Presenter: Roberto Muffoletto, Appalachian State University

The notion of the “posthuman”, like that of postmodernism, challenges our everyday assumptions concerning reality. As postmodernism addresses questions of universal truths, constructed meanings, and reality as “code”, posthuman thought addresses the individual in light of a mediated existence, self as representation, the physical ontological biological body as immaterial code.

Virtual worlds, by nature, reflect the un-realness of all worlds; especially that which we signify as “real”. The “self” as a product of the media created social, sets the borders and horizons of what it means to be present, “to be”, in any world. Is presence in any world only an extension of the self from outside it, defining the limits of “presence and being”?

If we are nothing but code, information with no biological presence, without a body, is the concept of the body, as real or metaphor, not very useful in a mediated posthuman thought? From that perspective what then does it mean to be present in a world understood as virtual, the other?

Roberto Muffoletto is a Professor of Educational Technology who currently directs an online international graduate program titled: “New Media and Global Education”, and is the editor of a book series on education, media, technology, and culture (Hampton Press). Most of his thinking/writings have been directed at a critical theory of technology in education. He has had very limited experiences with Second Life and other simulation environments, except for the one he currently lives in.

email: muffoletto.roberto@gmail.com
Skype: robertomuffoletto