Human Decentering

Typically ascribed to Copernicus’ revelation that the earth revolves around the sun (1543), human decentering is said to begin here. Galileo later substantiated this heliocentric model, and was subsequently condemned as a heretic by the Catholic church, where Copernicanism (as a world view), was banned in 1616, and only accepted as a model in 1822. Human decentering is tied to paradigm shifts that relativize our ‘exceptional’ status as humans, deflating anthropomorphism (another instance is Darwin’s evolutionary theory, where we are no longer divine creatures, but originate in the same fashion as other life forms). Transformative of our human self-image, today our presumed monopoly on intelligence stands on the cusp of being decentered in light of developments like Artificial Intelligence.