The Origins of Exhumanism in China

Introduction

The Exhuman Insurgency which raged in the Chinese arm from the 2120s to 2150s was perhaps the pivotal event of the 22nd century, much as Singularity was for the 21st or the World Wars were for the 20th. It's effects, most majorly the break down virus redefined the human sphere, and allowed for the early (perhaps premature) independence of many Expanse Colonies and the creation of the first truly off world regional blocks, ZOCU, the League of Outer Stars and the Magnate Continuum.

While the events of the Rebellion have been extensively studied, the origins of exhumanism as an ideology have received surprisingly little attention, with most treaties on the subject limiting themselves to an all too general outline of the rise of transhumanism in the 21st century. Writers such as BLAH, BLAH and BLAH have outlined the orthodoxy on the rebellion: specifically that exhumanism was routed in the rise of transhumanism on earth, and is merely part of a great phenomena not specific to China. BLAH has even suggested that the later rise of ZOCU and the Magnate aggression can be seen as continuations of the Exhuman rebellion in other arms.

This does not really tell an accurate picture however as it fails to account for the huge differences in situation between the Exhuman Insurgency and subsequent wars, and the difference between exhumanism and either the philosophy of the Magnates or the various transgenic philosophers that exist in ZOCU. Further, it does not explain why such a rebellion would erupt first in the Chinese arm, which was at the time the most prosperous and well developed of all the colonial areas.

The reason that this analysis does not fit the facts is simple: while exhumanism is present across all arms, the conditions which made is successful were in many ways unique to China, and created a specifically Chinese form of exhumanism (from now on Chinese exhumanism) which is distinct from other varieties of it, and is rooted in the specific culture and history of China.

What is Exhumanism?

Exhumanism is, at its base, a rejection of the idea of pure mental development and an embrace of physical reality. It is believed by exhumanists that the posthumans early migration to pure mind, and vast increase of processing speed is ultimately a dead end, as uploads do not really change the structure and way of thinking of a human, but rather simply make it faster and better. To most Exhumanists the posthumans are in fact not posthuman at all, and the only way to create a true posthuman is the path they follow.

Exhumanism was originally proposed shortly after the singularity by Italian philosopher Claudio Biliotti a mere few years after the singularity, but was first put into practice by the Brazilian scientists who eventually gave rise to the Magnate movement, however this does not all Exhumanists are Magnates. Various other exhumanist movements took a very different and far less biological path than that adopted by the magnates. While there has been some mixing between different types of exhumanism (for instance, the Eternal Dawn are directly descended from Chinese arm Exhumanism) there are notable differences between the magnate and Chinese bands.

Chinese exhumanism is much more individualistic than the rather collectivist magnate ideology. This led to a far greater use of cybernetic rather than retroviral or transgenic upgrading as the latter two are much more complicated and require a far longer time to work. This led to some extremely alien upgrades by many of the more committed Chinese exhumanists, and a far lesser emphasis on social engineering than seen in most Magnate polities.

Where are Magnate exhumanism was ultimately routed in the socialist project and even liberation theology which make up a large part of South American political culture, Chinese exhumanism has a different set of routes. We will now go on to examine them.