Are We Human? Notes on an Archaeology of Design

The mirror of design: spiderwebs, sediments radiation, extinction self-surveillance -- The plastic human: plasticity, strange artifacts interface -- Blows of design: technofossils, prehistory genetic continuum hands, ornament sexual selection -- The invention of the human: tools, brain, curiosity -- The ornamental species: domestication, beads, networks, thinking strings, useless things -- New from nowhere: mechanical life, good design, morality, failure toys, functionalsim -- Good design is an anesthetic: smoothness, shock, smile shock absorber, nerves -- The design of health: dissection, x-ray, tuberculosis, fatigue, allergies, autoimmune burnout -- Human-centered design: camping, artificial limbs biology, survival, self-destruction, primal scene -- The frictionless silhouette: normal, human engineering, automaton biotechnique, discipline -- Designing the body: bodybuilding, hedonism nudism, libido, stomach psyche -- Design as perversion: fetishism, bondage voyeurism, erotica scatology, pedophilia -- Designing a ghost: scale figure, protohumans clothing, lurking shadows -- The unstable body: microbiome, prosthetics plastic surgery, drugs biodesign, chimera -- Homo cellular: intimacy, connectivity shelter, computation selfie, surveillance -- Design in 2 seconds: social media, avatar hybrid space, the bed postlabor, self-design.

The mirror of design: spiderwebs, sediments radiation, extinction self-surveillance -- The plastic human: plasticity, strange artifacts interface -- Blows of design: technofossils, prehistory genetic continuum hands, ornament sexual selection -- The invention of the human: tools, brain, curiosity -- The ornamental species: domestication, beads, networks, thinking strings, useless things -- New from nowhere: mechanical life, good design, morality, failure toys, functionalsim -- Good design is an anesthetic: smoothness, shock, smile shock absorber, nerves -- The design of health: dissection, x-ray, tuberculosis, fatigue, allergies, autoimmune burnout -- Human-centered design: camping, artificial limbs biology, survival, self-destruction, primal scene -- The frictionless silhouette: normal, human engineering, automaton biotechnique, discipline -- Designing the body: bodybuilding, hedonism nudism, libido, stomach psyche -- Design as perversion: fetishism, bondage voyeurism, erotica scatology, pedophilia -- Designing a ghost: scale figure, protohumans clothing, lurking shadows -- The unstable body: microbiome, prosthetics plastic surgery, drugs biodesign, chimera -- Homo cellular: intimacy, connectivity shelter, computation selfie, surveillance -- Design in 2 seconds: social media, avatar hybrid space, the bed postlabor, self-design.

A holistic approach toward the omnipotence of design. The book rethinks the philosophy of design in a multi-dimensional exploration from the very first tools and ornaments to the constant buzz of social media. The average day involves the experience of thousands of layers of design that reach to outside space but also reach deep into our bodies and brains. Even the planet itself has been completely encrusted by design as a geological layer. There is no longer an outside to the world of design. Design has become the world. Design is what makes the human. It is the very basis of social life. But design also engineers inequalities and new forms of neglect, such as lawlessness, poverty, and the climate at the same time as the human genome and the weather are being actively redesigned. We can no longer reassure ourselves with the idea of "good design." Design itself needs to be redesigned.