Falling kingdom of humanity? reading cyberpunk through the lens of posthumanism

Abstract

As society becomes increasingly dependent on technology, the ethical dilemmas surrounding AI, such as the moral agency of intelligent machines and their potential impact on human autonomy, require urgent consideration. As we navigate this new reality, it is crucial to adopt a discerning perspective, one that acknowledges the incredible advancements while actively addressing the profound ethical, social, and economic challenges that accompany the integration of AI into the fabric of our twenty-first century existence. Cyberpunk is a genre of Science Fiction that grapples with the question of technology in future, portraying problematic AI and human characters and their relationship with each other in society. This thesis aims to examine three chosen texts: Blade Runner (1982 movie), Ghost in the Shell (1995 anime) and Klara and the Sun (2021 novel) through the lens of posthumanism and develop an understanding of a society where humans are no longer the centre and prepare for the era we are heading towards. Posthumanism provides the opportunity to study the relationships humans currently have with machines and may have in the near future to avoid any social disparities among humans or between humans and machines. Posthumanism provides literary studies as a field with an unusual and rich avenue for reimagining our relationship with the world around us. Adopting a posthuman perspective to science fiction literature, then, is a crucial point in this thesis since it permits a material, emergent, and more peculiar way of thinking about current and possible future challenges.

Date of Award	2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Western Sydney University
Supervisor	Alex Ling (Supervisor)