‘What man, through his science and technology, has produced in this world, where he first appeared as a frail animal organism […] all this not only sounds like a fairy-tale, but actually fulfills all – no, most, fairy-tale wishes. […] Long ago he formed an ideal conception of omnipotence and omniscience, which he embodied in his gods, attributing to them whatever seemed beyond the reach of his desires – or was forbidden him. We may say, then, that these gods were cultural ideals. Man has now come close to reaching these ideals and almost become a god himself. […] Man has become, so to speak, a god with artificial limbs.’
Sigmund Freud, Civilization and its Discontents (1930)
This project explores the implications of technological extensions of the human body and mind in the twenty-first century.
Professor Sebastian Groes introduces the notion of the prosthetic god in the articles below:
The Prosthetic God: Psychosomatic Extension in the Digital Age
On the 13th March 2020, he will give his inaugural lecture at the University of Wolverhampton, ‘The Prosthetic God: Transactive Cognition in the Age of Connectivity’.