Biodigital Philosophy, Technological Convergence, and Postdigital Knowledge Ecologies

• Published in: Postdigital science and education Vol. 3; no. 2; pp. 370 - 388
• Main Authors: Peters, Michael A., Jandrić, Petar, Hayes, Sarah
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01.04.2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: 20th century; Big Data; Biology; Biopolitics; Computers; Convergence; COVID-19; Digital technology; Education; Educational Philosophy; Educational Technology; Engineering; Epistemology; Information science; Ontology; Original; Original Articles; Philosophy; Political economy; Prior Learning; Technology and Digital Education; Canada; United States > US; Biodigitalism; Knowledge ecology; Epistemology; Ontology; Bioinformationalism; Biopolitics; Convergence; Digital humanities; Technoscience; Postdigital; Biohumanities; Posthumanism; Philosophy
• ISSN: 2524-485X; 2524-4868; 2524-4868
• DOI: 10.1007/s42438-020-00211-7

New technological ability is leading postdigital science, where biology as digital information, and digital information as biology, are now dialectically interconnected. In this article we firstly explore a philosophy of biodigitalism as a new paradigm closely linked to bioinformationalism. Both involve the mutual interaction and integration of information and biology, which leads us into discussion of biodigital convergence. As a unified ecosystem, this allows us to resolve problems that isolated disciplinary capabilities cannot, creating new knowledge ecologies within a constellation of technoscience. To illustrate our arrival at this historical flash point via several major epistemological shifts in the post-war period, we venture a tentative typology. The convergence between biology and information reconfigures all levels of theory and practice, and even critical reason itself now requires a biodigital interpretation oriented towards ecosystems and coordinated Earth systems. In this understanding, neither the digital humanities, the biohumanities, nor the posthumanities sit outside of biodigitalism. Instead, posthumanism is but one form of biodigitalism that mediates the biohumanities and the digital humanities, no longer preoccupied with the tradition of the subject, but with the constellation of forces shaping the future of human ontologies. This heralds a new biopolitics which brings the philosophy of race, class, gender, and intelligence, into a compelling dialog with genomics and information.