Loops of Augmentation. Bootstrapping, Time Travel, and Consequent Futures
Abstract
The essay examines the concept of bootstrapping as
a model of augmentative reason in contemporary
neorationalist philosophies. In particular, it examines
the concept of bootstrapping, here meaning mental
capacities or processes capable of self-augmentation.
Well illustrated in numerous time-travel fictions,
the genealogy of bootstrapping lies in the legacy
of German Idealism and can be met in the figure of
Münchhausen. Looking how the problem of origin,
or of determining an ultimately stable ground, is
replaced by horizon, or location, both determined
through action, the essay proposes that the notions
of embodiment and location prove troublesome for
neorationalism.
Preferred Citation
Woodard, Ben: Loops of Augmentation. Bootstrapping, Time Travel, and Consequent Futures. In: Matteo Pasquinelli (Hg.): Alleys of Your Mind. Augmented Intelligence and Its Traumas. Lüneburg: meson press 2015, S. 157–168. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/1215.
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