The presentation addresses the connection between political power and somatic modifications using the example of the monarchy (Imperium of Man) from the grimdark Warhammer 40k universe, which raises the question of the nature and extent of political control over the human body and its use for the purpose of power projection which corresponds to term “Biopolitics” popularised by the philosopher Michel Foucault. In this perspective, the hybrid of machine and human modelled by sacralised political power (Imperial Cult, Adeptus Ministorum) is perceived, among other things, as an expression of the human striving for immortality and deification, which has its roots in the mediaeval development of the experimental method and the hermetically motivated anthropocentrism of the Renaissance. The most blatant example of programmatic, technologically mediated somatic modification for the purpose of projecting sacralised political power is found in the Empire’s genetically modified elite units, the Space Marines, where we witness the erasure of some key components of the very concept of humanity, which has an entirely vague meaning when observed through the lens of the posthuman and transhuman perspective. The theme of the sacrifice and manipulation of the concept of “human” for the purpose of maintaining and projecting political power through the medium of technology in the grimdark genre of Warhammer 40k is ironised to the extreme using the example of the “deified” and sacralised Emperor of all Mankind, who has been artificially kept alive by the state apparatus for years.
The aim of the above arguments is to emphasise the need for greater (bio)ethical reflection in public discourse on the problems of technology in today’s society, where the question of human integrity in relation to the issues of freedom and dignity is often compromised by an insufficiently clear value system.
Author bio
Edi Radan:
- 2015 – graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Split.
- 2020 – graduated from the Philosophical and Theological Institute of the Society of Jesus, Zagreb.
- 2024 – graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Zagreb.
