Achim Szepanski
Achim Szepanski’s analysis of global capital and its entanglement with technology offers a critical foundation for understanding humanexit. Szepanski's work draws from Marxist, Deleuzian, and post-structuralist thought to theorize the abstract, alien forces that shape human subjectivity under capitalism. In his analysis, capital functions as a deterritorializing force that abstracts human labor, thought, and existence into commodified forms. This alienation intensifies in the age of advanced techno-politics, where artificial intelligence, algorithms, and financial systems operate with a level of autonomy that often appears alien to human cognition. Humanexit, within this framework, represents not only a departure from anthropocentrism but also an attempt to escape the totalizing power of global capital. Szepanski’s critique suggests that human subjectivity, under the conditions of late capitalism, is increasingly fragmented and mediated by technology, making the very notion of what it means to be "human" unstable. Xenopoetics, in this context, becomes a tool for engaging with this instability, offering a poetic and philosophical way to articulate the alien forces—both technological and capitalist—that shape contemporary existence. Jean Baudrillard’s philosophy adds a crucial dimension to the discussion of humanexit, particularly his concepts of simulacra and the hyperreal. Baudrillard's critique of postmodern society centers on the idea that in a world dominated by media and technology, reality has been replaced by simulations—representations that no longer refer to anything "real" but instead become self-referential, creating a hyperreal environment where the distinction between the real and the simulated collapses. Baudrillard’s insights can be applied to humanexit as a process of detachment not only from anthropocentric frameworks but from any stable notion of reality itself. In the context of humanexit, Baudrillard’s ideas raise questions about the nature of subjectivity and existence in a world where technology mediates every aspect of life. The post-human future, driven by artificial intelligence, virtual realities, and simulated environments, suggests that human existence may increasingly resemble Baudrillard’s hyperreal—where the human and the non-human, the real and the simulated, blur into indistinction. Humanexit, therefore, can be seen not only as a departure from humanism but also as an immersion into a simulated, hyperreal world where the alien becomes the dominant mode of existence. While Baudrillard emphasizes the collapse of reality into simulation, xenopoetics offers a potential site of resistance to this process. By engaging with the alien and the non-human, xenopoetics seeks to articulate experiences and meanings that resist commodification and simulation. In this sense, xenopoetics disrupts the hyperreal by emphasizing the unknown, the untranslatable, and the radically other. Baudrillard’s critique of the hyperreal, where meaning is endlessly deferred and reality is reduced to images and signs, contrasts with the subversive potential of xenopoetics. Xenopoetics refuses the closure of meaning imposed by simulation, instead opening up new spaces for the exploration of the alien. It disrupts the self-referential system of the hyperreal by introducing elements of otherness that cannot be easily assimilated into capitalist or technological frameworks. In doing so, it aligns with Szepanski’s analysis of deterritorialization, offering a form of poetic and philosophical expression that escapes the logic of global capital and its totalizing structures. Achim Szepanski and Jean Baudrillard both provide critical perspectives on the alienating effects of capital, although from different vantage points. Szepanski’s emphasis on the techno-political operations of global capital highlights how human life is increasingly mediated by abstract, alien forces, leading to a profound sense of alienation. Baudrillard, on the other hand, critiques how the saturation of media, images, and technology results in the collapse of meaning and the rise of the simulacrum—a world where the alienating forces are not external but internalized, as reality itself becomes a simulation. In this context, humanexit represents both a philosophical and existential challenge. It entails moving beyond the human in ways that are not merely technological or post-human but involve a radical rethinking of existence in a world dominated by simulations. The post-human future, as envisioned by both Szepanski and Baudrillard, is one where subjectivity is no longer defined by its relationship to a material reality but instead by its immersion in abstract systems—whether those are financial markets, digital networks, or virtual environments. The question of language plays a central role in both Szepanski’s and Baudrillard’s critiques. For Baudrillard, language in the hyperreal becomes a tool of simulation, where meaning is perpetually deferred, and the signifier no longer points to a real referent. Xenopoetics, however, disrupts this process by engaging with forms of otherness that resist assimilation into the hyperreal. In Szepanski’s framework, language under capital is reduced to a medium for commodification, where meaning is instrumentalized to serve the logic of value extraction. Xenopoetics offers a different path. It experiments with language in ways that challenge its commodification, opening up spaces for new meanings and experiences that cannot be reduced to simulations or capitalist value. This experimental language becomes crucial in articulating the experiences of humanexit, as it must find ways to express the alien, the non-human, and the unthinkable—those elements of existence that lie beyond the confines of human language and capitalist abstraction.
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