Becoming Machines

For four centuries, the modern world has been dominated by machinery. One philosopher sees living beings as perfected machines (Descartes), another sees nature as the work of an engineer equipped with a supercomputer (Leibniz). Money is the soul of capital, the machine is its body. 

But the elimination of life in favor of the mechanical leads to a general commodification of human life and a loss of our being-in-the-world. Turning nature into a mere raw material, replacing vital processes with mechanical procedures—all this makes it possible to treat human beings as things, and turn them into predictable beings. This man, who was promised to become “master and possessor of nature”, is in the process of becoming the servant of his own creations. 

If we don’t want to give way to the posthuman, it’s time to take the measure of what’s at stake and think about how we can put grains of sand in the machine.  

That’s what this book is all about.

 

Denis Collin has a degree in philosophy and a doctorate from the University. He has taught philosophy in secondary schools and preparatory classes. Founder and moderator of the Université Populaire d’Évreux, he takes part in activities to popularize philosophy in various associations. His books include Marx’s Nightmare, The Length of the Shackles, Free like Spinoza, Understanding Marx and Capital, Understanding Marcuse, Understanding Machiavelli’s The Prince, published by Max Milo.