News and Events
James Cuffe and Fiona Murphy's latest article "Being Fungible" is on Allegra Lab.
In an age where automation increasingly shapes our lives, from the workplace to the border, we find ourselves valued less as social beings and more as fungible actants- bodies in motion, effective but interchangeable. Through the seemingly small but deeply human act of a bus driver waiting for a late-running passenger, we reflect on what it means to be needed only “from the neck down.” This essay proposes homo fungibilis as a more accurate articulation of current experience than the once feted homo economicus; where our stories, empathy, and unpredictability are effaced and ignored and people become profiles, risks, and data points. Our value as human beings transmogrified, centering on the ability to fulfil external function. Nuances of judgment, kindness, and care are left behind. In the age of Homo Fungibilis, we argue for small rebellions- moments of ethical choice and care that defy disciplining automation, reclaiming the human from effacing systems.
Abstract: In an age where automation increasingly shapes our lives, from the workplace to the border, we find ourselves valued less as social beings and more as fungible actants- bodies in motion, effective but interchangeable. Through the seemingly small but deeply human act of a bus driver waiting for a late-running passenger, we reflect on what it means to be needed only “from the neck down.” This essay proposes homo fungibilis as a more accurate articulation of current experience than the once feted homo economicus; where our stories, empathy, and unpredictability are effaced and ignored and people become profiles, risks, and data points. Our value as human beings transmogrified, centering on the ability to fulfil external function. Nuances of judgment, kindness, and care are left behind. In the age of Homo Fungibilis, we argue for small rebellions- moments of ethical choice and care that defy disciplining automation, reclaiming the human from effacing systems.
Read the full article on Allegra Lab.