Critical Posthumanism and the Uncanny in Ian McEwan’s Machines Like Me

Nayar, Pramod K.

doi:10.1007/978-3-031-04958-3_70

Cited by 5 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…This is where transhumanism seems very relevant whereby the development of benevolent AI converges with forms of human enhancement or transformation. In transhumanistic terms, humans can transcend their bodily status through technological modification into a superior successor (Fuller, 2017; Huxley, 1968; More, 2009; Nayar, 2013). In extension of Göcke’s (2018) notion of ‘moderate transhumanism’ that is compassion-based, Belk’s (2021) investigation of transhumanism in speculative fiction and Sorgner’s (2021) recent work on the transhumanist repertoire from a dozen intriguing facets, future research endeavors can philosophically examine postcyberbunk filmography, namely the magnum opus Blade Runner 2049 , in close relation to hybridized life forms, technologically-assisted human enhancements measures and the accompanying new realms of experiences and values.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Postcyberpunk dystopian cityscape and emotion artificial intelligence: A spatio-cognitive analysis of posthuman representation in Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

Elyamany

2022

Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Med

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Within visual culture, postcyberpunk films are best approached as places of Otherness whereby human identity and agency are downplayed and posthumans are magnified in highly technopolic societies marked with scientific determinism. Postcyberpunk treats the posthuman enclave as a heterotopic site, oscillating between utopian and dystopian spaces, potentially and optimistically, creating a space for humanity to be reassessed and renegotiated. Against this backdrop, the current research endeavor proposes a Spatio-Cognitive Model of Posthuman Representation focusing attention on heterotopic ‘spaces’ and ‘bodies’ in hyperconnected environments. While the model owes a substantial debt to Foucault’s writings on heterotopia and the utopian body, in tilting the focus of enquiry, this paper is informed by the tenets of polyrhythmia, hypermimesis, spatial repertoires, semiotic assemblages and cognitive embodiment as insightful interventions. Blade Runner 2049 is taken as a fertile case study grounded in paradoxes and ambiguities around the contradiction between humans and replicants, artificial intelligence and super-large enterprises. The hybridity pertinent to the postcyberpunk film genre and the inner and outer topographies of posthuman representation proved to be insightful investigative vantage points of multimodal inquiry for the socio-political and technocratic implications they underlie. With technology seamlessly integrated into social spaces and posthuman bodies, Blade Runner 2049 is arguably structured as an emotional journey composed of multiple heterotopias (spatial layers, ruptures and bifurcations expressed through socio-political capitalist projections). The article adamantly argues for new philosophical perspectives and praxis in redefinition of the social relationship between human and posthuman.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Postcyberpunk dystopian cityscape and emotion artificial intelligence: A spatio-cognitive analysis of posthuman representation in Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

Elyamany

2022

Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Med

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“…While those sympathetic to posthumanism see it as a form of liberation from modernity and from the limitations of the human condition enabling a more radical kind of autonomy (Nayar, 2014), its critics see in it the arrival of a depoliticized conception of human perfectibility and is not compatible with the political project of autonomy. According to Dévédec, the Enlightenment notion of autonomy never saw the idea of human perfectibility as a purely technical matter (Dévédec, 2018).…”

Section: Contested Visions Of the Futurementioning

confidence: 99%

Introduction: Social theory and the idea of the future

Delanty

2024

European Journal of Social Theory

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There is a new sensibility to the concept of the future in recent writings in the human and social sciences. The modern idea of the future is undergoing a tremendous rupture today such that older or taken-for-granted assumptions about it can no longer be left unscrutinized. While much of the new interest in the future is about events yet to come – and the spectre of catastrophe looms large in such thinking – the challenge for social theory is to understand how the future should be conceptualized today and how it relates to other concepts, such as space, hope, possibility and utopia. Some of the major controverses about how the future should be conceptualized can be summed up around the following debates, which are explored in this introductory article: the question of the temporality of the future, the extent to which the future is open, whether utopia has been superseded by dystopia and the implications of posthumanism especially in the context of the emergence of new technologies that have far-reaching implications for the human condition.

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“…European humanism developed circuitously from Ancient Greek philosophy, Arabic-Persian philosophy, the Renaissance and The Enlightenment to contemporary enterprises such as ‘Humanists International’, which also embraces non-European humanist traditions. 1 Humanism’s assumptions are not always explicit; for example, humans are the most important species (‘anthropocentrism’) and our consciousness distinguishes us from machines (Nayar, 2014). Many humans, unaware of humanist philosophy, take such assumptions for granted.…”

Section: Posthumanism and Creative Productionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(The Humanist 2022 Amsterdam Declaration states: ‘We recognise that we are part of nature and accept our responsibility for the impact we have on the rest of the natural world’). 3 A key difference between humanists and non-anthropocentric posthumanists is that the latter exhort us to ‘decentre’, no longer seeing ourselves as life’s hub, viewing humanity not only as enmeshed with the biosphere but with reduced status in a ‘species cosmopolitan’ (Nayar, 2014: 152). Nevertheless, non-anthropocentric posthumanism does not necessarily entail a radical break with humanism.…”

Section: Posthumanism and Creative Productionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Posthumanist stylistics

O’Halloran

2023

Language and Literature: International Journal of Stylistics

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I present a posthumanist approach to literary interpretation using stylistic analysis. It is posthumanist since i) digital cameras/audio-video resources and editing applications prompt multimodal readings of literary works unlikely from human intuition alone; ii) anthropocentrism in literary texts is defamiliarised. I highlight how stylistic analysis can be used productively for developing multimodal creativity in posthumanist reading by motivating audio-video edits and effects. I model using Anne Brontë’s poem ‘Home’ (1846). When read only with intuition, ‘Home’ communicates young Brontë’s yearning for her family home. In contrast, this article has a non-intuitive digital multimodal realisation of this poem where a young Californian stuck in London because of pandemic (Covid-19) travel restrictions yearns for her home state in the aftermath of wildfires linked to anthropogenic climate change. This posthumanist transformative reading, flagging the negative repercussions of humans for their planetary home, defamiliarises the poem’s anthropocentric normality. Importantly, I show how stylistic analysis of ‘Home’ motivates creative use of audio-visual edits and effects in the posthumanist multimodal reading. The article makes contrast with standard interpretive practice in stylistics (‘humanist stylistics’). It also reflects on the value of posthumanist stylistics for extending students’ creative thinking in an educational context.

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Critical Posthumanism and the Uncanny in Ian McEwan’s Machines Like Me

Cited by 5 publications

References 7 publications

Postcyberpunk dystopian cityscape and emotion artificial intelligence: A spatio-cognitive analysis of posthuman representation in Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

Postcyberpunk dystopian cityscape and emotion artificial intelligence: A spatio-cognitive analysis of posthuman representation in Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

Introduction: Social theory and the idea of the future

Posthumanist stylistics

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