Cosmopolitics vs Biopolitics: Body, Technoutopia and Access to Space

Abstract

The paper examines the body as a stake in space exploration at the intersection of technology, material practices and utopian imaginaries. Based on an interpretation of the film “Gattaca” in the light of the problem of access to space, the paper opposes two techno-utopian regimes - cosmopolitics and biopolitics. Cosmopolitics assumes an equality of access to space for all beings, while biopolitics links bodily restrictions to the problem of regravitation. Regravitation is the biopolitical practice aimed at preserving the “terrestrial” conditions of the body's existence. The problem of access to space is exemplified by the debate over the boundary between Earth's atmosphere and space in the NewSpace movement. A radical step here is taken by space amateurs, defining the stratosphere as “almost space”. In this sense, the amateurs' space techno-utopia turns out to be cosmopolitan - not so much in the sense of space as a political order equal to all beings and entities, but in the sense of a politics of equal access to space beyond Earth. K. E. Tsiolkovsky's amateur techno-utopia proposes 96 a radical transformation of the body and its liberation from terrestrial gravity. People will become “citizens of the ether” with the help of an extreme environment and gain additional opportunities.