New York City, NY, February 15, 2025/17:16
Technology deprives us of our humanity, transforming humans in some respects into “disembodied” spirits, Paolo Carozza, law professor at the University of Notre Dame, warned Saturday during a round table during the New York meeting of this year.
Such a notion could have looked like science fiction not so long ago. But this “disembodied” – or “forget the centrality of the human body”, as Carozza said – defines who we are as a culture today, thanks to the technological advances that have made things more and more practical and with All the reason, he said.
Carozza, as a moderator, was joined in the panel by Christine Rosen, author of “The extinction of experience: Being Human in a Dismbodied World” and Notre Dame Professor of Law and Bioethicist O. Carter Snead, author of “What It Means to be human: the case for the body in public bioethics. »»
Held at the Metropolitan pavilion in the New York Chelsea district, New York Encounter is an annual and extensive cultural conference organized by members of communion and the release of the Catholic movement. The three -day event, which is free and live Online, concludes on Sunday.
In their conversation, Carozza, Rosen and Snead focused on the extent to which human experience has become an increasingly isolated affair.
“I prefer to invoke a car by pressing a button, never speak to the driver and be deposited at my location. I would like my food to fell on my door, without having to look in the eye the people who were preparing or delivered it, “said Rosen, summarizing today’s predilection towards convenience.
In addition, the time spent on social networks, she said, is more than lost time but changes the way we see each other and our relationship with others.
“We are starting to prefer mediated communication to face to face. We are starting to be wary of our own emotional answers to things unless they are reflected on a social media page and we get enough likes for them. In this sense, we get used to a deeply disembodied way to seek approval, to understand the world in which we live, “she said.
“I think that in a very banal way, our daily experience has deteriorated because of this state of mind, which has not grown up with a harmful intention, but over time. We have habits of mind that have formed, ”said Rosen.
“You walk on a metro platform and people are more rude. There seems to be more hostility, anger and impatience, “she said.
Indifference to the vulnerable
The most vulnerable in society, including the elderly and children, carry the weight of this disembodied habit of being, observed Rosen.
She cited the example of a robot of “telepresence” offering a diagnosis of fatal cancer to a patient in a hospital and a Japanese nursing home which provides its residents with robotic animals to simulate the comfort of human touch.
This preference for convenience and avoidance of face-to-face meetings hinder human flourishing, according to SNEAD.
“The virtues you need to flourish as an embodied human being incorporated into donation and reception networks are also missed. If you consider life as a consumer, you do not think of the virtues of non -calculated gifts, just generosity, hospitality, mercorordia, which accompanies others in their suffering as if it was your own suffering. he said.
The consequences of this selfishness lead to the instrumentalization of others, with fatal consequences, said SNEAD. He underlined the progress of reproductive technology which allow the selection of embryos based on IQ (and the elimination of those deemed insufficiently intelligent), as well as the legislation on suicide which has a bias in favor of encouraging the Elderly patients to end their lives rather than treating their psychiatric disorders.
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SNEAD said that parents of these embryos cannot be blamed to be blind to the immorality of a technology such as certain expectations were born from culture and its legal system.
The attraction of reproductive technology, he said, is no different from that of technologies that promise consumers that they will take into account their personal preferences.
“If you think of everything in your life as a drop-down menu to order the thing exactly as you wish,” he said, “then you are irritated when you get something you have not asked for and doordash Brings you the bad thing or does not bring the sauce with your burrito or something else.
Live in the world you want
Everything is not lost, however, according to Rosen and Snead. There is hope that we can recover what has been lost, but that means rejecting some of the technological amenities we expect.
“I think we just have to have more awareness and reflection on the world in which we want to live, not just the one we live in now,” said Rosen.
“At the individual level, you always choose humans. Choose the face-to-face. Kiss the idea that it will be annoying and boring, “she said. “And you have to put clothes and pants and get out of the house, and you wish (people)” happy birthday “to their face, not only because Facebook reminded you that it was their birthday.”
Snead suggested that we take the words of Saint-Teresa de Calcutta to heart.
“She said that the reason we have so many problems in the world is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other. The idea of belonging to each other, even people, you need a certain moral imagination to understand how you belong to people you do not know, or that you see lying in the street, or you see in a wheelchair, or someone who doesn’t look like you, “he said.
“It seems to me that for our part, (the way) to recover the true vision of friendship and love and friendship and hospitality embodied by practice,” said Snead. “It is in your interpersonal relationships. Talk to someone, interact with someone, hug someone – with their permission. »»
He added: “When we debate and deliberate on regulatory executives or statutes or something else, we must be aware of the reality of what a human being and what human development is.”
Zelda Caldwell is editor -in -chief of the Catholic press agency based in Washington, DC. Previously, she worked for Aleteia, as an editor of news and culture.