Assemblage and Temporary Transhumanism in Motorcycle Riding: The Evolution of the Human?

Introduction

Riders throw their legs over their motorcycles for all types of reasons: to chase an escape from the mundane, to seek the thrills of speed, to feel the weightlessness of tight, twisty corners. To enjoy the opportunity to connect with friends, the riding community, nature, and the road. The notion of the rider becoming one with their bike is not a new idea, but it is one that is worth exploring through the framework of assemblage and transhumanism. Perhaps there is more to riding a motorcycle than adventure and excitement. Perhaps it is the ability for a human to become more than human, to represent an evolution unfound in other manners of human hobbies or transportation: perhaps the motorcycle truly does have the ability to set us free. This paper intends to engage in these theoretical explorations to seek the possibility of new philosophical connections.

The combination of human and machine is more than a connection that creates a sense of freedom or oneness with the road, as many bikers “would argue that the art of riding a bike can at times feel like a near-spiritual experience, one which brings our minds, bodies and souls into a heady and heightened state of being” (Miyake). The motorcycle is a representation of Deleuze and Guattari’s assemblage theory that can create a theoretical temporary transhumanism in which the motorcycle enables a true advancement of humanity, allowing us to achieve an evolved state of function and happiness when temporarily connected with our motorcycle. The enlightened state and mental benefits of a motorcycle are not only a reaction to the usage of the machine, but an evolutionary fusing of the human world with the machine world. This combination represents the beginnings of an evolution, of an assemblage able to “ward off an absolutely chaotic world” (Nail 29). The motorcycle is not just a machine derived for pleasure; it is a machine that, when combined with its human rider, can represent a rider as more than human.

This essay exists in the theoretical realm as it will attempt to establish new connections between motorcycle riding and Deleuze and Guattari’s (1987) assemblage theory as a means to alter the traditional view of transhumanism into what I have deemed a state to ‘temporary’ transhumanism. While transhumanist thinking typically alludes to a permanently altered state between the human and the machine (such as a robotic arm surgically attached to a human body), this work offers suggestions that transhumanism, specifically when a person is connected to a motorcycle, can be a temporary, non-permanent moment of becoming ‘more’ than human. It is important for this work to include the term ‘transhumanism’, as it indicates that the connection between human and machine can ameliorate existence for the person. This moves the idea beyond Donna Harraway’s (1991) theories on cyborgs and beyond ideas of the feeling connected to the motorcycle while riding. While this research will not provide definitive answers, it will provide lines of thinking through several philosophical themes. Like Esperanza Miyake (2015), I hope to “open up another theoretical debate surrounding motorcycles, motorcyclists, and motorcycling.” Similar to choosing to go on a motorcycle ride, a goal can be to pursue the unthought, or untraveled, to look for new connections and roads for insight.

Benefits to Biking

The old joke wonders if “you have ever seen a motorcycle parked outside a psychiatrist’s office” (MotoGarage) due to the traditional views that those who ride a motorcycle could not possibly be unhappy in their lives due to the perceived freedom that a motorcycle offers. The ability to engage in an activity that helps “your mood improve and your stress reduce as you cruise down scenic back roads” (gran) provides riders with opportunity only limited by the roads in their given area (and for us northerners, the weather as well). Motorcycle riding manages to incorporate “escapism and playfulness combined with a risky attitude” (Konstantelos and Christakis), which enable those willing to embark on the journey and challenge of riding the chance to have their “own space while getting time to forget everything that has been bothering [them]” (MotoGarage). A motorcycle ride has the possibility of offering a detachment from real-life for a time.

Riding a motorcycle comes with it a laundry list of risks and dangers for the rider, which non-riders tend to point out with frequency. It seems there is no truly safe time or place to enjoy the hobby without imminent danger. The stories of motorcycle accidents – navigating a busy and uncaring commute, or a solo accident on a country road when an animal chooses the wrong moment to step or fly into the path of the bike – read like the terrifying synopsis of a splatter horror film. Yet, people continue to ride. People continue to choose to ride. Research suggests that there are significant mental benefits to riding a motorcycle, that the activity can be “significant for mitigating everyday stresses” (Riders Plus), but this paper intends to explore that, in motorcycling, there exists a place beyond the notion of an activity for stress release and peace of mind.

With every ride that a biker takes, with every attempt to get outside and seek the comfort and uncertainty of the open road, there is the possibility of: the quest for something resembling perfection. While “humans differ widely in their conceptions of what their own perfection would consist of” (Sorgner, “Overhuman and Transhuman” 35), bikers do not. There is a generalized understanding of perfection in the community. It is the ideal temperature, the perfect season, the best group of people to ride with, and most importantly, the perfect road. While there are certainly shades of variety in these idealizations, many bikers would tend to agree on some of the general points of what might create the ‘perfect’ ride. This understanding of perfection, and our ability to act and interact within it, provides an entry point to the connections with transhumanism, the suggestion here that those who ride motorcycles have gone beyond the traditional definition of what it is to be human and have found something more, thanks to the assemblage^[1] with their motorcycles.

A Sense of Exploration

“Riding,” beyond the benefits of stress relief, “serves as an escape or an adventure” (Leblanc), a quest to engage with something new and unknown. The escape, from the doldrums of everyday life or the challenges of a high-pressure society, may come with risk, but biking – traditionally paired with the notions of freedom and rebellion – is an exercise in people’s “fundamental right to their own body, [to] shape who they are, and [to] live their lives” (Vita-Moore 2) in the best way see fit. For many, the best way to live their lives is through the experiences gained on the back of the motorcycle, and this is partly to exert control over the self, despite the warnings or threat of danger.

Motorcycling is not just about experience and adventure, but new experience and new adventure. There is a willingness to challenge not just the normative or the status quo, and I perceive bikers as the philosophers of the road, those who are willing to challenge the image of thought, what it means to think. Deleuze and Guattari suggest that “thinkers who do not renew the image of thought are not philosophers but functionaries who, enjoying a ready-made thought, are not even conscious of the problem[s] and are unaware even of the efforts of those they claim to take as their models” (qtd. in Buchanan, “Future of an Illusion” 473). If the status quo is ‘ordinary’ life, then perhaps motorcycling exists in opposition to this, in defiance of the regularities of life. From personal experience and observation, the motorcyclist is willing to think for their freedom, to see their new adventures as a liberation of the mind, as a philosophy of a better life. There exists a willingness to veer from their own image of thought in the pursuit of the new, to purposefully avoid the renewal. The pursuit of adventure is a pursuit of potentiality, of hope that there is more: “Most human beings develop not more than a small fraction of their potential mental and spiritual efficiency. The human race, in fact, is surrounded by a large area of unrealized possibilities, a challenge to the spirit of exploration” (Huxley 14). Motorcycling offers the opportunity for the motorcyclist to unlock these unrealized possibilities, to theoretically develop more of not only their own personal potential, but the potential of their lives.

New Roads

My view of the motorcycle philosopher is as someone not interested in what has been done, and typically “travelling to known places [does] not interest them, they would prefer [a trip] where the goal of the ride is the journey itself” (MotoGarage), relating to the attributed transcendentalist philosophy of Ralph Walso Emerson and his oft-used mantra of “life is a journey, not a destination”. The new roads that are craved by the rider serve as a goal, an endless pursuit that requires an “entire focus, and there’s no passenger sat next to you to chat to, so you must concentrate not on your problems but on the bike and the road ahead” (Yurday). There is a sense that this is an individual pursuit, even when in a group. Certainly, this is true for me with both my personal passion for riding motorcycles and belief in its benefits. This ability to demonstrate a singular focus is a step towards transcendence of the human being, the path through assemblage to transhumanism that will be explored below. Understanding the spirit of development and of becoming, the rider is able to follow the spirit of The Transhumanist Manifesto that states that they are “aware of the odds, informed by risk, alert to new discovery, welcoming challenge, ever-changing […] [they] become” (Vita-More 8). This notion of becoming is an important part of the philosophical theorizations of this essay; becoming and motorcycling itself are used as “theoretical verb[s] [which need] a series of encounters between the bike and biker—the bike-biker—to activate its political meaning” (Miyake). Becoming is a process that, the case of motorcycling, requires repetition to move towards enhancement and the personalized version of perfection. In the case of this research and the theorizations of this paper, the notions of ‘becoming’ are connected to those of human evolution and continued development, even past what has – until now – been considered the most evolved state of humanity.

Beyond Thrills

In his work “Assemblage Theory and Its Discontents,” Buchanan uses the example of climbing Mount Everest to demonstrate the importance of prestige in accomplishing a feat. He notes that “the effort to get to the top is not unimportant, by any means, but it always sits in a dialectical relationship with the symbolic dimension” (391), a symbolic dimension that includes this subcultural prestige. Much like how the symbolic stature of Everest would be lost if we could easily take a helicopter passenger to the top, so too is the esteem of the notion of journey and freedom if we choose to embark on travel in the caged confines of a car instead of the open-to-nature freedom of the motorcycle. The choice to climb Everest or to ride a motorcycle – regardless of the risk involved in either – enables people to be “active participants in [their] own evolution, […] shaping the image of who we are becoming” (Vita-Moore 9). Our image of self—as we are and as who we are becoming—is important to motorcycle riding, as “the specific time-space of riding a motorcycle—motorcycling—is where the tension between identity and its loss is temporarily resolved, or at least negotiated and re-configured” (Muyake). This evolution, or temporary resolution of self, theoretically leads to happiness, something that is significant in studying the “possibilities of creating a more favorable social environment” (Huxley 15), a place where there are happier people, more content in their lives, beyond the human pursuit for mediocrity and ‘getting by.’

The joining of humans and motorcycles, “the Deleuzian bike-biker […] is about considering the productive synthesis—not just the product—and the endless possibilities or re-organ-ising our identities” (Miyake), provides this possibility of evolution of the “new outlook that helps us become more human” (Vita-More 2). This coming together of parts to create something new – something better, something evolved – will allow for the exploration of Deleuze and Guattari’s assemblage theory in the next section, in the thinking of evolution and temporary transhumanism. The temporary fusing of humans with machines creates an “experience [that] is sublime. It’s meditation with a machine” (Louie). A meditation, or personal enlightenment that allows for a transhumanist transformation, if only temporarily.

Assemblage Theory

It can prove difficult to pin down an exact definition of the assemblage theory that was created by French philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, as they themselves “give a half dozen different definitions of the concept ‘assemblage’” (Hanley 416). There can also be issues stemming from the translation of the French word agencer, used in their original works, and the English translation to assemblage, which is “to join, to gather, to assemble” (Buchanan, “Future of an Illusion” 458). For the purposes of this thinking, the English translation will be utilized, with a specific connection to the notion of ‘joining’ pieces together, specifically the joining of humans as rider and motorcycle—bike-biker. An assemblage is a connection of things that alter the comprehension of what these things are. For a motorcycle, it is simply a machine on its own. However, when assembled with a rider, it becomes a machine for travel, or, in the case of this thinking, a mechanism to achieve freedom. If the rider is removed and the motorcycle is placed in a museum, then it becomes a work of art. The perception and understanding of an object changes based on its assemblage and re-assemblage. Their theories of assemblage can be further layered when considering the social assemblages at play in the bike-biker connection, such as the symbolic layer that could include the biker identity created by the assemblage. As with many theories developed by Deleuze and Guattari, assemblage can be pushed further to include other elements like the road, the weather, the traffic laws, the requirements (in some places) to wear a helmet. This creates a territory of experience where the assemblage exists to reveal its symbolic importance.

An assemblage is an “ongoing process rather than a static situation” (Buchanan, “Discontents” 383), and it is something that does not happen by accident. When considering the notion of rider and motorcycle joining together to form an assemblage, this is not a mistake, nor is it a coincidental union; it is “purposeful, […] the deliberate realisation of a distinctive plan” (Buchanan, “Discontents” 385). The choice is made by the rider to join in the assemblage with their bike, to become bike-biker, each and every time they decide to go for a ride. The assemblage is not beholden to permanence, but to ongoing changes and transformations, new mixtures that “produce a new kind of assemblage, always free to recombine again and change its nature” (Nail 23). A machinic assemblage can explore the “infinite manner in which machine parts connect, disconnect, reconnect, disassemble, and reassemble in a series of constantly moving parts to produce different meanings and functions” (Miyake). The change in assemblage can stem from a myriad of differences, from the weather outside to the mindset of the rider to the selection of gear they decide to wear on that particular ride. Each of these seemingly slight variations has the power and ability to change the nature—both physical and symbolic—of the assemblage.

A motorcycle is the quest for unity, similar to Thomas Nail’s (2017) discussion of assemblage as related to the functions of the human body. He notes that, the “intrinsic relations that various parts have to one another, […] an organic whole whose parts all work together like the organs of the human body” (Nail 22). This relates to the interaction between human and machine, as internal organs work together to perform a task, the responsiveness that it affords with the twist of the wrist, or the changes undergone to the physics of the ride when undertaking a hard lean into a corner. The parts of the machine – the engine, the wheels, the gears – are working with the will of the rider, responding to desire as though they are a single entity: an assemblage. This responsiveness is the “emergent collective abilities [that] were caused by interactions between the parts” (De Landa 69), and these interactions define the nature of the assemblage.

Through the changes the assemblage can undertake in its quest for unity, it does not have an “essence [,] because it has no eternally necessary defining features” (Nail 24); the features can always change, creating a moving definition of the assembled apparatus. Consider that there is no static definition of ‘motorcyclist’ or ‘rider’ or even ‘biker.’ Perhaps, when hearing these words, one might imagine a Harley Davidson rider wearing leather and a skull-cap helmet, or a slick, armored street bike rider. These definitions, while similar, do not demonstrate that there is a singular essence required in the creation of the motorcycle-human assemblage. Each assemblage is unique, but unified. This assembled connection enables the human rider to engage in another step along the path to transhumanism.

The Possibility of Freedom

If a primary function of the motorcycle assemblage could be theorized to seek freedom, then it could be stated that “objects give us a notion of origin, identity and direction; where we come from, who we are and where we plan to go” (Konstantelos and Christakis). The idea of being provided with a notion of direction stems from the bike-biker assemblage that is “thus a connective figure in motion who both loses and produces identity through the act of motorcycling” (Miyake). Assembled with the bike, riders form an identity of journey and destination, of goals beyond simple human survival, an engagement with experience. In this sense, the assemblage here becomes a “revolutionary machine” (Deleuze and Guattari 512), a revolution from the mundane: it is a notion of freedom.

Seeking freedom means that the assemblage is not attempting to “reproduce a pre-established assemblage, but instead create a new one” (Nail 36). The goal of the motorcycle should not be to mimic what other motorcycles or riders do, but to be one’s own rider, adhering to the abstract call of their own assemblage. There exists the freedom to be something new, to do something new, and within this possibility, there is potentially the “capacity for agency within and beyond the assemblage” (Buchanan, “Future of an Illusion” 459): the potential to act for freedom.

The definitions of what a motorcycle assemblage can do is being continually rewritten. New technologies lead to new, more capable bikes, rider equipment has increased safety exponentially, and the craving for the new has pushed riders to new and exciting boundaries. This stems from the question of “if we want to understand how an assemblage works, we do not ask what its essence is, but rather what can it do” (Nail 26). The technicalities of what it can do will continue to change, but one constant is the offer of a liberation from the normative, the traditional, the status quo.

Human/Motorcycle Assemblage

The notion in this theoretical thinking is that an “assemblage is a living arrangement” (Buchanan, “Discontents” 385), where human and motorcycle are representative of “contemplation with a machine” (Latham). However, it must be clear that the assemblage here is not one that is fixed; in fact, the opposite is true in the case of the motorbike. We do not know what it “might possibly become or what relations it may enter into, so we do not yet know its universal or essential features” (Nail 24). It is not clear what the completed version of what a bike and rider is—or can be—as it is open to infinite perspectives (such as with the layer of social assemblage), potentials, and assemblages; we can never know its true essence, but only continue to attempt to define or discuss it. The motorcycle assemblage refuses to be pigeon-holed, as this would represent a suffocation of its freedom, an adherence to a status quo, and  the ability to offer transcendence. It is versatile enough that “when one [aspect of the assemblage] changes, so does the other” (Nail 26). This is an ever-becoming.

The manner in which the rider assembles with their bike is an important and unique bond; it is a “total unification of mind, body, and situational awareness [that] riding commands of you [that] can have a meditative and somewhat spiritual effect” (Cole). The motorcycle becomes more than a mechanic possession of the rider; there is a sense of oneness with the machine, an emotional bond based on “control and mastership as is the case of mastering a musical instrument” (Konstantelos and Christakis). Despite the rider having the ability to ‘learn’ the assemblage and exert control over it, if we apply Nail’s (2017) thinking to motorcycles, the “personae do not transcend the assemblage but are immanent to it. They are not the origin of the assemblage and do not control or program the assemblage in advance” (Nail 27), control only happens when the assemblage is being enacted. Further, one can not have a personae “without an assemblage of which it is part, but one cannot have an assemblage without agents that bring it about” (Nail 27) —one can not be a biker without a bike. While Nail’s ideas were not originally connected to motorcycling, they provide a unique theorization through the connections. It is a relationship where one not only needs, but requires, the other.

Motorcycle assemblages are extremely varied, both in the types of bikes available and types of riders. For every style of motorcycle, there is a rider with a different intention and motivation to their undertaking of this hobby and lifestyle. In this sense, the motorcycle serves as a tool, something in which the person can combine themselves in an attempt to create something specific. In using this tool, our “mental construct of our physical selves is extremely malleable, and can expand to encompass a tool” (Cole). The tool – the bike – becomes a part of our selves, and we can envision it as a part of the space of our personhood, and extension of our humanity.

In pursuit of our human evolution, there has been a historical quest for speed and power. To prove that we are evolving and developing as a species, we must be able to move faster and arrive at whichever destination in the quickest way possible. The development of methods of travel, including the motorcycle, are perfect examples; however, the desire for speed expands to all realms of our existence. We want to build homes faster, develop vaccines faster, become educated in the quickest way possible, and cook our food as fast as possible. Much of our societal goals and beliefs are based on the idea of speed and the saving of time. There is an extreme valuation of time and its limitedness. Many assemblages have been created on the basis of speed, and “of all the different properties that these assemblages may have, the property of speed can be singled out as one of the most significant” (De Landa 75). De Landa compares this quest for speed with the varied gaits of horses, similar to the varied styles of motorcycles designed and built for different functions and different attempts to “solve the problem of how to move faster once a critical speed has been reached” (75). Motorcycles further this desire to include other elements of movement such as mobility, traction, or durability.

The pursuit of speed, in an attempt to essentially control time – or at least to control the manner in which we use our time – is significant as we enter into an “open feedback loop in which the condition, elements, and agents [of an assemblage] participate equally in the process of transformation” (Nail 33). The goal remains to change, transform, and evolve the human. The importance here is that the machine plays as important a role as the human does. The assemblage is a balance between the two, not a combination that prioritizes one over the other. Both pieces are needed for the assemblage to work and serve its purpose of transhuman evolution.

Transhumanism

Continuing through the development of the assemblage process, the rider and the motorcycle push into the notions of transhumanism, a “worldview that seeks a quality of life that brings about perpetual progress, self-transformation, practical optimism, visionary solutions, and critical thinking” (Vita-More 2). These transhuman characteristics exist when the rider decides to assemble with their ride. The hope for a great ride, the progress of movement forwards, the thinking involved in executing a safe trip, and the transformed individual that arrives at the destination unscathed. The notions of transhumanism acknowledge that a “human being has only a limited amount of potential and capacities, as he belongs to the human species, and any species is defined by its limits. It cannot go beyond that limit” (Sorgner, “Overhuman and Transhuman” 31). Except that when assembled with a motorcycle, it can.

Transhumanism is “in favour of technologies and other means which could be used for the enhancement of human intellectual, physical, and emotional capacities” (Sorgner, “Overhuman and Transhuman” 33), yet it is not “simply adding gadgetry to our bodies [that will] make us modern or evolved” (Vita-More 5). Traditional views of transhumanism view this adding of gadgetry, or of technical elements to the human being, as being a permanent fixture, a transformation not to be undone. However, in the spirit of the philosophical thinking in this essay, the notion of transhumanism is to be considered as a temporary one. To engage in this thinking, one might consider removable tech that offers human enhancement, but might be removed or changed. For a theoretical example, a robotic arm connected to a human may offer varied interchangeable hand attachments, each with a different purpose. In this case, the transhuman qualities of each attachment would be temporary, and the person would also have the option of no attachment, ending the assemblage that led to the transhuman evolution. The proper and considered connection we make with technology, such as motorcycle technology, enables an enhancement of the person, an evolution of our physical, as well as mental, beings. The act of riding a motorcycle, and the argument here, irrevocably changes a human, making them not just someone who has experienced something different or outside of the normative, but someone who has garnered a new understanding of the world and its functioning. Through the assemblage and journey to transhumanism, the human has become more than. The rider is evolved, as they can ‘see’ something that those who remain unassembled are unable to see. Despite the temporary assemblage and transhumanism, the person remains evolved even once their journey has concluded. The impacts of the temporary transhumanism, therefore, theoretically outlast the transhuman assemblage. This transformation, this “augmentation and enhancement to the human body and brain are essential for survival” (Vita-More 1). The motorcycle assemblage represents both a “biological and technological evolution” (Ferrando 27) that ensures not only our survival, but an increased level of enjoyment of our survival. Transhumans, in the case of riders, are not just making it another day without succumbing to death, but they are making it an enhanced time that is valued and desired. This recognition of how time, and life, can be best spent is the lasting evolution created through assemblage and transhumanism.

“Technology is neither the other to be feared nor to rebel against” (Ferrando 28), it is the possibility for an enlightenment that could create permanent and positive change in humans. As Huxley posited, “human life as we know it in history is a wretched makeshift, rooted in ignorance; and that it could be transcended by a state of existence based on the illumination of knowledge and comprehension” (14). Becoming transhuman through motorcycles enables the shedding of ignorance.

The Machine of Liberation

There exists a great irony with transhumanism and motorcycles in that humans use technology to regain and recapture a connection with nature and the natural world that is typically assumed technology steals from us. The assemblage with a machine allows riders to reconnect with their human senses, something that our technology-driven world often reduces rather than enhances. This is a type of re-evolution, reconnecting to what has made us human in the first place: “Being immersed in the outdoors and changing climates helps a rider connect to nature using all of the senses” (Koewler) and this ability to be out of doors, outside of the protective insulation of homes, businesses, or vehicles, creates happiness, as “being near trees or even having a clear view of trees, [provides] a sense of calm” (Koewler). The proximity to nature afforded by the motorcycle assemblage creates an escape from the hectic and a knowledge that the evolution of peace and happiness can exist with the slightest twist of the wrist. This twist of acceleration “releases adrenaline which, in turn, releases endorphins. The fresh air and the sense of freedom releases dopamine; these ‘feel good’ hormones improve our mood, increase pleasure and minimize pain” (smartmotorcyclingguide). The endorphin rush is not a secret that only motorcyclists are aware of; yet, it is the ease in which they can access it once in their assembled form that creates it as a mechanical evolution of the human.

Another step of liberation experienced by the transhuman rider is the return to a presence of life in a world that has become increasingly disconnected. The negative assemblages with technology often have the inverse impact of the moto-transcendence offered by bikes. The motorcycle encourages a return to our own lives, allowing us to be “present in every changing moment of the landscape, topography, and climate” (Louie). The assemblage offers a “unique solitude” (Ilminen), one that allows for humans to still feel connected, even if they are technically apart from one another. They are connected to the machine, to the road, to the landscape and the views, and to other riders in their group.

The motorcycle has allowed us to “elevate the human condition” (Ferrando 32), to act as a “self-upgrading ritual; thus riding not only enhances the image of self, but also supports the sense that life is worth living” (Konstantelos and Christakis). This is not to suggest that the riding of motorcycles is the only manner in which a human can realize that life is worth living, but it is suggesting that it is something that promotes this realization and to realize this is to see beyond the ordinary into something greater and more evolved.

Transhumanism does not “see the human as the final stage of our species evolution” (Vita-More 7), affirming the notion that there is the potential for more, if we are willing to look for it, and create the assemblages to reach it. There is a sense of freedom in this knowledge, in looking at the human not as an end point, that has achieved all that can be achieved and with zero potentiality for improvement. Even the assembled biker is not the end point of human evolution, simply a point further along the line that the human would stand on their own, unassembled or unenhanced via technology.

This theory – this philosophy – values liberalism, which “implies that people have the right to choose to live much longer and healthier lives, to enhance their memory and other intellectual faculties, to refine their emotional experiences and subjective sense of well-being, and generally to achieve a greater degree of control over their own lives” (Sorgner, “Overhuman and Transhuman” 33). This choice, the decision to try and live a better life, is the ultimate control over our own destinies and representative of the transhuman values of intellectual evolution. It is a liberation understood by the few, and not forced upon the many. The transcendent nature of motorcycle riding is understood by those who do it, but the transhuman biker does “not intend to impose their values upon other people, as transhumanists place emphasis on individual freedom and individual choice in the area of enhancement technologies” (Sorgner, “Overhuman and Transhuman” 35). It is the decision of the individual to ride or not, to pursue this liberation or not.

Temporary Transhumanism

As theorized at the beginning of this work, the transhumanist state achieved through the assemblage of human and machine need not be a permanent fixture, despite the typical views of transhuman enhancements as permanent. Transhumanism has been theorized as possibly being temporary, despite our frequent focus on its more permanent state, or perhaps on the long-term goal of posthumanism, a state where the human has been permanently assembled with a machine. The permanent state of transhumanism, or those who may argue that once evolved through transhumanism return to a natural state is no longer desired (More), has been expressed in the scholarship of philosophers such as Nick Bostrom (2003, 2006), Ray Kurzweil (2005), and Max More (2013). Transhumanism, as represented in this essay, is considered a state of transition, not permanence, as explored in the works of N. Katherine Hayles (1999), James Hughes (2004), and Stefan Lorenz Sorgner (2020). These scholars suggest that transhumanism is flexible and reversible, as easily as one could mount or dismount a motorcycle and represents “the transhuman [as] the being in the middle, between the human and the posthuman” (Sorgner, On Transhumanism, 47). This thinking aligns more closely with the ideas set out in this writing, as the suggestions are that it is in the mental results of temporary transhumanism that are permanent (the increased happiness, for example), and not the machinic assemblages themselves. The connection between rider and bike is always a temporary one, as the ride must always end. However, the impacts of the temporary transhumanism are lasting to the point of being considered human evolution, theoretically taking people to a state they had not been capable of understanding prior to the formation of the assemblage. There is the movement towards “drawing your mind into a naturally meditative state” (smartmotorcyclingguide) where the rider can at least make an “attempt to make sense of our lives” (smartmotorcyclingguide) instead of merely ignoring issues and moving forward without resolution. This is the realization of “new possibilities of and for human nature” (Huxley 15) through this meditative, enhanced state.

The purchase or acquisition of a motorcycle can be an expensive financial decision, yet there is a bond felt with this machine once assembled that goes beyond the typical large purchase. This bond is an “attachment to objects [that] is an investment in the extended self” (Konstantelos and Christakis), something that is more than a simple material possession. Buying a motorcycle can be representative of extending or expanding our self, affording the opportunity for liberation. The chance for extension is there for those who choose. By means of technology or other methods, “any human being […] might be able to develop into a [transhuman]” (Sorgner, “Overhuman and Transhuman” 36), to create their version of the bike-biker assemblage.

The assemblage of human and motorcycle is not permanent, enabling this temporary transhumanism: “Assemblages are thus never total or homogenous. All assemblages are always undergoing some kind of adaptation or change” (Nail 35). As an assemblage has been suggested here as a step towards transhumanism, then its non-permanence would indicate the possibility of a temporary state of transhumanism. The motorcycle adapts to the road, to its upkeep, the rider adapts to the motorcycle, to the weather, to the group, changes in speed, the rules of the road. The ability to change and transform with the many variables aids in the assurance that the assemblage can not possibly be a permanent one, but a nomadic one. A nomadic assemblage is, as suggested by Nail (2017), “arranged in such a way that the conditions, elements, and agencies of the assemblage are able to change and enter into new combinations without arbitrary limit” (Nail 32). The opportunities presented are endless.

A motorcycle assemblage is not permanent, as noted by Deleuze and Guattari: “There is no abstract machine, or machines, in the sense of a Platonic idea, transcendent, universal, eternal” (510, emphasis added). But it is within this non-permanence that the most important effects and impacts are created. The evolved human understands that there is a non-permanence to their transhumanism, but – more importantly – that the opportunity to regain its benefits are always there, merely a ride away.

The Machine of Revolution

The results of temporary transhuman “sheds worn-out biases and integrates new values and methods for longevity – extending the maximum lifespan, improving biology, and increasing mental acuity” (Vita-More 7). The bike provides an “awareness of personal identity” (Vita-More 4) based on the social assemblage created when joined with the motorbike, that is significant in the understanding of our place in the world, important to comprehend as a part of our process of evolution: we must know where we stand in order to be aware of what we surpass.

“No one is subject to themselves alone” (Nail 27-28), and we exist as parts of something larger, even if it is as seemingly simple as an assemblage with a motorcycle. This enables us to become “capable of different things, [which] requires a constantly renewed analysis of assemblages” (Nail 27). Here is our chance for change, both internal and external, for evolution. Our part in the larger combinations create the “nomadic assemblages that are the ones that create something new or revolutionary for their time” (Nail 33): the temporary transhuman. If motorcycle riding is a “combination of exhilaration, fear, relaxation, and pleasure that changes you forever” (von Imhof), then this change represents our evolved state, that of knowing, understanding, and becoming. This is not a change that the transhuman is wary of, but accepts it as a needed progression forwards.

Evolution

The intention of this research has been to create a theoretical connection between the theory of assemblage and the philosophy of transhumanism, with the end state being one of an evolved human. This section will explore what evolution—primarily cognitive evolution— looks like in the sense of this analysis.

The motorcycles, and the culture that surrounds them, “embody non-conformity” (Petreikis) and they frequently remain emblematic of rebellion and counter-culture. The engagement with the motorcycle does not conform to the typical regulations of the human portion of the assemblage because of the changes it affords for the rider that last beyond the temporary transhumanism when connected to the bike itself.

There is much research that suggests that biking promotes higher brain functioning, allowing the mind to function “at its current prime and […] even establish higher levels of cognitive function” (gran), beyond what might be expected of the ‘normal’ human. These higher levels stem from learning to “live in a semi-permanent state of hyper-awareness” (von Imhof), viewing the word differently – and perhaps more quickly – than might be considered typical. It has been suggested that riding a motorcycle “can make you smarter and prevent the onset of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease” (smartmotorcyclingguide), powerful abilities for a machine-human assemblage. The suggestion of evolution here is that the assemblage promotes not just cognitive improvement, but cognitive healing. Returning to the earlier notions of time discussed earlier, a final suggestion is that riding a motorcycle is a manner to “help reduce the impact that aging can have on cognitive function” (Koewler). Perhaps this research is not bold enough to suggest that a motorcycle is essentially a fountain of youth, but the mental benefits are apparent and this evolution does not transpire without the motorcycle as part of the assemblage to create the transhuman. Together, the assembled rider and their motorcycle can “surpass any kind of mechanics” (Deleuze and Guattari 511). This evolved human, on their motorcycle, is “controlling time and making life flow” (Leblanc).

Humans assembled with motorcycles are not the end point of transhuman evolution, however. It is not posthumanism as a permanent state (Bostrom, Posthumanist FAQ). It is a stop in a long journey, as “the transhuman is a biological-technical organism, a transformation of the human species that continues to evolve with technology” (Vita-More 3). Changes will continue to occur, both in the technology and in those who assemble with it, creating further iterations of the bike-biker assemblage. This desire to push forward, much like the motorcyclist seeking the next adventure, is the “kind of change that is capable of creating and sustaining a revolutionary movement” (Nail 36). The evolution of the moto-human assemblage will be “partly autonomous and partly influenced by the environment created by the larger assemblage of which it is a part” (De Landa 72) —the world of motorcycles.

Conclusion

The human being is not lost in all of these combinations with technology, assemblage theory, and transhumanism. Ferrando suggests that while “transhumanism offers a very rich debate on the impact of technological and scientific developments in the evolution of the human species, [it still] holds a humanistic and humancentric perspective” (32). In the end, it is still a human choice to throw their leg over the bike, to rev the engine, and to take off to the endless possibilities of the road. On our motorcycles, we are not robots, or cyborgs, even if this connection may appear, at first, to be a perfect fit with Donna Harraway’s theory of cyborgs (Miyake). However, a “cyborg is positioned as an endpoint for the integration of human, machine, and computer; however, the transhuman is a continuous human evolution” (Vita-More 4), and we willingly engage in this assemblage to make ourselves evolved, to make ourselves more, to make ourselves timeless.

This paper has attempted to engage in a theoretical thinking that brings elements of assemblage theory and transhumanist scholarship alongside the hobby of motorcycle riding. While this thinking may not have resulted in concrete or definite connections, it has, as suggested by Miyake (2015), been “more a journey that has attempted to make open-ended theoretical connections to produce potentially new lines of enquiry about motorcycles.” In the spirit of the suggestions put forth in this writing, many of the ideas were first considered while in the temporary transhumanist state of being on the back of my motorcycle, considering how I might just see the world differently in the bike-biker assemblage.

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