On the Contesting Conceptualisation of the Human Body: Between ‘Homo-Microbis’ and ‘Homo-Algorithmicus’

Microbiome science has highlighted human and microbial interdependency, offering a radical epistemic shift from the individualistic view of body self. Research accordingly offered to see humans as ‘homo-microbis’ – complex biomolecular networks composed their associated microbes. While social scientists have begun address microbiome science, proliferation commodification homo-microbial episteme largely been overlooked. Based on an ethnographic account research project that microbiome-based personalised nutrition successful start-up emerged it, this article examines emergence, proliferation, body. We show necessarily depends opaque machine learning algorithms; is paradoxically seen data-driven individuating marker; homo-microbis is, in fact, also homo-algorithmicus being can only access its non-human sub-parts by blindly following algorithmic recommendations app.