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 Zhang Yu (2162), Li Xiaowen (2170) and Paul Atris (2172) 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. Li Xiaowen 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.

The Term Exhumanism was orignally coined shortly after the singularity by Italian philosopher Claudio Biliotti a mere few years after the singularity. While later writers have described the Magnates as Exhumanist, It should be noted they were not at the time, and magnate ideology is transhumanist and collectivist, with later writers conflating it with Exhumanism as that movement grew, this assessment has little basis in the facts of the time.

This divergence can be seen in the different paths exhumanist movements took, most of them turning to cybernetics rather than retroviral therapy for their augmentation. 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 Exhumanists even today.

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.

The Three Strands of Exhumanism in China

Chinese Exhumanism has three distinct strands, Familial Responsibility, the Missed Singularity and Alshain Environmental Extremism. It is extremely difficult to assess exactly how much each of these narratives effected the final movement, and indeed different factions of exhumanists, or even different individuals may be affected to a varying degree.

For instance, many biological or retroviral exhumanist movements have their routes in 21st century Chinese copyright laws which saw most retroviral therapy restricted to a single generation or requiring a 'booster' or nanomachine 'patch' to activate in children. Movements among poor and lower middle class individuals to escape the tyranny of not owning their own genes through self made patching or open source bioengineering were often fed by the notion that it was a parent's duty to better provide for their children.

It was not only augmentation but also ideology that spread from the harsh laboratory of Alshain, with the followers of the Eternal Dawn preaching their own particular religious beliefs along with the cybernetics they sold to many in the Exhumanist underground. Other Exhumanist associations and nations took parts or even the whole of the Eternal Dawn belief systems and changed then to fit their own needs and circumstances.

Underlying all this however is the belief in a missed singularity, a feeling that China was left out by the posthumans, and the desire to catch up.

Familial Responsibility

Unfortunately for China, the exhumanist rebellion which took place there was partly due to its own policies. While never experiencing the same kind of backlash against transgenics that Europe, South America and to some extent North America experienced, and never adopted Krauss-Straussism, Chinese governments of the mid to late 21st century did move to restrict transhumanism and to prevent the creation of a class of hereditary transgenic aristocrats.

Instead, successive governments were lobbied by Chinese biotech concerns to allow for heavy copyrighting and single generation restriction clauses for retroviral and transgenic therapy, with each upgrade lasting only a single generation, and requiring either a new augmentation program, or in some cases merely a dose of activation agent to trigger for an individual's children. This seemed a perfect solution, preventing an unfair advantage to transgenes, and also producing a large amount of money for Chinese companies (and for governments who could levy their own fees on each upgrade or triggering shot).

This policy was of course monstrously unpopular among many normal citizens, who saw it as government pandering to big business, and possibly a return to earlier and more authoritarian approach to public policy. It also clashed sharply with long running Chinese ideas about the responsibility of parents to provide for children. While in core areas the policy was unassailable, opposition in the colonies, where retroviral therapy and biological engineering were both more common and more necessary, protests became more widespread and technically sophisticated, with the creation of patches that allowed biotech to be passed intergenerationally, and even in some cases new biotechnology for unaugmented individuals.

Some of these augmentations had unexpected side effects much like those seen after the Brazilian Miracle, and several crackdowns radicalised many of those creating them, causing them to form secret societies dedicated to further research. Many of these would go on to provide the foundation, or at least initial members for, Exhumanist movements of later years.

Alshain Environmental Extremism

High gravity, with a thin, non-oxygen atmosphere and flooded with radiation from its local primary, Alshain was not a promising world for colonisation. Never the less, an alliance of highly transhumanist groups made an attempt, modifying themselves to live in the conditions they found there.

Given the changes necessary in order to live in such a hostile environment it is not particularly surprising that the Exhumanism eternal dawn became a common philosophy on Alshain. While initially non-religious, the Eternal Dawn's philosophy of survivalism proved quite successful in surviving Alshain's harsh environment.

What gave this influence was the popularity of Alshain workers, who could survive in very harsh conditions, and required far less life support than unmodified humans or even most transgenes, allowing more of them to be shipped at once. When the disaster at Shanxi hit the Alshain became perfectly placed to provide aid.

In June 2127, Teraforming on Shanxi failed spectacularly. Massive methane hydrate eruptions triggered by rapid teraforming caused massive climactic shifts, landslides and flooding. The local population desperately sought aid from China but Shanxi was a relatively low priority for the Colonial administration, facing growing demands in suppressing feral drone incursions at both ends of the arm, and with mounting problems in the teraforming project on Zhang Te refused to offer more than token help. This infuriated the local population, even more so when it became known that several local experts had theorised that a methane hydrate eruption might take place but been ignored by teraformers from Beijing. Facing mountain problems the local populous turned to exhumanist groups in increasing numbers, who in turn invited experts from nearby Alshain to render assistance. In turn the Alshain were radicalised by their contact with bitter Shanxites, many of whom had lost loved ones in the climatic disaster. It was fertile ground for insurrection.

The Missed Singularity

The final and most important element of the origins of Chinese Exhumanism can be traced back to the beginning of the 21st century and the demographic crisis that China experienced at the time. Due to its one child policy, China experienced a generation which was extremely short of women. This generation also grew up in a time of incredible social change. They were better educated than their parents, many of them having graduated from science and engineering courses, and most were highly nationalistic, due to the Chinese economic takeoff of the time. They were in other words perfect breeding ground for radical political thought.

By the time of the singularity, what was then called the Keyboard Generation was approaching their middle years, and beginning to gain positions of power within China. The singularity, centred on Japan, Europe and America caused great consternation in China, as well as academic and political discussion. Two separate reactions seemed to war in the conscience of China: rage that China had not been part of what many were calling the greatest event of human history, and a rejection of the very discourse which suggested that post singularity life was the ultimate progression of humanity.

The first strand manifested in Exhumanisms dislike of government interference and regulation of research, which had stamped out the spark and restricted technologies and informational systems which might otherwise have bootstrapped China's own posthumans into existence. The second in exhumanism's dislike of the idea that the posthumans are somehow perfect beings, and the belief that one day Exhumanity will surpass them and create a truly posthuman consciousness.

While the fires of this philosophizing were damped by China's success in the space race, gaining an entire colonisation arm for its self, not to mention the new technologies pioneered their after the singularity, by the beginning of the 22nd century, such writings gained new currency, as they were adopted by many colonists who disliked non-hereditary biomods policies, and by colonists who felt that the Chinese central government was increasingly remote from their concerns, and was exacerbated by the practice of several Chinese administrations of conscripting highly skilled dissidents and shipping them off to the colonies. Combined, these effects allowed the 21st century writings of the Keyboard Generation to form the cornerstone of many 22nd century Exhumanist groups.

It also contributed to the rise of cybernetic culture among Chinese Exhumanists, as they were far better suited to personal augmentation than where retroviral therapy, and required less facilities (and thus less government) to implement.

It was almost inevitable this would break out in more ways than simple augmentation.

The Origins of the Exhuman Insurgency

By the late 2120s, there was a considerable amount of tension in the Sino-Russian Arm. While prosperous there was dissatisfaction in a number of colonies as to policies of the Colonial Administration in Beijing on issues such as genetic copyright, and the amount of largess colonies received in exchange for providing a guaranteed market for Chinese goods and the large amounts of raw materials and locally produced goods being shipped home. Chinese authorities also begun to grow worried by the number of 'dangerous non-mainstream ideologies' (as they were called in official reports) growing on colony worlds.

Several incidents caused this to boil over into open insurgency. The first and perhaps most dramatic was the teraforming failure on Shanxi. This radicalised an entire planet, and proved a PR disaster for the Colonial Administration and coup for Exhumanist groups. The positive exposure of a previously rather feared group of radicals bought many new converts, and new expertise to Exhumanist associations who put themselves forward as a possible alternate to potentially dangerous and expensive teraforming on a number of worlds.

Second was a tightening on the restrictions on the use of illegal, unregulated biotech due to increasing health problems among users and fears of a repeat of the Brazilian debacle. These concerns were not unjustified, in the light of several high profile serial killings perpetrated by users of illegal biotechnological modifications. This had the combined effect of annoying many colonists and driving them into the hands of exhumanist group's who's cybernetics provided a cheaper, unregulated alternative to government approved genetic augmentations. It also drove underground and radicalised many of the biotech societies who had been up to now only at most petty criminals now became far more hardened and revolutionary.

This saw the beginning of slow burning animosity towards the Chinese administration in several quarters of the arm. The authorities, seeing a problem and after several incidents including the murder of four Colonial Police on Shanxi began a campaign which combined effective policing with some level of concession. This escalated over the first two years of the 2130s, and appeared initially extremely successful, combined with the general prosperity of the 2130s led to a relaxation and shift of resources to other efforts by 2132. Unfortunately the government did not quite realise the nature of the threat it now faced. With large scale augmentation including brain augmentation, several bands of radical exhumanists were quite willing to wait, patiently building networks and skills before they finally struck back at the authorities. While minor acts of terrorism and demonstrations continued to keep Exhumanism in the public eye through the 2130s, most of the time was spent preparing, not acting.

The movement's wait ended in 2139, when groups of Exhumanist commandos smuggled onto Earth performed a series of coordinated attacks against government facilities in Beijing, this was followed by a series of other attacks across the China Arm by hidden Exhumanist cells including the destruction of several teraforming stations. The Exhuman Insurgency had begun in earnest. From there, the path to the Breakdown stretched with awful inevitability.

The Future

While Chinese military forces managed to eliminate Exhumans on many worlds of the Chinese arm before the breakdown, the breakdown virus allowed various Exhumanist groups to reorganise, and in at least some cases take over the planet they were on. Despite the end of the breakdown and continued Chinese efforts to root them out, it seems unlikely this is the end of Exhumanism in China. With ever more radical cybernetic and genetic engineering becoming possible, and exhumanism becoming ever easier to implement, the forms exhumanism takes have become more and more strange, radical and powerful.

Thus, it is more and more vital we understand this strange philosophy, not just its origins, but where it is going.