Publication Date
Winter 12-1-2025
College
College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences
Department
Philosophy, Department of
Student Level
Undergraduate
Faculty Mentor
Ronnie Littlejohn
Presentation Type
Talk/Oral
Summary
Artificial intelligence is quickly taking precedent in lives all over the world. It has emerged as one of the most controversial inventions of the 21st century, and represents a larger digital shift that is being taken among first world society. As our lives shift into unprecedented digitized territory, new technology brings more questions than answers, but there seems to be no slowing down despite patches of uncertainty. AI brings new forms of innovation to the table that drastically change the way humans interact with productivity as a whole. When these factors are observed from a philosophical lens, patterns arise that show fundamental societal changes. Specifically, AI calls into question how humanity should interact with risk, self-overcoming, and even mortality. When approached from a Nietzschean lens, AI appears to be sending humanity in a concerning direction regarding its relationship with these core human experiences. As artificial intelligence advances toward total efficiency, it erodes the struggle, vulnerability, and finitude that have always defined what it means to be human. In doing so, AI risks replacing a world shaped by self-overcoming with one where meaning, value, and even life itself become optional. The long term effects of these changes bring up questions where the human condition is so fundamentally changed, that whether or not it is “human” becomes a debatable question.
Recommended Citation
Johnston, Graham, "The Fate of Meaning in an Age of Machines: A Nietzschean Warning on Artificial Intelligence" (2025). SPARK Symposium Presentations. 715.
https://repository.belmont.edu/spark_presentations/715
Included in
Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons, Other Philosophy Commons, Philosophy of Science Commons
