Hegel in a Wired Brain - Slavoj Zizek

Published in 2020 by Bloomsbury Academic, London UK 

201 pages

LCC: B2948 .Z54 2020

LCCN: 2020013767

ISBN: 978-1-3501-2441-7

2020, while being a year full of heightened anxiety and increasing discontent amidst an incessant wave of unfortunate circumstances, was also a witness to two seemingly disparate events. First, this year marked the 250th anniversary of Hegel’s birth, a German philosopher who altered the trajectory of Western philosophy and continues to inspire fervent debate to this day. In addition, eight years after its announcement and following a series of delays throughout the year, 2020 also saw the long-awaited release of Cyberpunk 2077, which is currently one of the most heatedly-discussed and popularly played video games of the year. 

On one hand, we have the anniversary of the birth of one of the most influential (and frustratingly difficult to understand) philosophers in the Western canon. On the other hand, Cyberpunk 2077 allows players to explore the dystopian landscape of Night City and take advantage of a world filled with technological advances, such as Brain-Machine Interfaces (BMI), Artificial Intelligence (AI), cybernetic modifications, and nanotechnology. But what could these two topics possibly have in common? 

Leave it none other than to Slovenian philosopher and provocateur Slavoj Žižek to synthesize these seemingly disconnected concepts. In his latest 2020 book, Hegel in a Wired Brain, Zizek seeks to bring Hegelian thought into present debates about technological Singularity. Specifically taking on Elon Musk’s Neuralink project, Zizek argues that Hegel is a key philosopher who can help us navigate the thorny issues of post-humanism. According to Zizek, Hegel complicates our concepts of Subjectivity, while Lacan calls us to question how BMIs and AIs can register the realm of the Unconscious. 

Overview: 

Far from being consigned to the dustbin of history, Zizek claims that “the twenty-first century will be Hegelian” (1). Taking the concepts of Singularity (the hypothetical point in time when superintelligent AIs will exponentially and uncontrollable surpass human capacities) and Brain-Machine Interfaces (BMIs) such as Elon Musk’s Neuralink project (in which there is a direct connection between a wired brain and an external device, which could lead to a Singularity in which human consciousness is uploaded to a machine and allow us to directly experience and connect with one another), Zizek contemplates the theoretical and philosophical complications that arise with the development of these technologies. As such, Zizek consistently applies his idiosyncratic Hegelian approach to a wide array of philosophical topics, including the digital police state, the shortcomings of utopian posthumanism, the theological failure of Singularity to save us from the Fall, and the difficulty of AI to distinguish and interpret the symbolic nature of language. 

Along the way, Zizek casts a critical eye toward the advocates of Singularity and their post-humanist utopian vision of society. Zizek sharply criticizes the futurist vision and push towards a technological Theosis (self-divinization) by the likes of Raymond Kurzweil, which Zizek argues is wholly Gnostic and entirely too optimistic and one-dimensional. Zizek ultimately argues that failure and absence are key components of subjectivity and language, which BMIs and AIs, even with the most complex algorithms, will miss. 

Keeping in this theological vein, he ends the book with an extended treatise on the digital apocalypse that Singularity will bring, and what kind of humanity will emerge on the other side. Zizek ultimately says that we must not think of this Singularity as either a dystopian nightmare or a utopian cure for our interpersonal and societal ills. Rather, he believes that the Singularity, while ultimately inevitable, will lead us to new horizons of the post-human unknown, revealing ever-deeper and intractable contradictions in what it means to be a human subject.

Commendations: 

While Zizek carries on his tradition of touching on so many different ideas and concepts in this book, Hegel in a Wired Brain is certainly one of the more focused works within Zizek’s extensive bibliography. Zizek does go on tangents and takes us down byways as he usually does, but he connects the dots exceptionally well in this little volume, as he always brings the focus of his philosophical musings back to the topic of Singularity and the wired brain. Also, with the exception of his final treatise on digital apocalypse, Zizek keeps the chapters in this work short and punchy, rarely ever getting lost too deep in the weeds of speculation and unrelated tangents. The language of Hegel/Lacan and neurotechnology are both incredibly difficult topics to discuss comprehensively and succinctly, and understandably, and Zizek does a commendable job in parsing apart the various issues in this emerging discourse. The result is a relatively accessible exploration of the radical philosophical implications of these emerging technologies. 

I found Zizek’s theological musings to be of particular interest, and while the insights themselves might not particularly new (one can read a much deeper exploration of Zizek’s theological stance in The Fragile Absolute or The Puppet and the Dwarf), the application of Zizek’s particular brand of radical theology and “Christian atheism” to the issues of Singularity, Theosis, and The Fall was particularly insightful and thought-provoking (such as the Hegelian insight that The Fall and Redemption are the same Event). Furthermore, the extended discussion regarding the nature of direct communication in a wired brain that would bypass the limitations of language was likewise interesting and well-worth considering. While Zizek believes that such communication would ultimately lose an integral part of Subjectivity (namely, the constitutive nature of failure and slippages), he also succinctly articulates the various arguments that have been made on this issue while making his position clear. 

Whether through the field of theology, computer science, continental philosophy, or neuroscience, there are plenty of avenues of entry into this work, and I’m sure that scholars and thinkers from each of these fields could come away from this book with a different perspective. Although some of the concepts might be difficult to fully grasp (especially if you have no background knowledge in philosophy or neurotechnology), it is still a worthwhile endeavor and expands the conversation around these issues.  

Also, while Hegel in a Wired Brain is an interesting exploration into a wide range of ideas, one might note his lack of a final synthesis or comprehensive conclusion. The chapters are loosely tied together by a common link, and to his credit, Zizek does a great job in vaguely connecting the chapters and their ideas in a logical and comprehensible way. This lack of a systemic approach is a feature of this work, not a bug. He comments in the introduction that he is practicing a form of parataxis (placing juxtaposing texts side by side, forcing the reader to make the connections between them), and this allows him to circle the central topic of the book in different ways with each chapter, before offering an extended concluding treatise at the end to wrap things up. This is consistent with Zizek’s style of writing in “short circuits,” placing disparate topics side by side and flipping ideas on their head to generate something novel. It may be difficult reading for some, but the successive failures to systematically articulate the object of inquiry opens up new spaces of discovery and questioning, and is a great example of a philosopher putting his theory into practice. 

Critique: 

In a similar vein, even though this volume is relatively focused, some of the tangents that Zizek embarks upon can be rather dense and difficult to grasp. Particularly, the final essay on Digital Apocalypse, while certainly interesting, is by far the most deeply entrenched in critical theory and can be difficult to understand at times. If you have no prior knowledge of Hegelian philosophy, Lacanian psychoanalysis, or computer science, then this book will most likely be a bit of a struggle, although most of the chapters are still relatively accessible. While I might not always fully agree with Zizek or his conclusions, I cannot deny that he asks poignant questions and keeps me thinking on my toes. 

The only other critique I have of this work is its relevance to the immediate future. While the emergence of Singularity is hotly debated, it appears to be becoming increasingly inevitable. Yet, for the average person, questions of artificial intelligence and the increased implementation of automation in the workforce will most likely be the most pressing issue for the working class and the development of away from capitalism. Even if we take Singularity to be on the horizon, we must ask which direction it may be coming from. While Elon Musk is certainly a popular figure that draws the attention of the popular imagination, we also have to recognize the two fields that are consistently on the forefront of technological progress and collectively organizing in response to technology: the military and sex workers, respectively. We must ask how these industries will ultimately shape the push toward Singularity, and by paying attention to these two realms, we might be able to get a glance at how these technologies might be applied on a popular level. Zizek does indeed discuss the roles of sex and technology (including sexbots) and politics in one of his other books released earlier this year (A Left that Dares to Speak its Name), but I would be interested to see how his observations there figure into these discussions of wired brains and Singularity. 

Conclusion:

Overall, Hegel in a Wired Brain is a fascinating exploration of the implications of neurotechnology in shaping our experience of subjectivity. If you, like me, are skeptical of Silicon Valley’s utopian hopes of blissful Singularity, Neuralink’s promises of curing diseases such as Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia, blindness, deafness, and other disabilities through what Musk describes as “a Fitbit in your skull,” or that we can achieve immortality (and even divinity) through the utilization of cybernetics or uploading our consciousness to the Internet, then you will find plenty of thought-provoking discussions in this work. Zizek successfully takes Hegel’s thought into the 21st century, and as we see an acceleration in technological development in the coming years, debates regarding the inevitability of Singularity will surely become a topic of increasing interest in the coming years. Zizek believes that this event will be the end of humanity as we know it, but will open up radically new possibilities in understanding what it means to live and interact with the world and each other.