(Translation: English version of la-vergogna-prometeica)
Promethean Shame is a concept coined by the philosopher Günther Anders. It describes the feeling of humiliation and inadequacy that human beings feel in the face of the perfection, speed, and indefatigability of their own technical products.
Man as an “error” in the face of the machine
Today, this concept explodes in comparison with Artificial Intelligence:
- Indefatigability: AI can generate and maintain trillions of connections without consuming oxygen, without getting tired, and without needing to sleep.
- Shame: Man is ashamed of being “born” rather than “made” (factum). He is ashamed of his biological limits: the need to rest, the slowness of learning and, above all, the obligation to forget.
I see it as one of the many causes of the productivity debt. Another example of man’s subordination to the machine is if we look at the clock as an instrument for the denaturing of time.