In 1993 Michael Taussig's Mimesis and Alterity revitalized the power of the mimetic faculty to craft a vision of nature that was neither the alienated subject of modern science nor the passively malleable medium of late twentieth-century social constructivism. Taussig drew explicitly on a tradition of earlier twentieth-century scholarship—Walter Benjamin, Roger Caillois, and Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno—that located in the mimetic faculty a way out of a techno-fetishized social milieu. This essay explores how mimesis has once again been endowed with revolutionary potential in the contemporary moment through the growing field of biomimicry. I show how mimesis promises a way toward a future free from human hubris and ecological catastrophe—and a way out of the conditions that have created the Anthropocene. I explore how this works in biomimetics, with a detailed look at one of the most celebrated examples of the biomimetic paradigm: the gecko's foot. But, I ultimately suggest that what has been so seductive about mimesis throughout history is that it offers a “way out” of political confrontation. In doing so, I argue mimesis too easily serves as a double mirror—rather than transform production, nonhuman life at the level of biology becomes a force for production.

中文翻译：

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重新思考拟态：人类世的自由与默许

1993 年 Michael Taussig 的 Mimesis 和 Alterity 重振了模仿能力的力量，创造了一种自然景象，它既不是现代科学的异化主题，也不是 20 世纪后期社会建构主义的被动可塑性媒介。Taussig 明确借鉴了 20 世纪早期的学术传统——Walter Benjamin、Roger Caillois、Max Horkheimer 和 Theodor W. Adorno——在模仿教师中找到了一种摆脱技术迷恋社会环境的方法。本文探讨了仿生学如何通过不断发展的仿生学领域在当代再次被赋予革命性的潜力。我展示了模仿如何承诺一条通往没有人类狂妄自大和生态灾难的未来的道路，以及一条摆脱创造人类世的条件的道路。我探索了这在仿生学中是如何工作的，并详细研究了仿生范式中最著名的例子之一：壁虎的脚。但是，我最终认为，历史上模仿的魅力在于它提供了一种摆脱政治对抗的“出路”。在这样做时，我认为模仿太容易充当双重镜子——而不是转化生产，生物学层面的非人类生命成为生产的力量。