#123 What will become of the human being?

Technicised bodies, high-performance brains, robots with mind uploading and genetic code: It is still in the stars, whether such beings will populate the earth in the post-human age. However, academia is discussing these utopias and researching their feasibility. Theologian and philosopher Reinhold Esterbauer is interested in how they change the human self-conception. “If we could model our bodies and minds, copy ourselves again and again onto new carrier media and switch from one identity to the next, we would become a kind of multiple person,” says the researcher. Having everything under control, leaving nothing to chance – that is the desire. Yet, social pressure for technical optimisation jeopardises individuality and self-determination.