The body becomes a specimen, an object for dissection, a corpse. We can wonder if virtual reality will lead us back to the animated, ensouled body. Parcival, we recall, failed to ask the Grail Question and was cast into a wasteland. There he wandered until he was able to withdraw projections of his unconscious, thereby being afforded another opportunity to question the Grail. For example, scientific advances have brought about cloning, offer the ability to alter genetic structures, and make it possible to preselect traits in one's children.
Human existence is engineered.
This comes dangerously close to an act of hubris. Prometheus appropriated the gods sacrificial offerings and was chained to eternal torture. Life and its significance is inextricably bound to mythology. And through mythic play with images, ideas, and concepts, they need not be projected into concretized objects. They can remain metaphoric and symbolic and live in imaginal realms.