Human Rights in the Computer Age

AutoreVittorio Frosini
Pagine206-215

Page 206

@1. The advent of the ´newª man

The imagine of the spiritual nature of man has been frequently modified in the course of history as it has undergone radical transformations due to changing conditions in natural and social life. Interest in it has, indeed, emerged so slowly that only today are we able to recognize it. Man has not always nor in all places been recognized to be a man by other men: the distinction between castes in India, between masters and slaves throughout the history of the Western World, and, more recently, between those belonging to the Arian race and the so-called inferior races during the Third Reich are the best known examples of a persisting division between men and subhumans which not even the universal religions have been capable of completely eradicating within the acceptable and established reality of social relationships. Only during the second half of this century has an anthropological mutation taken place. This is transition of man as the symbol for all of humanity, in its global dimension, which has created the image of a ´newª man living in the computer age.

This has occurred because several different important events have merged together. Let me mention the following three without, in any way, wishing to place them in order of importance. Firstly, the advent of the computer or, in other words, of the new technologies of cybernetics, robotics, and informatics which have made dialogue between man and machine through so-called artificial intelligence possible. Secondly, the launching ofPage 207 artificial satellites into outer space which has enable man to land on the moon and made projects for interplanetary exploration possible. Thirdly, the new kinds of remote transmission such as television and telematics which have abolished the restrictions imposed on information in time and space by distance thereby uniting people all over the world.

Man in the computer age is, therefore, different from all men of other generations throughout the ages, and not merely because he is able to perform deeds only dreamt of in the past but never believed possible (such as ubiquity, multiple teleconferencing, flight in outer space, automated thinking)1; but, above all, man has become the ´newª man within his inner self because he is capable of communicating simultaneously with all the other human beings on earth, of detaching himself from life on earth and of acting within a world of computers created by his fellow man relying on them for giving him a precise determination.

@2. Human nature as a conquest

It was predicted that the computer age man would be the real ´supermanª, described by some nineteenth century philosophers. He would be the new ´heroª bestowed with superior power and would become the founder of the new civilization. It is, however, wiser to avoid the invention of a new mythology and simply recognize that modern man is different from his counterpart in the ancient world because a real metamorphosis has occurred whose impact has not as yet been completely understood because we are still involved in the process.

Page 208

As mentioned earlier, man can live being totally detached from his terrestrial and, more generally, from his natural environment: just think of an astronaut who moves about inside his space ship and is able to fly about without restrictions ignoring the fundamental laws of gravity in the same way as supernatural beings were once believed capable of doing. And even for those who remain on earth, the new man is born, lives and dies in a different way from the men that lived before him. Thanks to artificial insemination, a woman who is still a virgin can give birth; thanks to organ transplants, a person can live with the heart belonging to a dead person; thanks to hibernation, a person can enter the kingdom of the dead by keeping his body intact for an indefinite period of time.

These are only some of the re perturbing examples of the new human condition requiring us to reflect and reexamine the ethical questions involved. Although human civilization throughout its long history has proceeded progressively throughout in dominating nature, it has not done so in a coherent, uniform or linear fashion as far as human...

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