21st-century alienation: From engineered humans to predicted humans

Emerging technologies seem to bring out unprecedented forms of human alienation, from the general issue of what we may define as engineered humans to the particular issue of what we may define as predicted humans. First, I shall reflect upon the way in which our language increasingly changes when we address our relationship with emerging technologies. More precisely, the change of our language shows a kind of optimisation that is taken to the extreme, starting with the optimisation of humans’ performances: the more engineered humans are (in that they identify their purpose not with feeling good, for instance, but with performing in faster and more profitable ways), the better they are (in that they measure themselves not against typically human values, such as feeling good, for instance, but against typically engineering values, such as efficiency). But a remarkable paradox emerges: the more humans work on optimising themselves, the more they (paradoxically) work on moving optimisation from themselves, i.e. their capabilities as autonomous humans (starting with self-perception and self-mastery), to technologies, i.e. ways of engineering, specifically automating, themselves. Second, I shall reflect upon the technological prediction of humans’ future as what may be thought of as the most extreme way to engineer them. Even though the cradle of Western culture, from scripture to mythology, continuously stresses that knowledge can be dangerous, specifically for humans, the history of Western culture coincides with the increasing effort to make knowledge the primary objective of human activities, from philosophy itself to science and technology. More precisely, the more technology develops, the more its primary objective is knowing our future, i.e. predicting our future, from our bodies’ performances to our minds’ performances. Are humans still free to determine their own future even surprisingly, i.e. against all odds?