The Paradoxical Messianism of the Post-Humanists

According to a hasidic legend, Rabbi Simchah Bunim of Przysucha used to carry a slip of paper in one pocket that read, “I am but dust and ashes,” and one in the other pocket that read, “the world was created for my sake.” This dialectical view of human nature can be found throughout ancient and modern rabbinic thought, and has its parallel in the writings of the deeply Chrisian philosopher Blaise Pascal. To Thomas Fuchs this tension has been taken to an absurd, secular extreme in the messianic and apocalyptic currents in the modern West. Environmentalists warn that humanity will bring about the destruction of the world; some even hope for human extinction to prevent this. Techno-futurists, meanwhile, predict a world where machines become superior to humans, or where the distinction between man and machine disappears.