The many definitions of "posthumanism" are a bit challenging to work with when trying to relate them to educational strategies.. Unrelated to the idea of "enhanced humans" through one means or another, the Badmington paper refers to Freud witnessing "...the waning of humanism...", with humans "...unmasked as a creature motivated by desires which escape the rule of consciousness....(and) that consciousness may not be the most universal attribute of mental processes, but only a fractional part of them...."
In that same spirit, David Brooks, the well known and highly regarded New York Times OP-ED columnist, in his recent book "The Social Animal - The Hidden Sources of Character, Love and Achievement" also focuses on the vast influence of our subconscious. His thoughts on human nature include: "...We are primarily products of thinking that happens below the level of awareness - unconscious parts of the mind...where most of the decisions and many of the most impressive acts of thinking take place..." Furthermore, Brooks says: "... We have inherited an image of ourselves as Homo sapiens, as thinking individuals separated from the other animals because of our superior power of reason...In fact, we are separated from the other animals because we have phenomenal skills social skills that enable us to teach, learn, sympathize, emote, and build cultures, institutions, and the complex mental scaffolding of civilizations..."
I'm still trying to figure out how all of this thinking relates to the importance or challenges of MOOCs. Help!!!
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