Gnosis in Cyberspace

Religion and transhumanism are often regarded as competing or even opposing worldviews. European media philosophers tend to identify common elements in both systems which depend on the metaphysical reception of ideas related to the body and cyberspace. The posthuman aim of a virtual and immortal existence inside the storage of a computer seems to be a continuation or a revivification of the ancient Gnostic philosophy. By focusing on the physical aspects of posthumanist utopias, the article shows that posthumanism can hardly be interpreted as Gnosis but rather as a mere utilitarian philosophy. 1. The Body in Cyberspace Religion and transhumanism are often regarded as competing or even opposing worldviews. European media philosophers tend to identify common elements in both systems which depend on the metaphysical reception of ideas related to the body and cyberspace. The posthuman aim of a virtual and immortal existence inside the storage of a computer seems to be a continuation or a revivification of the ancient Gnostic philosophy. But apparently, we have forgotten our bodies. It might be one of the most palpable peculiarities of post-modern philosophy to assess the disappearance of the body and the end of bodily senses. Jean Baudrillard (1994), Dietmar Kamper and Christof Wulf (1984), and many others have done a lot of remarkable observations and analysis on the development of our bodies in the age of medial[?] reproduction. The diffused reality of the body is mooted. As the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek noted, “we live in a society with coffee without caffeine, with chocolate without sugar and with virtuality as reality without reality” Žižek & Negt 2001). When Florian Roetzer edited the two volumes of the Art Forum International in 1996 on the future of the body, the utopias of the posthuman body were discussed by a wide range of art and media theorists and philosophers. Their different contributions centered potential and utopian transformations of the body in the context of genetic engineering and prosthesis technology (Deitch 1996; Roetzer 1996; Steels 1996; Stelarc 1996). In a most extreme example, the American robotics researcher Hans Moravec presented his vision of an absolute virtual, human existence as the end goal of evolution. The human personality – the human “mind” – should be scanned as a perfect simulation and should continue to exist thenceforward as an immortal being inside the storage of a computer (Moravec 1996). Journal of Evolution and Technology 14(2) August 2005 77