Transhumanistic Aspects of the Artificial Life Mythologeme in the Ancient World

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to study mythological transhumanism in the context of the problem of artificial life in the ancient world.
 The relevance of this study is determined by the significant growth of the role of the posthumanism research in the context of the rapid development of modern high technologies. The study of the features of the mythological transhumanism representation in the ancient world reveals the archetypic patterns of ideas about the essence of human and the limits of humanity — both in traditional and in modern culture, and it provides an insight of the prospects of human existence. Still, there are few studies that reveal the presence or absence of ancient transhumanistic intentions in culture and analyze the ideals associated therewith.
 Novelty. This is the first attempt of analyzing the issue of mythological transhumanism in the culture of the ancient world.
 Research methodology. The author used comparative mythology, historical­genetic, structural analysis, semiotic, hermeneutic and axiological analyses within the framework of cultural studies.
 Results. The phenomenon of mythological transhumanism and the problem of artificial life in the ancient world were studied. In contrast to the common scientific ideas implying that transhumanistic intentions of humanity and reflections on the creation of artificial life are a late cultural phenomenon, the research allows us to claim that mythological transhumanism is already represented in the archaic and ancient world culture. This suggests that transhumanistic thinking is universal in culture. It was found out that the archaic consciousness does not see fundamental difference between the subjects, which create artificial life. In archaic myths, it can be either a person or a demiurge — an ancestor or a deity. The binary opposition “man — god” and “alive — dead” is blurred in archaic thinking. Along with the clarification of hierarchical power structures in the worldview, the mythologeme of the divine creation of artificial life begins to dominate. In the mythology of the ancient world, the anthropogony of the demiurge is often regarded as unsuccessful: the demiurge is like a person and his actions are imperfect. The archetypic image of the “unfinished man”, widespread in ancient myths, represents the ideas of modern posthumanists that human evolution should continue through the enhancement of “human nature” with high technologies.
 The practical significance. The information of this article may be useful for the scholars, researchers of culture and for teaching various educational courses.