Timothy Morton - Humankind: Solidarity with Nonhuman People

I would like to thank my editor Federico Campagna for his brilliant insight and aid. Federico caused such deep and positive changes to my writing that I will be forever in his debt.

My research assistants Kevin MacDonnell and Randi Mihajlovic worked tirelessly helping me to finish the manuscript. Beyond this, Kevin has been my assistant for two years now and my scholarly life is so much better for it. Thank you, Kevin, for everything.

Nicolas Shumway, Dean of Humanities at Rice, deserves a special mention for his untiring belief in what I do. Im forever in his debt.

So many people shared thoughts and suggestions, kindness and support. Among them were Blaise Agera y Arcas, Heitham Al-Sayed, Ian Balfour, Andrew Battaglia, Anna Bernagozzi, Daniel Birnbaum, Ian Bogost, Tanya Bonakdar, Marcus Boon, Dominic Boyer, David Brooks, Alex Cecchetti, Stephen Cairns, Eric Cazdyn, Ian Cheng, Kari Conte, Carolyn Deby, Nigel Clark, Juliana Cope, Laura Copelin, Annie Culver, Sarah Ellenzweig, Olafur Eliasson, Anna Engberg, Jane Farver, Dirk Felleman, Joo Florncio, Mark Foster Gage, Peter Gershon, Hazel Gibson, Jga Jhannsdttir, Jn Gnarr, Kathelin Gray, Sofie Grettve, Lizzy Grindy, Bjrk Gumundsdttir, Zora Hamsa, Graham Harman, Rosemary Hennessy, Erich Hrl, Emily Houlik-Ritchey, Cymene Howe, Edouard Isar, Luke Jones, Toby Kamps, Greg Lindquist, Annie Lowe, Ingrid Luquet-Gad, Karsten Lund, Boyan Manchev, Kenric McDowell, Tracy Moore, Rick Muller, Jean-Luc Nancy, Judy Natal, Patricia Noxolo, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Genesis P-Orridge, Solveig vsteb, Andrea Pagnes, Albert Pope, Asad Raza, Alexander Regier, Ben Rivers, Judith Roof, David Ruy, Mark Schmanko, Sabrina Scott, Nicolas Shumway, Solveig Sigurardttir, Emilija karnulyt, Gayatri Spivak, Haim Steinbach, Verena Stenke, Samuel Stoeltje, Susan Sutton, Jeff VanderMeer, Lucas van der Velden, Teodora Vikstrom, Jennifer Walshe, Sarah Whiting, Clint Wilson, Tom Wiscombe, Susanne Witzgall, Cary Wolfe, Annette Wolfsberger, Hyesoo Woo, Martyn Woodward, Els Woudstra and Jonas ukauskas.

And a big thank you to everyone who showed up to classes and lectures in the last two years. Talking with you is my lab, and theres no way I could know what I know now without you.

Over the years its become clear that if it wasnt for my many encounters with Jarrod Fowler, I probably wouldnt have written very much; once again Im beyond grateful to him for his relentless downloading of conceptual quartz crystal powder into something like my head. This book is indebted to the thought of my firned Jeffrey Kripal, whose work on the paranormal and the sacred sparked many thoughts.

While I was writing this book, indigenous people and non-indigenous people in solidarity with them were struggling against the militarized forces of petroculture to prevent the Dakota Access Pipeline in the United States from destroying people of all kinds, whether human or not. They call themselves the Water Protectors. This book is dedicated to them.

There was a time when men imagined the Earth as the center of the universe. The stars, large and small, they believed were created merely for their delectation. It was their vain conception that a supreme being, weary of solitude, had manufactured a giant toy and put them into possession of it

Man issued from the womb of Mother Earth, but he knew it not, nor recognized her, to whom he owed his life. In his egotism he sought an explanation of himself in the infinite, and out of his efforts there arose the dreary doctrine that he was not related to the Earth, that she was but a temporary resting place for his scornful feet and that she held nothing for him but temptation to degrade himself.

Emma Goldman and Max Baginski, Mother Earth

Gosh, youve really got some nice toys here.

Replicant Roy, Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, dir.)