Cathrine Hasse, Aarhus University, DK 

This talk shall explore the concept of learning from the perspective of the robotizised posthuman. The vast majority of cognitive, behavioral and part of the constructionist learning theories operate with an autonomous individual who learn in a world of separate objects. Technology is (if mentioned at all) understood as separate from the individual learner and perceived as tools. Learning theory has in general not been acknowledging materiality in their theorizing about what learning is – and have not yet tied learning theory to posthuman perspectives.

Also it is time for a new world opening – after humans have found out the globe is just a small dot in a vast universe we have to learn more about how we learn to see ourselves a beings in a vast universe (Arendt 1948). Learning theory is I suggest the basic process that transform humans and have done so since Homo Sapiens Sapiens began its long journey towards what many now perceive as the posthuman. This movement is increasing merging the mechanics of robots with the organic human body. But how can we speak of posthumans before we know what a human is?

A new posthumanistic learning theory is needed to keep up with the transformations of human learning resulting from new technological experiences as well as new understandings of what it is to be human. I find is useful to combine postphenomenological and cultural-historical theories in this exploration of posthuman learning, acknowledging that unpredictable and complex technologies play an ever larger part in our cultural activities and our conceptual abstractions.