#27 Matheus Ferreira de Barros: Technology, Spheres, and the Human Being

In this episode of the AITEC podcast, Sam Bennett and Roberto Carlos speak with Matheus Ferreira de Barros, a philosopher of technology at PUC-Rio and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, about the work of Peter Sloterdijk. Ferreira de Barros introduces Sloterdijk’s philosophy of technology, focusing on the idea that human beings and technology co-evolve and that technology plays a constitutive role in human life rather than merely serving as an external tool.The conversation explores Sloterdijk’s Spheres project, including his account of insulation, distance from nature, and the creation of protective interiors that stabilize human existence at biological, psychological, and symbolic levels. The discussion also examines the loss of large-scale meaning structures in modernity, the role of religion and culture as technologies of existential security, and how contemporary technologies, including AI, may both disrupt and reshape the spheres through which human life becomes livable.