In a 1982 article, American feminist scholar Elizabeth Spelman coined the term “somatophobia” to describe the strange human delusion that we are minds rather than bodies.
Forty years later, artificial intelligence is everywhere, offering the most powerful illusion yet that intelligence can exist without a physical form. Two-thirds of people surveyed in a recent study believe that tools like ChatGPT have some level of consciousness and feeling. We are living in the age of somatophobia. Now is the time to push back against it.
Our fantasy of being taken over by machines comes from an ancient belief that the mind is a separate substance—a “thinking thing” that might somehow survive death. It ultimately stems from our fears about how fragile life in a body really is. “The body is a source of endless trouble to us,” Plato complained over 2,000 years ago.
By the digital age, Marvin Minsky was calling the body a “meat machine.” Today, techno-philosopher Ray Kurzweil promises “a backup version of ourselves” in the cloud. The idea of an immortal soul has been rebranded as the digital self.
For the past six years, I have been researching the latest evidence for how life and intelligence actually work. Far from being unimportant, our bodies are essential to who we are, because life and intelligence require a unique kind of physical wholeness and integration.
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What’s more, research into the origins of life—including Nick Lane and William Martin’s work on membrane bioenergetics—suggests that these abilities may depend on specific elements and conditions, rather than some abstract formula.
These unique qualities allow biological beings to do something remarkable in the universe. Our bodies both create and direct energy to maintain their own organization. In this sense, the body itself is what defines who we are.
This is no longer just a philosophical idea. In cognitive science, Lawrence Barsalou’s influential theory of “grounded cognition” argues that thought depends on perception, bodily states, and context. In neuroscience, Antonio Damasio’s “somatic marker” hypothesis—tested through the Iowa Gambling Task—shows how bodily feelings help guide decision-making before our conscious reasoning catches up. More recent work shows that the brain is constantly predicting and regulating signals from the heart, gut, lungs, and other internal organs.
The intelligent actions of living things, then, come from the needs of whole bodies that must maintain their own conditions for survival. Holistic processes like homeostasis are more important than the mind, and the body drives many critical changes, including aspects of gene regulation.
Ultimately, very little of what we call intelligence can truly be said to be controlled by a separate thinking part that you might identify as your true self. Instead, intelligence is the sum of tiny adjustments across all the connected parts of our bodies. In fact, the mind often enters late, receiving and integrating actions that the body has already started.
Wanting a cup of coffee, for example, isn’t an abstract decision—it’s the body in full motion: molecules building up, cells signaling, and chemical cascades turning into action. In other words, we are not brains in jars. We are embodied creatures fully engaged with the world.
Yet today, the body’s intelligence is being systematically disrupted. We are living through the rapid shift from a biological life in nature to a life shaped by technology. This represents a global rejection of our remarkable living bodies.
For Spelman, somatophobia isn’t just fear of one’s own body. It is a system of devaluation that shows up in misogyny, racism, and class hierarchy. AI is an expensive form of imitation—it copies the patterns of our thoughts but lacks the bodies that give real meaning and intelligence. Meanwhile, information devices are taking over our physical experiences.We are moving into a virtual world, and with that comes a shrinking of human control. Where does rejecting the body lead us? We’re exhausted by constant connectivity and the pressure to be available 24/7. One study found that working 55 hours or more per week raises the risk of stroke by 35% and the risk of dying from heart disease by 17%. At the same time, we’ve become much more sedentary, like unwitting cyborgs shaped by the machines driving this productivity. In 2024, the World Health Organization reported that nearly a third of adults worldwide weren’t getting enough physical activity. We act as if thinking can be separated from movement, circulation, muscles, and the world around us.
We boast that our machines have connected the globe. But another 2025 report on social connection found that one in six people worldwide feels lonely, linked to about 100 deaths every hour. Humans aren’t just minds exchanging information. We’re whole beings who regulate each other through touch, voice, smell, gesture, and shared time.
Meanwhile, we keep building a social hierarchy where some people are seen as minds and others are reduced to bodies. In Western society, white people have often been allowed to be thinkers and leaders, while brown bodies are stuck in roles of labor or dependence. Only those with power can afford to forget their bodies. The powerless rarely get to be anything else.
In my research, I argue that being alive is first and foremost about being a body. True intelligence depends on the full system of body and energy flow that only exists in living organisms. Meaning doesn’t come from raw information; it starts wherever a living body has something at stake. So neither information nor mind—nor AI—is truly alive or intelligent in any meaningful way. The urge to deny the body is also a denial of life. Should we be surprised that we’re destroying life on Earth like never before?
When we see the self as just mind or information, the living body becomes a nuisance, a disposable support system. This isn’t just a philosophical error. It changes how we approach medicine, mental health, and other species. But we are not machines. We are precious bodies—dynamic, perceptive, and determined.
Pain matters because a body can be hurt. Love matters because embodied beings are dependent, social, and mortal. Grief matters because living bodies can be lost forever. This is the thrilling intelligence of life. Meaning isn’t produced by raw information; it begins wherever a living body has something at stake.
Ironically, most AI models don’t share our confusion. Recently, I asked ChatGPT about the endpoint of the machine metaphor. It replied, “In truth, I am only an artifact of statistical patterns.” Well, indeed. That so many of us have been pulled away from embodied reality into physically sedentary lives is the endpoint of an obsession with mental life as the core of who we are. It’s time to remember the body.
Melanie Challenger is a researcher and writer on the history of ideas and the history and philosophy of science. Her newest book, Alive: The Hidden Intelligence of the Living World, will be released on August 11.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here is a list of FAQs based on the topic Ive spent years studying what it really means to be alive Heres what Ive found
BeginnerLevel Questions
1 What does being alive actually mean in simple terms
Being alive isnt just about your heart beating It means actively engaging with the worldfeeling thinking learning and connecting with others Its the difference between existing and truly experiencing
2 Why should I care about this Isnt it obvious
Many people go through life on autopilotworking eating sleepingwithout ever stopping to ask if they feel fully alive Understanding this can help you find more meaning joy and purpose in your everyday life
3 Whats the one biggest thing you found about being alive
That most people confuse being busy with being alive Real aliveness comes from presence curiosity and vulnerabilitynot from checking off a todo list
4 Can you give a simple example of being alive vs just existing
Sure Existing is eating a sandwich while scrolling your phone Being alive is tasting the bread smelling the tomatoes and noticing the crunch Its being fully in the moment
IntermediateLevel Questions
5 What are the biggest barriers to feeling alive
Fear routine and distraction Fear of failure keeps you small Routine numbs your senses Distraction pulls you away from the present moment
6 How do you actually practice being alive every day
Start small pause for 10 seconds and notice your breath Ask yourself What am I feeling right now Do one thing at a time Talk to a stranger Go outside without your phone
7 Does this mean I have to quit my job and travel the world
No You can feel alive in a cubicle if you bring curiosity and purpose to your work Travel is great but true aliveness is a mindset not a destination
8 What role do relationships play in being alive
A huge one Real connectionwhere you listen deeply and share honestlymakes you feel seen and energized Loneliness is one of the fastest ways to feel dead inside
