The metaphor of the body as a relentless machine emerged in early modern thought, famously illustrated by Fritz Kahn’s Der Mensch Als Industrielpalast (1926). This view reduced the body from a divine creation (‘my body is a temple’) to a complex system governed by mechanics and causality, weakening the role of religion on natural sciences. Without the existence of the soul, ‘being human’ becomes synonymous with ‘being a body’ – a sobering realisation we are unprepared for.

Similarly in Self-design, or Productive Narcissism (2018), Boris Groys argues that the death of God signified the disappearance of the divine viewer of the soul, substituting it with society and thus making our relationship with it erotic. Contemporary subjects cannot rely solely on looks: they must practice self-design and actively craft their online image to gain social approval. He writes: “Where religion once was, design emerged. […] design has transformed society itself into exhibition space in which individuals appear as both artists and self-produced works of art.” In Are We Human? (2016), Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley theorise that self-design becomes an uncanny interaction between what we offer – through daily actions and choices online and in-person – and the image of ourselves projected on our screens. The algorithm acts like a strange mirror, showing us what it thinks we want to see, thus turning it into a new space of design.

The metaphor of the body as a relentless machine emerged in early modern thought, famously illustrated by Fritz Kahn’s Der Mensch Als Industrielpalast (1926). This view reduced the body from a divine creation (‘my body is a temple’) to a complex system governed by mechanics and causality, weakening the role of religion on natural sciences. Without the existence of the soul, ‘being human’ becomes synonymous with ‘being a body’ – a sobering realisation we are unprepared for.

Similarly in Self-design, or Productive Narcissism (2018), Boris Groys argues that the death of God signified the disappearance of the divine viewer of the soul, substituting it with society and thus making our relationship with it erotic. Contemporary subjects cannot rely solely on looks: they must practice self-design and actively craft their online image to gain social approval. He writes: “Where religion once was, design emerged. […] design has transformed society itself into exhibition space in which individuals appear as both artists and self-produced works of art.” In Are We Human? (2016), Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley theorise that self-design becomes an uncanny interaction between what we offer – through daily actions and choices online and in-person – and the image of ourselves projected on our screens. The algorithm acts like a strange mirror, showing us what it thinks we want to see, thus turning it into a new space of design.