Content Details | NUML Online Research Repository

Title Anthropocentrism, Artifical Intelligence and Transhumanism: A Posthumanist critique of contemporary Speculative Fiction

Author(s) Mr. Muhammad Adeel Ashraf

Abstract Title: Anthropocentrism, Artificial Intelligence, and Qualia: A Posthumanist Critique of Contemporary Speculative Fiction The present study is a posthumanist critique of three contemporary science fiction writings that are Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun (2021), Ian McEwan’s Machines Like Me (2019), and Jeanette Winterson’s Frankissstein (2019). Under the paradigm of posthumanism, this research has invoked Gilbert Ryle’s concept of ‘ghost in the machine’, Bernard Steiglar’s theory of ‘technics’, and Donna J. Haraway’s ‘cyborg theory’ in order to analyze the primary texts. The research deconstructs the anthropocentric discourse and questions the binary of human and artificial intelligence in the selected texts. For this purpose, the research deconstructs the dualist idea, according to which humans have a mental or non-physical attribute along with their physical existence. Using the anti-dualist and physicalist approaches of different philosophers in order to analyze the primary texts, this research proposes that if humans do not have any non-material, ghostly presence along with their physical body then it is feasible to create artificial intelligence with subjective experience, consciousness, and qualia. Thus, according to this research, the binary of human and artificial intelligence is flawed just like the binaries of gender, culture, and race. Research also opines that the feelings of AI characters in the selected novels are not unreal and hollow simulations but they are as real as the feelings of human characters. After questioning the binary of human and machine intelligence, this research discusses the exploitation and enslavement of AI robots by humans, as portrayed in the selected texts. The research proposes that this exploitation of AI robots is akin to the exploitation and enslavement of Africans and Native Americans in the past. That enslavement was based on the binaries of black/white and native/non-native, while this one is based on the binary of natural/artificial. Researcher identifies this phenomenon as ‘neo-slavery’ in the making. The method used for this research is textual analysis of the selected texts. This Research inspires future researchers to explore science fiction using the posthumanist ideas like post-anthropocentrism, AI ethics, transhumanism, and machine consciousness.

Type Thesis/Dissertation

Faculty Languages

Department English

Language English

Publication Date 2023-06-05

Subject

Publisher

Contributor(s)

Format

Identifier

Source

Relation

Coverage

Rights