Ciało w dyskursach transhumanizmu i sztucznej inteligencji. Perspektywa antropologiczna

Abstract

The dissertation "The body in the discourses on transhumanism and artificial intelligence. The anthropological perspective" is a work placed in the anthropology of modernity. It is situated within a relatively new discipline - anthropology of technology. Its subject is transhumanism - a controversial and emotionally extreme - intellectual, cultural, and political movement advocating the need to use the achievements of science and technology to overcome human limitations and improve the condition of human body. I have studied it in two key aspects - theoretical thought and cultural practices. In the first part, I have presented the functioning definitions of transhumanism in the source texts and commentaries, indicating its historical sources, presenting the main discourses and also explaining how I understand the issue myself. In search of the genealogy of transhumanism, I have presented the author's division into "transhumanist impulses" (anthropological-philosophical, mythical, metaphysical, aesthetic, futurological) in the history of culture. In part two, dealing with transhumanist practices, I have drawn on cultural anthropology (especially thoughts on rituals, games and play, cultural stigmatization of the body, fetishes, dolls, masks, costumes, doubles and cosplays), visual anthropology (digital image, original/copy, simulacrum), anthropology of things, contemporary art theory, philosophy of technology, phenomenology, sociology (critical theory, symbolic interactionism) and social psychology (concepts of embodied cognition). In the third part, analyzing the performative nature of algorithms and their social impact, I have drawn on the surveillance studies and "sociology of algorithms" research undertaken by STS (Social Technology Studies) scholars, and have used the findings of critical studies of algorithmization.