Re: [-empyre-] a book, dna and code

["sdv@krokodile.co.uk" <sdv@krokodile.co.uk>]

Jasper/Judith/all

Yes it is. nicely put.

both: "genomics  represents a general tendency in late capitalism for 
the sphere of  representation/culture to collapse into and become 
co-extensive with  the social or economic." and the larger Badiou quote 
is exceptionally interesting  because it displays some of the profound 
limitations in Badiou's work. The use of the word 'apolitical' implies a 
concept of the political which is to limited. And yet the centrality of 
emancipation precisely mirrors my/our ontological work, philosophy is 
always ontological and as such precedes ethics and cultural work. One of 
my reasons for my interest in this specific topic is the convergance 
between the ontological work focused on difference, equivalence, and 
equality. One of the events that began the current trajectory was a 
meeting with a particularly anti-humanist, communist, geneticist from 
India who made the rather important proposition that there is an 
absolute equality, an equivalence between all genes, genes as 
singularities.

It's this which requires that we are cautious in the adoption of 
meaningful phrases like 'late capitalism' which in its reference to 
Mandel's rather lovely book, runs into my scientist who demands that we 
think rather differently and recognize that science is not capital.


best
steve