Polyphibian

(a term used by Ziva Ljubec to describe a hypothetical transformation - see Salamander and other useful terms)

• "As laws of physics temporarily dissolved in the safety of creative spirit, safe in a collective intellectual chrysalis, the conditions for metamorphosis of physical science were set."

Context

Humans now face an existential crisis that calls for a paradigm change. Unfortunately this implies changes at many levels simultaneously and this is a challenging idea. In her chapter Metadesigning Designing in the Anthropocene, Routledge, 2022, Ljubec argues that if we "continue designing solutions for creatures as we are, the environment will soon be exhausted". She envisions future Homo sapiens as a more resilient and adaptive being. This would mean becoming equally at home in a wider diversity of different environments. Rather than repeating the caterpillar to butterfly cycle, this universal process of metamorphosis must be encouraged to mutate into ever new forms of being.

Further reading

• Ljubec, Ž., 2022., 16 Becoming Polyphibious. Metadesigning Designing in the Anthropocene, Routledge, 2022 (link)