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Arts & Communication The riddle of the sphinx revisited

be distinguished from sexual relations, and if necessary, Oedipus and the staff. Rather than serving as a token of
we need to work on the tension this creates. However, the power of “the mind alone,” this Oedipus complex
ecological relationality is ideally polymorphously perverse. asks us to pay attention to the new moral realities that
“Gaia” is our mother in the sense that we all are born from arise as soon as we connect to a tool. Our triumphalist
her. Nonetheless, in the best case, we also treat her as a humanist approach to technology has changed us. In the
lover – with whom we live, work, sleep, and produce to seventeenth century, Pascal 34(p[97]]) called the human being
the best of our abilities. She is even our child, grandchild, “a reed, the most feeble thing in nature; but he is a thinking
and descendant in the far future, as our current actions reed.” Three centuries later, Sloterdijk 35(p24) called us a
influence the quality of the global ecological condition “thinking avalanche.” We need to investigate closely what
for centuries to come. This intricate, unfathomable, weird, kind of hybrid intelligences arises in our technological
fearful, and awesome relationality is a basic feature of the relationality, rather than continuing as Cyborg Tyrannus,
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ecological condition and is to be the foreground of any kind holding on to the illusion of the power of the human
of Anthropocene moral work. Caresses is not called Oedipus mind over inhuman matter. For instance, we should not
and the Sphinx. The title directly points to undefined only ask whether artificial intelligence (AI) can develop
relationality in the plural. Our polymorphous relationality consciousness in the future, but also investigate how AI
is the only domain in which relevant Anthropocene is currently reshaping our consciousness and our sense of
meaningfulness can be developed. Three alternative what constitutes a meaningful life. In addition, we must
Oedipus complexes serve as suggestions for developing that debate whether the results are worth pursuing. Oedipus’
approach. The first one, expressed by the Oedipus-sphinx staff in Caresses is extremely simple compared to our
caress, is the irreducible hybridity of the human and the technological environment, but I like to contemplate it as
non-human biological world. Here, meaningfulness is not an impetus for raising that kind of awareness.
to be looked for in trying to become the king – the winner
of battles – by isolating one’s “own mind alone” from the The third Oedipus complex can be found in the caress
rest of the world. Meaningfulness is rather to be sought in between Oedipus and the “divinities” – the philosophical
the acknowledgment of our fundamental relationality. For and moral frameworks that create meaning in our lives.
a prolonged time, Descartes’s “I think, therefore I am” has In Caresses, there are represented by the blue pillars in the
been the number one cliché one-liner of modern Western landscape, the mysterious writings on the wall, and the
philosophy. One can only wonder what would have symbols on Oedipus’ staff. They form a syncretic cultural
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happened if this position had been granted to Montaigne’s landscape of non-living intelligences that animate
slightly older question: “When I’m playing with my cat, our motivations more than we are aware of, and that
who knows whether I do not entertain her more than she co-shape our sense of what is worth getting into or not.
does me?” In the flat ontology of the Critical Zone, all Elsewhere, 6,14 I have argued that the gap between our late
living beings are creatures and co-creators of the ecological axial moral frameworks and our current Anthropocene
condition. This relationality is not the same as mystical condition is partly responsible for our unwillingness to
oneness – at least not in an Axial way, in which the Whole respond properly to the threats of climate change. We
is sacred, and the fact that you belong to it installs a micro- urgently need to look into our legacies, cultures, and
macrocosmic link that is to assure your meaningfulness. traditions, and critically distinguish those elements
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The relationship between Oedipus and the sphinx is that form obstacles for an ecological awakening from
unclear, weird, undefinable, and unpredictably risky. Just those that can inspire it. To work on them. To redefine
as Balzac’s panther could kill the soldier at any time, or vice their meanings. To radically redirect their motivational
versa, and just as Khnopff’s sphinx cannot be guaranteed powers. To not be led astray by what presents itself as
not to devour Oedipus, humans run the risk of being an alternative without really being so. To look for ways
crushed by any other “actor” in the Critical Zone, varying to find meaning in doing the ecological work that needs
from minute viruses to planetary climate changes. Rather to be done, rather than to think of it as a nuisance
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than wallowing in the experience of mystical oneness, we that blocks our plans. I like to contemplate Caresses’
had better search for meaningfulness in the practice of landscape as an impetus for doing exactly that.
creating and recreating the best possible relations with
every step and every breath, with any kind of co-inhabitant 7. Conclusion: Oedipus, using the ground
of the Critical Zone. I like to contemplate Caresses as an on which he fell
impetus for doing so. A Buddhist saying holds that when you fall on the
The second Oedipus complex is formed by the cyborg- ground, you have to use that same ground to get up
hybrid, expressed in Caresses through the caress between again. 37(p[47]]) This is the structure that I have followed in

Volume 3 Issue 3 (2025) 9 doi: 10.36922/ac.5868