Humanity Without a World: Unworldliness as a Hermeneutical Criterion for an Ethic of AI and the Anthropocene

This chapter explores the contradictory ethical and ontological responses to two defining challenges of our time: the Anthropocene and the rise of Artificial Intelligence. While Anthropocene debates critique human exceptionalism by emphasizing interdependence beyond human dominance, AI ethics often reaffirms human centrality through concepts such as human-centered design and human-in-the-loop models. To reconcile these conflicting approaches, the paper turns to Günther Anders' notion of unworldliness, which describes the alienation that arises when technological development outpaces human capacities and reshapes humanity itself. By framing unworldliness as an ontological and hermeneutical paradigm, the essay proposes a shared ground for ethics of AI and Anthropocene that integrates both anthropocentric and non-anthropocentric perspectives. To do that, Anthropocene and AI are read as two parts of the same onto-anthropological dynamic. This framework enables a more coherent response to the dual challenge of ecological transformation and technological encroachment, offering a way to rethink humanity's role within both nature and technology.