Plato vs. the Machines

Is technology a threat to humanity, or is it the very essence of what it means to be human? Why do we continue to view the “natural” as good and the “artificial” as suspicious?

Is technology a threat to humanity, or is it the very essence of what it means to be human? Why do we still view the “natural” as good and the “artificial” as suspicious? In this bold and insightful essay, Marcos Alonso invites us to explore a long history of distrust toward machines and all things artificial, from Plato’s condemnation of technology in ancient Greece to the current debates surrounding artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and posthumanism. Through a rigorous and engaging analysis, he dismantles the prejudices that have shaped Western traditions, demonstrating how the dichotomy between the natural and the artificial has influenced how we think, feel, and organize society. Plato Against the Machines is not simply a critique of technological pessimism or a naive defense of innovation; rather, it is an invitation to explore the paradoxes that define us, to understand the value and risks of the artificial, and to discover how our words, ideas, and technologies shape the world we live in.