Laughing on the Brink of Humanity: An Exercise in Epihumanism

Cover
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
	Plan of the Book
Chapter 1 Laughing at the Death of Man
	Podchlebnik’s Smile
	The Death of Man
	Thinking at the Edge of Humanity
	The Place of the Shoah
	Reading to the Dead
	At the Confines of Death and Humanity
Chapter 2 Laughing Animals
	Wiernik’s Laughter
	Compelled by Laughter and Music
	Humanist Laughter
	Deadly Laughter
	Laughing Rats
	The Risks of Language
	Laughter before Human Life
	A Stretched Membrane
Chapter 3 Laughing (Human) Machines
	Laughing at Your Inner Machine
	Dancing Automatons and Philosophical Zombies
	Freedom Is Not a Choice
	Life Is an Explosion, and You Can Fabricate It
	This Is My (Textual) Body Given for You
Chapter 4 Machining (Human) Laughter
	Strolling through the Uncanny Valley
	Befriending Your Device
	Imitation Game: The Artifice of Deception
	Turtles All the Way Down
	Being Intentionally Human: Imitation Game Reenacted
	The Measure of Our Uncertainty
	Laughing with One’s Own Dead Self
Chapter 5 Laughing Gods
	Laughable Messianism
	Mary’s Consent
	Sarah’s Laughter
	Gargamelle’s Joke
	Killing God with Laughter
	Divine Buffoonery
	Surfing the Tsunami
	Rehearsing Human Sacrifice
Chapter 6 Laughing Men
	Rites of Redemption in the Athenian Death Chamber
	Laughing at the Art of Philosophical Cleansing
	Charming Misology with Laughter
	Running out of Laughter
	The Impossibility of a Love
	To Have and to Be a Body
Epilogue
Notes
Works Cited
Index