Lebende Maschinen - living machines
If anyone questions how ancient civilisations reached such a level of refinement and luxury without significant technological advancement will find the answer in a single word: labor.Labor was both the cornerstone and the backbone of the economy. This was also the main reason why its abolition was impossible.
Why invent machines when one had slaves at one’s disposal—living machines that, moreover, reproduced themselves?
Without exception, in every great ancient civilisation and throughout the centuries up until the end of the 19th century, living machines formed the foundation of the great empires of their time.
The rapid advancement of technology eventually rendered them economically unviable.
Yet the speed of modern technological development may now be only one step away from surpassing human capabilities—with all that this entails.
Are we standing on the threshold of a new form of slavery, yet this time under different terms? Could humans once again become living machines, this time serving technology?
Artists are exploring this possibility through their ideas and reflections—the dawn of a new and different world.