Between Humans

Abstract

The coexistence of humans with new forms of intelligences, which may soon be called ‘new form of life’, urges the question about the specificity of being human. What makes a human, human? What are the fundamental characteristics defining humankind? In this future that we already experience, are machines helping or threatening humanity? Reflecting on the course of progress of science in area such as eugenics, a doubt insinuates itself whether the scientific/technological improvement would be a benefit for humanity or a risk; it may be conducive to lose part of the complexity that is a trait of ours as human being, aiming at being more functional, to ‘fit’ better within the future. Considering the soul as the feature that establishes the difference between a human and a machine, in a dialogue between Aristotle’s design and the narration that philosophers and writers have elaborated about it, we draw a portrait of humanity as a mosaic of biology, sensitivity, intellect and more, sense of existence and doubt of being, passions, sufferance and call for freedom; this ‘complexity’ that builds the human may need to be preserved and could already be partially missed.