Dissolve anything enough and it can be tasted.

Once upon a time I told you what a body wasn't. It is not simply the physical manifestation of a person. (Not to mention that this tawdry definition assumes what we know a person to be.) I also mentioned the ways that rationalism and opposition are limited. You can see how these two notions are related.

I recently read a little game theoretic sociobiological exploration of how cooperation implies the need for policing. I worry that this idea will naturalize any given particular form of social control. I hope it is obvious that society implies social control; the real question is the terms of that social control, which is to say the terms of society.

We do not gain anything by simply by redefining what the body is. We gain even less by simply troubling our current definition of the body. Bodies have long been the site of, precisely the terms of domination. Redefining bodies will not change that fact. Making the body illegible or slippery will make that kind of domination more difficult, but it exposes what had been previously been taken as a body to the more insidious forces of commoditization. Well, not that they hadn't been already. But it would be even more true.

I am working on a manifesto for the body which will be an attempt to stave off this kind of invasion. I don't know that it will do any good. The tide is already turning the other way. How much will we be willing to pay, and how much will Abiomed be willing to charge?

The above should all be obvious. I thought I had something more interesting to say.

But I guess I don't.