The Age of Promethean Shame

Why We Feel Inferior to Our Machines

In an era where artificial intelligence writes poetry and robots perform surgery with superhuman precision, many of us feel a vague, unsettling sense of inadequacy. The German philosopher Günther Anders identified this feeling decades ago. He called it Promethean Shame.

This concept explains the profound human inferiority complex created by our own advancing technology. It is not a shame born of moral failure, but of a confrontation with the perfection of the objects we create.

The Concept of Promethean Shame

Promethean shame is defined as the feelings of inadequacy and humiliation that arise when humans confront the superior qualities of their technological artifacts. Anders argues that this is a unique psychological crisis regarding human relevance and identity.

Promethean shame is the shame when confronted by the ‘humiliatingly’ high quality of fabricated things.

Günther Anders

Anders situates this within his “philosophy of discrepancy,” which explores the widening gap between human capacities and technological achievements.