Skip to main content

Wisdom Is an Odd Number: Community and the Anthropocene in The Highest Frontier

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Posthuman Biopolitics

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Science and Popular Culture ((PSSPC))

  • 263 Accesses

Abstract

Alexa T. Dodd discusses how The Highest Frontier engages with the idea of the Anthropocene to explore solutions to issues regarding the future of humanity and the Earth. Climate change, mass species extinction, deforestation, and other environmental crises are markers of this new epoch of humanity’s seeming dominance over the Earth system. The Highest Frontier suggests that the kind of community humans will need is one that generates cooperation through and among multiple perspectives. The Ultraphyte being who exists as a community of macroscopic bacteria also represents this kind of community. Such diversity equates with wisdom. This novel portrays how a wise Earth community that does not preclude individual responsibility is one solution to the problems of the Anthropocene.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Works Cited

  • Alcaraz, Jose M., et al. 2016. Cosmopolitanism or Globalization: The Anthropocene Turn. Society and Business Review 11 (3): 313–32.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Biermann, Frank. 2012. Planetary Boundaries and Earth System Governance: Exploring the Links. Ecological Economics 81 (4): 4–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clarke, Bruce. 2017. Rethinking Gaia: Stengers, Latour, Margulis. Theory, Culture & Society 34 (4 July): 3–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crutzen, Paul J. 2006. The “Anthropocene.” In Earth System Science in the Anthropocene, ed. Eckart Ehlers and Thomas Krafft, 13–18. Berlin: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crutzen, Paul J., and Christian Schwagerl. 2011. Living in the Anthropocene: Toward a New Global Ethos. Yale Environment 360, January 24. https://e360.yale.edu/features/living_in_the_anthropocene_toward_a_new_global_ethos.

  • Ernston, Henrik, and Erik Swyngedouw. 2018. Interrupting the Anthropo-obScene: Immuno-biopolitics and Depoliticizing Ontologies in the Anthropocene. Theory, Culture & Society 35 (6): 3–30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grinspoon, David. 2016. Earth in Human Hands: Shaping Our Planet’s Future. New York: Grand Central.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haraway, Donna. 1991. A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century. Rpt. Donna Haraway. Manifestly Haraway, preface by Cary Wolfe, 1–90. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2016.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hulme, Mike. 2014. Climate Change and Virtue: An Apologetic. Humanities 3 (3): 299–312.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kymlicka, Will. 2015. Solidarity in Diverse Societies: Beyond Neoliberal Multiculturalism and Welfare Chauvinism. Comparative Migration Studies 3: 17. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40878-015-0017-4.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Latour, Bruno. 2017. Why Gaia Is Not a God of Totality. Theory, Culture & Society 34 (2–3): 61–81.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lovbrand, Eva, et al. 2015. Who Speaks for the Future of Earth? How Critical Social Science Can Extend the Conversation on the Anthropocene. Global Environmental Change 31: 211–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peterson, Jordan B. 2019. Higher Education and Our Cultural Inflection Point. Jordan Peterson Podcast 21, February. https://jordanbpeterson.com/podcast/episode-62/.

  • Slonczewski, Joan. 2011. The Highest Frontier. New York: Tor.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2019. “Re: Highest Frontier Question.” Received by Alexa Dodd, March 7.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yusoff, Kathryn. 2016. Anthropogenesis: Origins and Endings in the Anthropocene. Theory, Culture & Society 33 (2): 3–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Dodd, A.T. (2020). Wisdom Is an Odd Number: Community and the Anthropocene in The Highest Frontier. In: Clarke, B. (eds) Posthuman Biopolitics. Palgrave Studies in Science and Popular Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36486-1_8

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics