Affiliation:
1. Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany
Abstract
Cryopreservation practices have become increasingly important within contemporary life sciences in recent decades, opening up the perspective of modifying and modulating temporal pathways and developmental cycles. Exploring the concept of “suspended life,” this article first focuses on temporal liminality as cryopreservation practices operate by extending the present. I rely on Niklas Luhmann’s account of time, which advances the idea of an enduring present bound to the principle of reversibility. The second part of this article engages with the emergence of cryobanks. Drawing on Martin Heidegger’s concept of the “standing-reserve” ( Bestand), I conceive of cryobanks as storing facilities that ensure the disposition of organic material. The third section discusses the advent of a “politics of suspension” based on the proliferation of cryogenic life in contemporary societies, which is defined by reversibility and disposition. The conclusion sums up the main argument and briefly points to the social and political repercussions of this mode of governing the future by prolonging the present.
Funder
H2020 European Research Council
Subject
Human-Computer Interaction,Economics and Econometrics,Sociology and Political Science,Philosophy,Social Sciences (miscellaneous),Anthropology
Cited by
7 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献