Incomputable Earth Technology and the Anthropocene Hypothesis

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. It is funded by The Austrian Science Fund (FWF). Looking afresh at the Anthropocene, this volume investigates how the capitalist engineering of the earth is not only accelerating, but is doing so in parallel with the expansion of digital technological systems, including so-called ‘artificial intelligence’. Against the backdrop of new regimes of data positivism, algorithmic classification and prediction, and even the emergence of unexpected forms of collective intelligence, Incomputable Earth addresses the crucial need to rethink the meaning and inter-relationality of such terms as ‘extraction’, ‘computation’, and ‘planetarity’. Beyond the theory, it also asks what cognitive and political capacities we need to grapple with the implications of this parallel intensification of datafication and the Anthropocene. Examining new forms of subjectivity and resistance, this timely volume tackles a range of urgent topics, from the racialized politics of climate change to feminist ecologies and planetary financialization. In an original, hybrid format that reflects the interdisciplinary nature of these debates, Incomputable Earth is made up of scholarly essays, striking artistic contributions, and a glossary of emerging concepts in the humanities. Bringing together international scholars, artists, grassroots collectives, and environmental organisations, this is a vital intervention into the past, present, and future of computation and its inescapable impact upon our social, political, and planetary life. This book emerges from the artistic research project “The Incomputable—Art in the Age of Algorithms,” instigated at the Institute for Contemporary Art, Graz University of Technology, and funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF, the Austrian Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport, and the StyrianProvincial GovernmentDepartment of Economy, Tourism, Science and Research.