Who Are You, AI? – Artificial Intelligence as a Potential Metaphysical Humiliation of Humanity

Artificial Intelligence as a potential fourth metaphysical humiliation—questioning human uniqueness in reason, freedom, and moral standing, and unsettling our place in the world after Copernicus, Darwin, and Freud. Sigmund Freud identified three historical humiliations of humanity that have shaken the human sense of self [L1]. The first was the “cosmological humiliation” brought about by Nicolaus Copernicus' discovery that the Earth was not the centre of the universe, thereby depriving humans of their central position in the cosmos. The second humiliation, according to Freud, was the “biological humiliation” introduced by Charles Darwin's insight that humans were a product of evolution and not the creation of a higher being. Freud identified the third humiliation in the realm of the psyche and called it the “psychological humiliation”. In this view, the human subconscious undermines the supposed autonomy of the conscious mind: the “ego” is not, as Freud put it, “master in its own house”, but is driven by unconscious impulses. These three blows have effectively dethroned humanity from its self-appointed role as the centre and ruler of the world. In this article we explore whether AI is a potential fourth “metaphysical humiliation” of humanity, challenging the special status of humans as unique beings endowed with consciousness and reason, and the exclusivity of humanity as the only free and intelligent beings.