Image of Men in Posthumanism and Transhumanism of Information Society

摘要

Protecting human health and understanding the effects of information society on humans implicates a reference model of the essentials and a??normala?? functions of human beings. Such models can simply be called a??images of mena?? (a??Menschenbildera??). In this paper, common concepts of men are mentioned and it is outlined that an image of men is a paradoxical construct. Especially Homo deficiens (Gehlen) and the natural artificiality (Plessner) are the roots of technophilia of humans that is one important driver of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The other main driver is the efficiency-oriented modern society that provides such tools. One field is neuropsychiatry where monitoring of the mental and brain state for diagnosis and therapeutic modification by chemical and electrical tools is developing very fast. On the other hand, ICT already has some negative health implications in respect of internet addiction or digital dementia. These aspects of ICT society are discussed regarding the question of change of humans and of change of their image.