Abstract
In this chapter, I discuss the significance of death in regards to understanding humanity and existence. I examine how the fear of death is seen to define humanity, and is often understood as a uniquely biological phenomenon. This chapter also discusses the development of transhumanism , with robots becoming more human-like, and humans becoming more machine-like in their quest for immortality . Such developments are radically altering the conventional understanding of what it means to be a human and what it means to die. While the parameters of humanity are being amended to potentially include machines, the notion of death itself is also being reconfigured to potentially accommodate a non-biological death.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Aviv, Rachel. ‘What Does It Mean to Die?’ The New Yorker. February 5, 2018. Retrieved February 8, 2018, from https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/02/05/what-does-it-mean-to-die.
Becker, Ernest. The Denial of Death. New York: The Free Press, 1973.
Borgstrom, Erica. ‘Social Death’. QJM: An International Journal of Medicine. Vol. 110, 2017, pp. 5–7.
Bricis, Larissa. ‘A Philosopher Predicts How and When Robots Will Destroy Humanity’. Techly. September 25, 2017. Retrieved October 11, 2017, from https://www.techly.com.au/2017/09/22/philosopher-predicts-robots-will-destroy-humanity/.
Carroll, Michael. ‘Part Human, Part Machine, Cyborgs Are Becoming a Reality’. Newsweek. July 31, 2014. Retrieved September 25, 2017, from http://www.newsweek.com/2014/08/08/cyborgs-are-walking-among-us-262132.html.
Colebrook, Claire. Death of the Post Human: Essays on Extinction, Volume 1. Ann Arbor: Open Humanities Press, 2014.
Cooter, Roger. ‘The Dead Body’. Companion to Medicine in the Twentieth Century. Cooter, Roger and Pickstone, John (eds.). London and New York: Routledge, 2003, pp. 469–486.
Cozzolino, Philip J., and Blackie, Laura E. ‘I Die, Therefore I Am: The Pursuit of Meaning in the Light of Death’. The Experience of Meaning in Life: Classical Perspectives, Emerging Themes, and Controversies. Hicks, Joshua A. (ed.). Netherlands: Springer, 2013, pp. 31–45.
Deleuze, Gilles, and Guattari, Félix. Anti-oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. London and New York: Continuum, 2004.
Fedorov, Nikolai. What Was Man Created For?: The Philosophy of the Common Task. London: Honeyglen, 2008.
Fischer, John Martin. The Metaphysics of Death. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993.
Freud, Sigmund. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud: Volume XIV (1914–1916) On the History of the Psycho-analytic Movement, Papers on Metapsychology and Other Works. London: Vintage, 2001.
Goldman, David. How Civilizations Die: (And Why Islam Is Dying Too). Washington: Regnery, 2011.
Griffin, Andrew. ‘Humans Will Become Hybrids by 2030, Says Leading Google Engineer, with Tiny Robots Scurrying Around Our Brain to Help Us Think’. The Independent. June 4, 2015. Retrieved September 15, 2017, from http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/humans-will-become-hybrids-by-2030-says-leading-google-engineer-with-tiny-robots-scurrying-around-10296200.html.
Haraway, Donna. ‘A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century’. Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. New York: Routledge, 1991, pp. 149–181.
Heidegger, Martin. On the Way to Language. New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1982.
Heidegger, Martin. Being and Time. Albany: New York Press, 2010.
Howarth, Glennys, and Leaman, Oliver. Encyclopaedia of Death and Dying. London and New York: Routledge, 2001.
Jacobs, Joseph. ‘The Dying of Death’. Fortnightly Review. New Series 72, 1899, pp. 264–269.
Kolbert, Elizabeth. The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2014.
Lukashevich, Stephen. N. F. Fedorov (1828–1903): A Study in Russian Eupsychian and Utopian Thought. Newark: University of Delaware Press, Associated University Presses, 1977.
Prioreschi, Plinio. A History of Human Responses to Death: Mythologies, Rituals, and Ethics. Studies in Health and Human Services. Volume 17. Lewiston: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1990.
Tomasini, Floris. Remembering and Disremembering the Dead: Posthumous Punishment, Harm and Redemption Over Time. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.
Treder, Mike. ‘Emancipation from Death’. The Scientific Conquest of Death: Essays on Infinite Lifespans. The Immortality Institute, 2004, pp. 187–196.
Tucker, Ian. ‘Genevieve Bell: “Humanity’s Greatest Fear Is About Being Irrelevant”’. The Guardian. November 27, 2016. Retrieved September 24, 2017, from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/nov/27/genevieve-bell-ai-robotics-anthropologist-robots.
Warren, Hannah. ‘Should We Be Fighting Robots—Or Becoming Them?’ Techly. August 23, 2016. Retrieved November 12, 2017, from https://www.techly.com.au/2016/08/23/fighting-robots-becoming/.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Lyons, S. (2018). Death, Humanity and Existence. In: Death and the Machine. Palgrave Pivot, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0335-7_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0335-7_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Pivot, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-13-0334-0
Online ISBN: 978-981-13-0335-7
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)