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Stefan Lorenz Sorgner, We have Always Been Cyborgs

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By Marietjie Botes

We Have Always Been Cyborgs, Stefan Lorenz Sorgner (2021) 240pp., £85 hardback, Bristol University Press, Bristol, ISBN 978529219203

‘Transhumanism is the world’s most dangerous idea’ (pp.1–2), at least according to American polit- ical scientist, economist, and writer Francis Fukuyama in 2004. This sentiment echoes a time when even Walt Disney and his ideas were considered the world’s most dangerous by German philoso- pher Theodor Adorno. Adorno was fascinated and concerned by Disney’s animations and how they influenced the cultural industry (especially after World War II), not only by luring people into mind- less entertainment, but also by keeping them unmotivated and uninspired to pursue things that really mattered. During the rise of the Disney empire in America in the early to mid-1900s, the majority of the Western world suffered from world wars, colonialist consolidation and accelerating com- modification which, according to Adorno, caused people to fall back into the very barbarism that civilization had prided itself in overcoming. It is against this historical backdrop that Adorno criti- cizes Disney’s culture industry and, more specifically, the ways in which it tried to justify self- numbing as a necessary price of self-preservation during these times of hardship, as opposed to uplifting or challenging people to think about ‘how life could be more than the struggle for self- preservation’ (Adorno, 2003). But regardless of these fears, this entertainment industry and its influ- ences on culture and self-preservation have remained. The industry has increased its foothold in society while evolving to meet the needs and expectations of people and investors alike. What was once considered dangerous is now embedded in the fibres of every society.

page: 342 – 347
Prometheus: Critical Studies in Innovation
Volume 38, Issue 3
SKU: 380306

SKU: 380306 Category: Tag:

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By Marietjie Botes

We Have Always Been Cyborgs, Stefan Lorenz Sorgner (2021) 240pp., £85 hardback, Bristol University Press, Bristol, ISBN 978529219203

‘Transhumanism is the world’s most dangerous idea’ (pp.1–2), at least according to American polit- ical scientist, economist, and writer Francis Fukuyama in 2004. This sentiment echoes a time when even Walt Disney and his ideas were considered the world’s most dangerous by German philoso- pher Theodor Adorno. Adorno was fascinated and concerned by Disney’s animations and how they influenced the cultural industry (especially after World War II), not only by luring people into mind- less entertainment, but also by keeping them unmotivated and uninspired to pursue things that really mattered. During the rise of the Disney empire in America in the early to mid-1900s, the majority of the Western world suffered from world wars, colonialist consolidation and accelerating com- modification which, according to Adorno, caused people to fall back into the very barbarism that civilization had prided itself in overcoming. It is against this historical backdrop that Adorno criti- cizes Disney’s culture industry and, more specifically, the ways in which it tried to justify self- numbing as a necessary price of self-preservation during these times of hardship, as opposed to uplifting or challenging people to think about ‘how life could be more than the struggle for self- preservation’ (Adorno, 2003). But regardless of these fears, this entertainment industry and its influ- ences on culture and self-preservation have remained. The industry has increased its foothold in society while evolving to meet the needs and expectations of people and investors alike. What was once considered dangerous is now embedded in the fibres of every society.

page: 342 – 347
Prometheus: Critical Studies in Innovation
Volume 38, Issue 3
SKU: 380306

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