How a new paradigm of self-sufficiency is about to force a reinvention of all social parameters. The world is marked by deepening conflicts--between democracies and autocracies, woke and populist identity politics, rich and poor, continued environmental exploitation and harsh complications like climate change. In
The Monadic Age, Ingo Niermann argues that, stirred by rapid developments in automation and AI, these manifold crises are about to culminate in a new paradigm of self-sufficiency--monadism--that overturns the liberal era and forces a reinvention of all social parameters.
Today, two major post-liberal dispositions are unfolding. On the one side, people envision a harmonious community of all human and nonhuman beings (multi-species kinship, a rainbow of identities). On the other side, people isolate themselves within their own identities and belongings (filter bubbles, safe spaces, gated communities, charter cities, prepping). Monadism recognizes that these two seemingly contradictory dispositions stem from a similar understanding of the world: one is more optimistic, the other more pessimistic, but ultimately they're interdependent. Before seeking harmony, we humans, a highly dominant species, must first of all restrain ourselves from coercive interactions with our environment. And to protect ourselves sufficiently from our environment, we must minimize its abuse.
The Monadic Age unfolds in thirty-three autonomous--monadic--essays on topics as diverse as environmentalism, terrorism, geopolitics, housing, the metaverse, nonbinarism, language, charity, euthanasia, identity politics, tattoos, ableism, AI, birthrates, war, religion, sex, and art.
一個新的自給自足範式即將迫使社會參數重新創新的方式。
世界正面臨深刻的衝突，包括民主與專制、覺醒與民粹主義身份政治、貧富差距、持續的環境開發和氣候變遷等。在《單子時代》中，英戈·尼爾曼（Ingo Niermann）認為，受到自動化和人工智慧的快速發展的推動，這些多重危機即將達到一個新的自給自足範式——單子主義，它顛覆了自由主義時代，迫使社會參數重新創新。
如今，兩種主要的後自由主義傾向正在展開。一方面，人們設想一個包容所有人類和非人類生物的和諧社區（多物種親屬關係，多元身份）。另一方面，人們將自己隔離在自己的身份和財產之中（過濾泡泡、安全空間、封閉社區、特許城市、預備）。單子主義認識到這兩種看似矛盾的傾向源於對世界的相似理解：一種更樂觀，一種更悲觀，但最終它們是相互依存的。在追求和諧之前，作為一個高度主導的物種，我們必須首先克制自己對環境的強制性互動。為了足夠地保護自己免受環境的傷害，我們必須最小化對環境的濫用。
《單子時代》以三十三篇獨立的單子式文章展開，涵蓋了環境主義、恐怖主義、地緣政治、住房、虛擬現實、非二元性別、語言、慈善、安樂死、身份政治、紋身、能力主義、人工智慧、出生率、戰爭、宗教、性和藝術等多樣主題。
Ingo Niermann is a speculative writer and the editor of the Solutions Series at Sternberg Press. Recent books include Solution 295-304: Mare Amoris (2020), Burial of the White Man (with Erik Niedling, 2019), and Solution 275-294: Communists Anonymous (ed., with Joshua Simon, 2017). Based on his novel Solution 257: Complete Love (2016), Niermann initiated the Army of Love, a project that tests and promotes a need-oriented redistribution of sensual love. His work has been featured at Berlin Biennale, Istanbul Biennale, documenta, La Biennale di Venezia, ZKM, and Guggenheim New York. Niermann is a lecturer at Institute Art Gender Nature in Basel.
