HYPEROBJECTS
So what do we do when we are tackling a question that is simply too big for us? If not denial, then what? (Bruno Latour)
Hyperobjects: (a term proposed by Timothy Morton) are so massively distributed in time and space as to transcend spatio-temporal specificity (meaning the here and now). Hyperobjects are “hyper” in relation to some other entity, whether they are directly manufactured by humans or not, they have numerous properties in common.
Morton describes them as viscous (they stick to everything). as molten (see Chernobyl “elephant’s foot”) refuting the idea that spacetime is fixed, concrete, and consistent. Hyperobjects are non-local: the sum of local effects (such as tornados) do not add up to the total hyperobject, which is more substantial: "Something that can be in more than one place at once." One of the most salient non-local examples is global warming. So is the internet, or a black hole. (see event horizon)
Morton rejects the expression “climate change”, which he considers a euphemism, indicating a decrease of concern, and a deliberate attempt to downplay its dangers. “One is tempted to see the term “climate change” itself as a kind of denial, a reaction to the radical trauma of unprecedented global warming.”,
Other examples include very long-lasting products of direct human manufacture, such as Styrofoam or plastic bags , and the sum total of all the nuclear materials on Earth. (see Anthropocene) A final feature of Morton’s concept is that Hyperobjects are phased. They come and go in 3D space…(see phase space)
Another candidate for hyperobjectivity could be the "The Airborne Toxic Event" in
Don Delilio’s White Noise.
HYPOSUBJECTS
(Timothy Morton and Dominic Boyer)
Hyposubjects are the native species of the Anthropocene and are only just now beginning to discover what they might be and become. Like their hyperobjective environment, hyposubjects are also multiphasic and plural: not-yet, neither here nor there, less than the sum of their parts. They are, in other words, subscendent (moving toward relations) rather than transcendent (rising above relations). They do not pursue or pretend to absolute knowledge or language, let alone power. Instead they play; they care; they adapt; they hurt; they laugh. Hyposubjects are necessarily feminist, colorful, queer, ecological, transhuman, and intrahuman. They do not recognize the rule of androleukoheteropetromodernity and the apex species behavior it epitomizes and reinforces. But they also hold the bliss-horror of extinction fantasies at bay, because hyposubjects’ befores, nows, and afters are many. Hyposubjects are squatters and bricoleuses. They inhabit the cracks and hollows. They turn things inside out and work miracles with scraps and remains. They unplug from carbon gridlife; they hack and redistribute its stored energies for their own purposes. Hyposubjects make revolutions where technomodern radars can’t glimpse them. They patiently ignore expert advice that they do not or cannot exist. They are skeptical of efforts to summarize them, including everything we have just said.