With Humanism Like This, Who Needs Posthumanism? 656 P H I L O S O P H Y O F E D U C A T I O N 2 0 1 7 With Humanism Like This, Who Needs Posthumanism? Samuel D. Rocha University of British Columbia In “Telepresence and the Posthuman,” Norm Friesen sets out to chasten posthumanist enthusiasm about telepresence. He presents a critical consideration of various forms and aspects of telecommunication and their collective inability to fulfll the conditions required for “pedagogical tact.” The article cleverly inverts the core of “representability” from presence to absence in relation to the distance of the tele. This inversion provides the basis for his central claim that the immediacy of technologies of telepresence constitute a withdrawal that, as Friesen puts it, “rob us” of the qualities that “constitute our very ‘being’ as educators” and even as humans. FIVE MOMENTS OF MODERATION One might hear Friesen’s critique in concert with critics of modern technology such as Shelley, Heidegger, Illich, and Elull. However, unlike the more radical critiques, Friesen’s criticism is blunted by fve moments of moder- ation. The frst is when he grants the posthumanist assertion that technologies of telepresence “are changing what it means to be human.” The second, third, and fourth are when he grants the posthuman “prosthetic” description of the body and consciousness and then, “for the sake of argument,” goes further to admit that “technological innovation may someday be able to overcome much of this [prosthetic] ‘trouble’,” followed by the warning that with increased innovation the trouble of prosthetics could increase. The ffth “moment” of moderation are the collective and recurring points where Friesen’s argument relies on the counterfactuals of “empirical research. ” These fve points of moderation reveal that Friesen, unlike more forceful critics we might think of, grants out of hand a number of posthumanist assumptions about the present and the future and, furthermore, that his argument is essentially confned to PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION 2017 | Ann Chinnery, editor © 2019 Philosophy of Education Society | Urbana, Illinois