Cameron Hu

Cameron Hu's project reconsiders modern moralities of knowledge production for the turbulent global present. Amidst unfolding climate destruction, capitalist crisis, and high-tech imperialism, the usual association of technoscientific progress with human flourishing is growing implausible. A familiar modern premise—that living better begins with knowing more—seems to be dissolving. His project scrutinizes this circumstance, exploring its provocations for the way we live with the concept of knowledge. He approaches the moral predicament of knowledge through a braided reflection on two exemplary projects of the later twentieth century: (1) the technoscientific investigation of the Earth System, the neo-cybernetic enterprise from which the notion of the “Anthropocene” and mainstream climate management strategies emerge; and (2) the critique of “instrumental reason” in North Atlantic intellectual culture. Methodologically, the project draws together traditions of cultural anthropology, critical social theory, science and technology studies, and ordinary language philosophy.