Posthuman Folklore

Thompson, Tok. Posthuman Folklore. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2019.

Reviewed by Peter Cullen Bryan, SFRA Review 50.4 (Fall 2020).[1]

The first portion of Posthuman Folklore focuses on the application of animal studies to the question of artificial intelligence. Speculative fiction and folklore can help to bridge this divide, in Thompson’s estimation, and Thompson makes the case for the humanities within the larger discussion: “postcolonial science opens itself up to the inclusion of considerations of other schools of thought, other epistemologies, and offers possible avenues of thought out of the dead-end of anthropocentrism” (55). [...] Thompson posits that the arrival of non-human relationships is likely inevitable with advances in artificial intelligence, and developing a framework for how to handle this will soon be necessary, a framework that can be found (in part, at least) within animal studies.

The second section of Posthuman Folklore explores the role of folklore in a digital (and perhaps post-digital) culture. In Thompson’s argument, Western philosophy is ill-equipped to respond to the arrival of non-human (artificial) intelligences, contending that there are approaches in folklore and transnational perspectives: “given that we have long studied ways that cultures perceive and predict future events, folklorists should not shy away from taking on the new role of futurists [...]” (118). [...] Thompson echoes as well Marshall McLuhan, stating, “the digital realm is not only a place for communication, but is also, and increasingly, a contributor to the communication that takes place” (146).[2]

We note the traditional idea of humans as "the paragon of animals," topping out the Great Chain of Being and standing between the rest of the animal kingdom and the material world, and something else. Traditionally, that "something else" was the realm of spirit; more recently, perhaps of Mind in some sense, including AI. Thompson may be very helpful in using to frame the problem ways of thinking both new and very old.

RDE, finishing, 3Nov21