A Relational Anthropology: 5 The Future Human: Co-Individuating with New Technological and Ecological Cuts

Humans are not fixed. We are not defined by static properties, essences, or mental contents. We are relational nodes, co-individuating continuously with the potentials we inhabit — biological, semiotic, social, and increasingly, technological and ecological.

The human of tomorrow will not be a property-enhanced creature. It will be a dynamic participant in emergent lattices of potential, shaped by and shaping new systems of alignment.

Consider the forces at play:

1. Technological potentials: AI, computation, and networked systems are not external tools. They are part of the relational lattice through which humans circulate. Our cognition, action, and knowledge are increasingly co-structured with technological alignments.

2. Ecological potentials: Climate systems, habitats, and planetary dynamics are active participants in the relational network. Human futures emerge through the negotiation of constraints across these ecological fields.

3. Co-individuation as practice: Humans will not merely adapt to change; we will participate in shaping the lattices of potential. Our agency will be relational leverage: amplifying some alignments, suppressing others, and co-actualising emergent patterns across social, technological, and ecological systems.

This perspective reframes our collective responsibility:

• Futures are not “out there” waiting to be discovered; they are co-actualised through relational participation.

• Human development is not enhancement of properties; it is navigation and shaping of potential lattices.

• Ethical action is not moral prescription; it is alignment with relational currents that sustain viable, generative possibilities.

The future human is not a static blueprint. It is a dynamic node, circulating potentials, negotiating constraints, and co-individuating with technologies, ecosystems, and societies. To understand the human of tomorrow, we must understand the relational lattice itself, and our place within it.

In short: the human is not a thing to be perfected. The human is a process to be navigated. Our future is not given; it is co-created in the ongoing circulation of potentials.