Lyotard’s brain and/or the mathematical universe
Lyotard’s brain and/or the mathematical universe
This article provides a reading of Jean-François Lyotard’s ‘A Postmodern Fable’. It explores the speculative narrative on the fate of human consciousness as the Sun dies in conjunction with a reading of contemporary artificial intelligence and the hypothesis of a mathematical universe. The analysis draws upon Lyotard’s layered concept of the ‘inhuman’, alongside accounts from engineer James Lovelock and physicist Max Tegmark, to interrogate the futures of intelligence and consciousness beyond anthropocentric frameworks. In conclusion, Lyotard’s Fable, benefiting from updated accounts of what he refers to as ‘all the research in progress’ in contemporary science and technology, retains valuable insights; pre-inscribing an inevitable disinheritance of the Human, and/or the Brain’s mathematical array. Lyotard’s Fable potentially reveals itself an expression of an already existing mathematical function.
Lyotard, Mathematical Universe, Postmodern Fable, AI, brain
Manghani, Sunil
75650a9a-458d-4e1a-9480-94491300e385
Manghani, Sunil
75650a9a-458d-4e1a-9480-94491300e385
Abstract
This article provides a reading of Jean-François Lyotard’s ‘A Postmodern Fable’. It explores the speculative narrative on the fate of human consciousness as the Sun dies in conjunction with a reading of contemporary artificial intelligence and the hypothesis of a mathematical universe. The analysis draws upon Lyotard’s layered concept of the ‘inhuman’, alongside accounts from engineer James Lovelock and physicist Max Tegmark, to interrogate the futures of intelligence and consciousness beyond anthropocentric frameworks. In conclusion, Lyotard’s Fable, benefiting from updated accounts of what he refers to as ‘all the research in progress’ in contemporary science and technology, retains valuable insights; pre-inscribing an inevitable disinheritance of the Human, and/or the Brain’s mathematical array. Lyotard’s Fable potentially reveals itself an expression of an already existing mathematical function.
Text
technophany_V_2
- Accepted Manuscript
Text
Technophany_Lyotard_V4N2_SM
- Version of Record
More information
e-pub ahead of print date: 16 September 2025
Keywords:
Lyotard, Mathematical Universe, Postmodern Fable, AI, brain
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 508818
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/508818
ISSN: 2773-0875
PURE UUID: df11c9b8-6c81-4026-8b1e-3b42398245cb
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 04 Feb 2026 17:37
Last modified: 05 Feb 2026 02:45
Export record
Altmetrics
Download statistics
Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.
View more statistics
