ABSTRACT
The emphasis on nonconscious cognition participates in the central thrust of decentering the human, both because it recognizes another agent in addition to consciousness/unconsciousness in cognitive processes. Cognitive processes provide a bridge between human, animal, and technical cognitions, locating them on a continuum rather than understanding them as qualitatively different capacities. This chapter considers the differences between various camps among the new materialisms, along with a rigorous exploration of where and how a nonconscious cognitive framework adds constructively to new materialist projects. To facilitate the analysis, the argument will proceed according to concepts central to new materialisms, including ontology, evolution, survival, force, and transformation. The Deleuzian paradigm contributes an enhanced appreciation for nonliving technical objects to generate surprises, new potentialities, and mutating assemblages. The nonconscious cognitive framework supplies a non-reductive empirical approach that enlists the cognitive powers of humans, along with a precise analysis of the structures and organizations involved.
