Theprogress that has been made today in the field of technology and more specifically in the appearance of new computers, artificial intelligence and genetic modification results in the ability of creating beings that acquire attributes the same as the ones of man. Man is also capable of ‘upgrading’ himself with new technological achievements so that his senses can acquire different meaning and interpretations. Darwin’s natural evolution enters into a new phase of artificial evolution. The result of this evolutionis thePost-human.
The Post-human conceives the world through his environment and poses important questions about the Humanism of Renaissance. He recognizes his imperfection and he constantly changes identities and prospects as he is directly committed to Biotechnology, Evolutionary Biology and other new sciences. One of his main objectives is to blur the discrimination between machines and humans.
The history of creating artificial persons or beings is very old. There are many myths not only in Greece but also in the rest of the world, which predispose us for the man’s needs to intervene through technology. During the 1950’s, the first real `cybernetic’ organism made its appearance and from that moment the appearance of Cyborgs became known to all levels of social and daily life.
One of the main characteristics of Cyborgs in connection with their mechanic ancestors is the distribution of information in them. The ‘Communication Theory’ of N. Weiner renders the mechanic organisms equivalent to the biological ones as they can present similar reactions and operations. According to M.Mcluhan, the human neurological system constitutes an extension of the new technological means. Furthermore, the concept of Cyborg disuses the big binary oppositions of nature and culture and gives us the ability to reconstruct our identity, sexuality and gender. The body is faced as a shell and his connection with mechanisms and computers is considered one of the most basic aspects of post-human era.
Over the last decades, artificial beings and cybernetic organisms are dealt with sympathy as we have been exposed to more and more uncanny and weird subjects through new technologies and more specifically through cinema. David Cronenberg is a movie director and in his films the human body is converted under the influence of technology creating thus a ‘new flesh’.
As far as art is concerned, the human body is an element that tries to re-examine its identity as the influence of machine and technology on it is obvious. Many searches have been carried out regarding the questions of identity concerning the terms Post-human and Cyborg. Artists recognize the freedom of reconstructing the body and many of them deal with it as an object that they can design.
Ιn the fieldof architecture the machine and technology have been their main significances too. The human body is not faced as something separate from the structure but it is incorporated with it with the help of new technologies. The body constitutes henceforth a receptor of all artificial extensions and information.
By usingthese new interconnections, man can realise that he is simply a part of this world and not the top of the pyramid. The awareness of technology as part of ourselves and self-knowledge as Post-humans constitutes a new type of birth.