Terminus》由 Greene 與藝術家 Raphael Cornford、Tevin Garcia 及 Rossana Mercado-Rojas 合作完成，收錄九件原創藝術作品，以視覺形式提煉每一章的核心內容。
The son of a sheet metal worker and a single mother holding down multiple jobs, Shane Greene is Professor of Anthropology at Indiana University Bloomington. He is the author of Customizing Indigeneity (2009) and Punk and Revolution (2016).
