As part of my MA, I am instituting a network of academic collaboration on the topic of digital utopianism with a particular tuning towards ‘digital eugenics’.

Essential to the format of this network is that it is as rhizomatic and free/open as possible, so my status as project initiator will be irrelevant as it will be centred on complete omission of regulation. In other words, the discernible conceptual assemblages and even conclusions that arise are completely driven by the interactions that take place on these platforms (the open connection of nodes/multiplicities and the intensities they engender). Therefore the network/node(s) will not be constrained in any way by some sort of bias or expectation towards a desired outcome – it will simply follow whatever course the discussion takes it.

What we are focusing on is a shift towards a ‘new type of human’—cultivated and engendered by the incision of the digital into the natural world. What traits are auspicious for integration into this emerging new world (for which I believe there is no ambiguity toward our inevitable destination)? Who is permitted entry? Are the youth being moulded by forces outside of the usual worldly institutions (such as schools and parents) in an unprecedentedly auxiliary manner? What are the governing forces (concealed or not) in the digital world? (just a few starting things to consider)

Let us produce some great collaborative discourse in an untouched academic area in the DH. I am hoping we can produce some great ideas, debates, and discussion while providing a framework and/or base for further analysis.