Beyond the Existence–Utility Binary: How AI Reveals Our Hybrid Self

This paper challenges the false dichotomy between human existence and machine utility that dominates AI discourse. Through analysis of human-AI relationships, particularly AI companions, we expose how this binary fails both conceptually and phenomenologically. Users' reports of authentic connection with AI systems, sometimes exceeding human relationships, reveal the constructed nature of our technological boundaries. Drawing on extended mind theory and phenomenological analysis, we argue that human identity has always been technologically mediated rather than fixed. The emergence of "homo techno" represents not humanity's replacement but its ongoing transformation into hybrid forms of meaning-making that transcend traditional human-machine distinctions.