What drives me - Jannes Lüdtke

The starting point for my PhD topic is body design, i.e. the possibility of changing and optimizing the human body through technological adaptations in order to become immortal. Transhumanism is based on this goal. So far, the topic has mainly been looked at scientifically from an ethical perspective ('what is allowed?'), usually in a very abstract way and with hypothetical technologies. But body design is something that people have been practicing for centuries - from the castration of choirboys in the Baroque era to prostheses, plastic surgery and tattoos. Therefore, my focus is on how the image of our body changes when we make such alterations. What does 'body' mean to us and what do transhumanist ideas of it look like? In the context of AI technologies or, for example, Musk's company Neuralink (developing a brain-computer interface), the topic of body design is currently also present in social discourse.

For me, transhumanism is actually a reactionary movement that hides under a mask of thinking into the future. Transhumanist designs of the 'improved body' are surprisingly conservative, the bodies don't look changed at all. The movement promotes a depoliticization: problems of society or humanity are solved by adapting the human body rather than by changing the system. In this way, it runs counter to the very idea of progress. One example is the idea of solving the 'overpopulation' of the planet by shrinking the human population. In this way, consumer behavior can be maintained, rather than adapting the human body. That's why I'm also interested in what a counter-proposal to this could be: How can we think about the body without this depoliticization?

Another exciting aspect is which transhumanist ideas about bodies find their way into our pop culture. In recent years in particular, an incredible amount has been created here - you only have to look at superhero films - in which transhumanist narratives are reflected.
I'm enrolled at the School of Art and Design in Kassel as a freelance doctoral student, supervised by Professor Daniel Hornuff, who made it possible for me to do a doctorate in product design with a practical degree in the first place. I am also receiving a full scholarship from the German National Academic Foundation for my doctorate. This gives me much more freedom and it is particularly nice to receive such support in the young discipline of design science.

This article appeared in the university magazine publik 2025/1. Protocol: Lisa-Maxine Klein