Messy Bodies: From Cosmetic Surgery to Mind-Uploading

The purpose of this paper is mainly diagnostic. It tries to answer the question why we love machines. I argue that our biological bodies are often perceived as deficient in various ways. They limit our freedom, are easily destructible, and condemn us to die. For this reason, we look for an alternative way to exist and find it in the machine and its way of existing. Machines are attractive as a model for (post)human existence because they seem to allow an escape from the messiness of the human body. The more machine-like the human body becomes, the more it can be controlled and the more we make it our own by aligning the working of our bodies with our purposes. If the human body could be turned into (or be replaced by) a machine, we would finally be free to shape our own destiny. The paper traces how we attempt to become more machine-like in four different stages, which I call illusionism, fortification, replacement, and displacement. Illusionism is the practice of changing one’s appearance in order to accord with a commonly accepted standard of beauty. Fortification is the attempt to make the human body less vulnerable and more capable. Replacement is the practice of replacing human body parts with artificial ones. Finally, displacement is the act of replacing the whole body by something more durable or altogether immaterial. I conclude my discussion with an encouragement to adopt a different point of view, which sees the human body not as disabling and hence in need of improvement or displacement, but rather as enabling and a gift that is worth preserving, even in its imperfect state.