Inhumanity

The Human Fall

In the late 19th century, when Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus, it prompted us to reflect on the boundless desire of humanity to pursue new knowledge, the human fascination with controlling nature and manipulating it technologically, and the ethical and anthropological risks associated with creating artificial life.

The idea was to create an enhanced, perfect being solely through human knowledge and power. However, the original Greek optimism and faith in human capabilities, evident in Greek myths, were lost in Shelley’s Frankenstein. The lesson is clear: it’s impossible to fully predict and control nature; more importantly, there will always be domains beyond human comprehension that should remain unexplored.

For Shelley, artificial manipulation, including that of the brain, even if pursued for the sake of knowledge and individual enhancement, is morally wrong. This is not only because of its unpredictable and potentially dreadful consequences but also because it exposes the darker and more shameful aspects of human nature: coldness, pure calculation, neglect and abandonment, shame, violence, and crime.

The creature, at many points in the novel, appears more humane than his creator, Victor, highlighting the necessity for love, care, the formation of emotional and social connections, and the personal anguish felt in loneliness and the absence of social bonds.

Contemporary literature continues Shelley’s perspective, emphasizing even more the bleak and detached aspects of humanity, ensnared in its technological creations, leading to the demise of the human species and the transition to a post-human existence.

In Brave New World, Aldous Huxley aims to draw attention to the ethical, social, and political dangers of biotechnology: in the future, people will use drugs to pacify themselves, enhance their self-esteem, improve their attention, concentration, and cognitive abilities, and conform to social norms. Children will be raised to meet their parents’ expectations, women will give birth to other species and hybrid beings, and human life will be greatly extended, but the final 50 years will be spent in solitude, devoid of family and plagued by poor health. For Huxley, this monumental shift due to biotechnology will be enforced by governments without the knowledge or consent of citizens, creating a compliant society, a dictatorship of technology.

To quote Leon Kass, the widespread use of biotechnology poses a significant threat, because “Contrary to man degraded by disease or slavery, dehumanized beings in the manner of Brave New World are not miserable, they do not know that they have been deprived of their humanity, and what is worse, if they knew, they would not care. They are, in fact, happy slaves, enjoying servile happiness.” (Kass 1985: 35).

Sara Fernandes (PhD) is a Research Fellow in Integral Human Development at Universidade Católica Portuguesa.

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