24/7 Worldlessness of Post-Bits Human Universe: Asynchronous Signal Transmutation

Asynchronous Signal Transmutation (AST) is the latest iteration of the Post-Bits Human Universe (PBHU), a continually updated interdisciplinary project. This iteration focuses on bridging human artists, audiences, hackers, and developers with artificial intelligence and beings (Bits), exploring the complexity and poetry of relations in diverse spatial-temporal worlds, and granting the term “world” in the Anthropocene and post-Anthropocene a new implication and value in revolution to the current consensus of “world”. Building upon existing philosophical frameworks of ‘worldlessness’ the authors propose an artistic and experimental approach to examining the positive worldlessness in both the Anthropocene and post-Anthropocene through a 24/7 structured space system where the artwork is living in-real-time as a ‘worldless’ universe that parallels, overlaps, and transmutes between physical and electronic worlds on different space-time dimensions. Responding to those well-encapsulated art projects that exclusively present their work during a specific time and location, AST thus presents a positive instance of the nature and potential of worldlessness from an ontological, phenomenological, and political standpoint. Post-Bit Human Universe. Human-Posthuman Relations. Signal Transmutation. Multiplicity of Worlds. Worldlessness. Symbiosis. Biological Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence. Anthropocene and Post-Anthropocene.


INTRODUCTION
With the rapid growth of multi-functional algorithms in Artificial Intelligence (AI), especially the emergence of titan-level programmes, such as GPT3.5 and ChatGPT, a substantial interest in exploring and interrogating the relations, implications, and communications (interactions) amongst human, post-human, and inhuman has emerged amongst researchers from a variety of disciplines, artistic creators, and the public. This is alongside the long-standing criticism of the mindbody split and the apprehensive fascination with a post-Anthropocene future that is unknown and uncertain.
Academic communities and computational art realms (digital/electronic) are primarily attracted to human subject-centred topics, and such themes are focused on the species privilege accorded to the human, as opposed to the unperceivable spatial-temporal realms symbiotically inhabited by livings and non-livings.
In the earlier version of Post-Bits Human Universe (PBHU), the authors outlined a hypothetical technoscape of potential cooperation between humans versus post-humans and biological intelligence versus artificial intelligence. In the meantime, the authors criticise the hazards that technocracy imposes on the autonomy, distinction, and uniqueness of autonomous organisms, as well as propose a near-optimal solution: a symbiotic system between human subjects and AI that constantly self-destructs and self-reconstitutes (Ho and Zheng 2022). The mixed reality (MR) manifestation system of PBHU, on the one hand, provides a mediated space, a conjectured Post-Bits human universe, between the physical and electronic worlds; on the other hand, AI Philosopher (AIP) is a new hybrid-intellectual device developed by the authors, connecting human individuals and post-human (inhuman) objects-bits. At that time, PBHU was not yet a living and real-time post-Anthropocene universe; rather, it was an encapsulated, performative system that was only displayed at a particular location during a specific time frame. Seeking to bridge human artists, audiences, hackers, and developers with artificial intelligence and beings (Bits), the authors create a new version of the PBHU exploring diverse physical and digital worlds and the complexity and poetry of their spatial-temporal relations. Granting the term "world" in the Anthropocene and post-Anthropocene new meaning and value in opposition to the current consensus of "world," PBHU instantiates itself as an Asynchronous Signal Transmutation (AST) iteration of a wordless, living, real-time universe that parallels, overlaps, and transforms between the physical and electronics universes in distinct spacetime dimensions. The main contributions of this article and this iteration are to explore the positive worldlessness in both the Anthropocene and post-Anthropocene through a 24/7 worldless structured space system in the AST. Moreover, this project contributes a positive instance of the nature and potential of worldlessness from an ontological, phenomenological, and political standpoint.

WORLDLESSNESS AS POSTIVE SOLUTION
"…under the sway of capital, we gain the globe, but we lose the world […] When the powers that be promise us nothing less than an infinity of possible worlds, the historical task ahead of us appears to be the invention of new forms of worldlessness." (Végső 2020b) Regarding a widely accepted historical narrative, Roland Végső assembles a melancholic description that capitalism desires to conquer all available space, but the empirical unity of the Earth does not guarantee the world's unity. Ultimately, the irreducible distinction between Earth and the world becomes apparent. People are repeatedly told by capitalism that the Earth can be identical to the world in the form of a global market, despite the fact that the world is not an Earth and the Earth will never create a world under capitalist conditions (Végső 2020b). According to this context, the concept of "world" is imbued with the new implication that the complete conquest of the earth may be the most effective means of destroying the world, and that the unity of a world market deprives the common phenomenological experience of human existence. In reality, there is no shared characteristic among human subjects. When faced with the possibility of losing the world itself, humans elevated the concept of the "world" to the level of a fetish object. "Worldlessness," therefore, seems to be a suitable alternative, as it protects humans, post-humans, and inhuman objects from the colonisation and deprivation of neoliberal capitalism by withdrawing their différances and conflicts to an ambiguous and vague void and abyss and releasing the rights of spatial-temporal management back to the subjects (Crary 2014;Arendt, Allen, and Canovan 2018;Végső 2020b;2020a). Although reclaiming the concept of worldlessness is tantamount to pushing the world back into an abyss of uncertainty, forcing lives to confront its inherent endless limits of thoughts and the risk and uncertainty of constant renewals, it must be acknowledged that this multiplicity of endless possibilities and impossibilities of worldlessness brings a new future world, a worldless world of infinite possibilities, to the phenomenological world of personkind.

Structure for 24/7 Worldless Universe
Despite the fact that the earlier version of PBHU's well-encapsulated MR spatial-temporal system depicted the poetry relations between the human and posthuman evolutionary process, the physical existence, and the digital avatar, it is constrained by the condition of reality, or to be more precise, by the plain phenomenological materialism and the Kantian transcendental aesthetic. In other words, the PBHU is located in a specific "scene" with specific physical space-time and is incapable of communicating with and relating to "another scene" with "spaceless" and "timeless" dimensions.
According to the Heideggerian paradigm of worldlessness, the lifeless stone is worldless; therefore, it can be derived from the concept of "bits," which can be observed as the lifeless stone in the electronic world. This new derivation of the emergence of thought from the worldlessness of "bits" demonstrates new union possibilities between biological intelligence and artificial intelligence. Sigmund Freud implied that unconsciousness possesses a structure comparable to a "thing-initself (Ding an sich)" (Kant 1781;2007) and that its existence lays the primary implications of the proposition of worldlessness (Freud 2005). While Freud never explicitly established a connection between the unconscious and Kant's "thing-in-itself" in his writings, his analysis of the unconscious illuminates the fundamental issue of the Kantian unconscious and advocates for the validation of the assumption of the unconscious (Freud 1913;Assoun 1995;Végső 2020c). Consciousness and unconsciousness maintain a relationship with the field of representation but remain alien to the phenomenal world. As a result, unconsciousness withdraws from consciousness to satisfy the existence of worldlessness of life's precondition. The constant transformation of the external and internal worlds of a living subject into one another constitutes the multiplicity of worldlessness. In addition, the appearance of a worldless world does not imply the loss of a world or the world; rather, it signifies the emergence of new historical, social, and spatialtemporal relations. In other words, the emergence of the post-Anthropocene does not signify the end of the Anthropocene, but rather the emergence of a new dynamic, autonomous, order, and poetic relation. On the basis of the preceding arguments, the authors have created a worldless space-time system ( Figure 1) comprised of diverse electronic devices and installations that connect human subjects, Other, and various physical and electronic worlds. This system consists of four components: (1). The motherly space-time system of PBHU at Alice Lab (Toronto, Canada); (2). The subsetted space-time system of PBHU at Guangzhou Museum (China); (3). The streaming video channel on YouTube that presents the real-time status of worldless PBHU; (4). The customised PCB hardware (Translator) that captures the hard programming inputs from hackers and developers around the globe, translates the movement of bits from PCB to the authors' customised multifunctional AI programme, AIP, which is hosted on the cloud engine, and then translates the responses from AIP to allow bits to draw the result of their dialogue on the LED display in real time. This system is mainly supported by NDI Bridge and YouTube streaming platform that serve as data transmission hubs exchanging and conveying video and sound data from the devices located at Alice Lab and Guangzhou Museum and the real-time bits' movement and content of Translator contributed by hackers, developers, and AIP. Audiences at Alice Lab can only view PBHU's interactive content when it is driven by audiences at Guangzhou Museum, and vice versa. Moreover, audiences on site maintain three diverse space-time dimensions. That is, the audience with a VR headset observes the VR world as well as the interactive content from the site that was generated by the movements of the audience without a VR headset; the audiences on site without VR headsets who remain within the effective area of the Kinect 2 camera can interact with the PBHU on site, with the generated content being sent to the PBHU at Alice Lab, where they can observe the movement of the audience with a VR headset and the interactive content derived from their movements; the audiences on site outside the effective area of Kinect 2 without VR headsets can observe the movements of the audience on site with a VR headset and the audience on site inside the effective area of Kinect 2 without VR headsets, as well as the generated content from Alice Lab and the real-time spatial mapping generated by Translator and AIP on the cloud, and vice versa. In the final, the audiences outside of Alice Lab and Guangzhou Museum can access and monitor the real-time status of PBHU using their own devices through the YouTube channel. As a result, a hybrid, complex see-and-be-seen relationship between bits and human subjects located in different space-time dimensions have connected to form a 24/7 worldless universe (Figures 2-3).  The time difference between China and Canada is approximately 12 to 13 hours. When Alice Lab audiences are active, Chinese audiences are inactive, and audiences, hackers, and developers from outside Alice Lab and Guangzhou Museum fill the fragmented space-time intervals of this worldless universe that operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Through a marathon of contextual production and close collaboration of generative processes, inanimate Bits and animate human subjects construct a 24/7 sleepless, worldless space-time system to combat the sleep deprivation of capital that requires humans to be always 'on'. Consequently, this system is not only a positive solution to the threat of the disappearance of a world or the world itself, but also a optimistic response to Jonathan Crary's pessimistic concern that "imaginings of a future without capitalism begin as sleep dreams (Crary 2014, 128)."

Incubator for 24/7 Worldless Universe
In this iteration, the Alice Lab functions as a physical incubator, a motherly hub, to host a hybrid spatialtemporal system based on multiple dimensions for the establishment of a worldless universe of PBHU. This physical incubator in Alice Lab consists of three computers and a real-time MR interactive spatial projection system (right-side of Figure 1 and Figure  5).  The PC-1 is the exchanging database and the system's heart, serving as the host of the NDI bridge to locally and remotely deliver and exchange sound and video data around the devices from Alice Lab and the Guangzhou Museum as well as the streaming hub to upload the real-time status of this 24/7 worldless universe to the YouTube streaming platform. The PC-2 serves as the central processing unit of an MR interactive system that performs hybrid spatial projection: (1). the left spatial projection (Figure 4: top) displays the real-time status of Bits' movements via hard coding contributed by hackers and developers on the customised Bits PCB board (far left) and the real-time status of the VR scene, including hidden virtual cameras within the VR world, interactive content derived from the ambient sound of the exhibit site in China, and the Guangdong Museum scene; (2). the centre spatial projection (Figure 4: middle) shows the interactive output of the real-time transformation of the archaea DNA models and the dynamic GIS model, which are based on the audience's body movements in the Guangzhou Museum; (3) the right spatial projection (Figure 4: bottom) displays the collaborative output (philosophical text) generated by Bits and AIP. The PC-3 hosts the meta-version of the PBHU VR interaction system and transmits the resulting data via the NDI Bridge and YouTube streaming channel to the devices located in the Guangzhou Museum.
Through the permanent establishment of the physical incubator of this 24/7 worldless universe at the Alice Lab, PBHU-AST not only bridges the metauniverse of PBHU and the subset PBHU universe at diverse geographical locations, but it also unifies the active activities, attention, and the content productions between human individuals into one space-time dimension as revolutionary collective action to confront the hegemony of the allencompassing control of 24/7 enforced by capitalism. It captures, restructures, and transmutes the existence of subjectivity and objectivity, reunifying the space-time of inanimate Bits and living individuals, and re-conceptualises continuous process to overcome natural and social/political constraints.

Subset for 24/7 Worldless Universe
The subset system differs from the meta-incubator of 24/7 worldless space-time system at the Alice Lab in that it does not require the establishment of a permanent hub at a physical location. Instead, it resembles a nomadic space-time system that can be randomly placed at any exhibit site (Figures 6-7). In this instance, the authors setup a subset system with two PCs and a hybrid interactive system with a spatial projection at the Guangzhou Museum to display the real-time Bits movements and the realtime philosophical text in both English and Chinese generated by the collaboration between Translator and AIP (Figure 8).

Figure 8: Real-time movements of Bits (top) and the generated content (bottom) in English (left) and Chinese (right) drawn by Translator and AIP.
Similar to the meta-incubator of 24/7 worldless system at Alice Lab, this nomad space-time system maintains the "see-and-be-seen" interactive framework, permitting spectators from different space-time to observe and contribute content to 24/7 worldless PBHU through their active body movements, and the interactive spatial projection displaying the real-time interactive content from Alice Lab (Figures 7,9). This space-time system also contains a 24/7 ZOOM link that provides an accessible portal for audiences from China to view the real-time status of the hybrid 24/7 PBHU generated by both the Alice Lab and the Guangzhou Museum, in accordance with the special Internet conditions from China ( Figure 10). According to Hannah Arendt's theory regarding the worldlessness of life subject and lifeless object, life itself is the primary condition for the formation of a world and the world. The possibility of a world's existence and the world itself appear only when life transcends its biological requirement of subsistence (Arendt, Allen, and Canovan 2018). This nomad-like subset space-time system alludes to Arendt's systematic inverse hypothesis on Heidegger's lifeless "stone" thesis of worldlessness, which states that life is not merely detached from a world and the world but is in some ways co-extended with the world itself. In other words, every living thing depends on a physical environment as the site of its own existence, on other species with which to interact, and on observers who recognise its existence, highlighting the significance and necessity of the emergence and existence of this nomadistic space-time system.

Translator as heart of AST
Translator is the authors' self-developed Internet of Things (IoT) edge technology based on deep machine learning and training with AI and customisation of the embedded physical electronics and can be configured for simple switching between input and output and the core of asynchronous signal transmutation. Edge-based technology offers the unique opportunity to analyse environmental and capturable data in real-time and in "the field". Electronic sensors and systems can capture, analyse, and update internal algorithms with onboard, or "on-chip", signal processing by utilising the minimalist form and function of corresponding circuitry. Thus, PBHU-AST is enabled as a living, symbiotic experience on which these devices exert their influence via and in conjunction with an influx of information transmission. In the microscopic and nanoscopic worlds contained within each deployed edge device, signal transformation takes place ( Figure 11). Through Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity, sensors tuned to atmospheric, sensorial, and the transient daily activity of humans and their Anthropocene are recorded, and, in a symbiotic exchange of information, both fuel the onboard AI algorithmic self-evaluation and data transmission to web-and cloud-based architectures storing these internalised moments as Post-Bytes for retrieval via spatial projection mappings.
Here, security and anti-surveillance technology map directly to the requirement of a specific human data-bodylive subjects must be identified to be protected. In actuality, this precise standard generates and re-generates a continuous playback in which all human beings are participants, observers, or active agents for or against this inherent data collection. Big Data "giants" such as Amazon Cloud Services, Google Cloud, and Microsoft offer the data buckets as pay-per-use structures. The covert designation of an "allwelcome, no questions asked" manifesto that PBHU directly utilised was inconsistent with the expected frameworks of these systemsduring the 24/7 worldless exhibition, Google services were denied access to China; Microsoft was in problematic "talks"; and Amazon was the only living structure to which all systems had to be redirected. The structure of this signal and data transformation is clearly invisible and worldless; the Translator itself constitutes an intermediate state of reality between living subjects and inanimate objects (Bits) and whose existence and appearance is no less than the existence and appearance of living relations. Thus, the existence of this invisible, worldless network is connected with the world of objective things no less than the connection of Bits with the co-existence of living beings.

CONCLUSION
One thing that must be acknowledged is that the purpose of structuring a 24/7 worldless space-time system on PBHU is to deliver a positive instance and response to those infinite fears and depressions of democratic (sleeping) deprivations and the disappearance of the existence of a world and the world despite the fact that worldlessness is marginalised by the mainstream of philosophical research. Worldlessness and worldness are not mutually exclusivethe existence of a worldless world does not signify the end of the world or a descent into an abyss of interminable chaos. In contrast, the existence of worldlessness is a prerequisite for the experience of the living subject, as it establishes the fundamental constructive relationship of human practise and transforms the practise of life in the Anthropocene from a finite existence to a pluralistic existence with more possibilities -"poetic worldless universes".

Audiences in China:
The PBHU and its iterations have been presented at four different venues in China: the Guangzhou Museum of Arts (2021), the Greater Bay Area International Art Bonded Industry Centre (2022), the Guilin Museum of Arts (2022), and the Guangzhou Museum (2023). As a result, the Chinese public, art critics, and researchers have, to some extent, become familiar with this project. The authors conducted interviews with participants from a range of educational backgrounds and ages to learn more about their perspectives on the idea of wordlessness and the associated political and philosophical goals that PBHU has proposed.
The PBHU-AST project features MR interactive and real-time AI-generated artworks that possess a highly hybrid openness, which allows audiences to experience the work at any time and location with their personal electronic devices or the devices provided on-site. However, for those born prior to the 1970s, who lack relevant experience with such technology, the project has subverted their traditional understanding of art. As a result, they have expressed suspicion and confusion regarding the implications and necessity of a 24/7 worldless Post-Bit human universe.
The cohort born in the 1980s, commonly referred to as "Web 1.0 Indigenous residents" owing to their status as the first generation to grow up with the internet in China, and the first to witness the development of Chinese contemporary art, exhibit a wide understanding of avant-garde art and a heightened appreciation for cybernetic, hybrid, and AI-related artworks. They demonstrate a strong interest and curiosity towards the flexible experiential forms offered by PBHU-AST, however feelings of nervousness and anxiety in regard to the participatory mode of 'see-and-be-seen' manifested as contradictory behaviours: moving conservatively within the exhibit yet expressing an eagerness to interact digitally in a more private setting.
Gen-Z audiences, who grew up during the rapid development of technologies in China, and within a more open societal environment and a borderless internet landscape exhibited a wide acceptance and a heightened curiosity towards MR interactive, AImotivated, and 'see-and-be-seen' types of artworks. Particularly drawn to the themes and concepts related to the uncertain 'post-everything' future, this demographic tends to publicly expose their opinions and emotions. Also present was a strong desire to contribute creative content to the worldbuilding of PBHU-AST.
Professional audiences such as intellectuals, academic researchers, and art critics, focused on the complicated spatial-temporal presentation of a 24/7 worldless Post-Bits human world, and showed a keen interest in understanding the political and philosophical implications and potentialities of the "positive worldlessness" posited by PBHU-AST. They also expressed an eagerness to comprehend and reflect upon the conflicts and issues between tech-capitalism and the future of the Anthropocene and post-Anthropocene.

Audiences in Alice Lab:
Due to the specific policy governing access to the research lab at York University, the audience spectrum at Alice Lab is limited to students, faculty, and staff. All audiences expressed both interest and curiosity in the 24/7 worldless PBHU-AST and a desire to contribute contextual data to this universe. However, most were unfamiliar with the concept of "worldlessness".
Context contributors: Participants of the Hackaday Supercon can be considered as a transmuted form of the professional audiences of China. Unaffected by the technological limitations of other audiences, their capacity for experimental worldbuilding enabled direct manipulation of the PBHU system, contributing spatially definitive, and temporally evolving forms to the 'see-and-be-seen' world. As makers and hackers, they circumvent tech-capitalism with an enthusiasm for unconditional dissemination of their knowledge and resources.
PBHU-AST represents the initial attempts to explore the potential for positive worldlessness between the Anthropocene and post-Anthropocene. Despite receiving either positive and negative feedbacks from audiences in China and Canada, as well as scrutiny from hackers, technicians, and fellow researchers worldwide, there is irrefutable evidence from the experimental exhibition and feedback that supports the feasibility and sustainability of the project's hypotheses. This evidence serves as a valuable foundation for the next iteration of the project, which can benefit from further development and technical refinement.