19/04/2024

Iona Curtius - Cyborgs vs the Metaverse

An early 90s collection of essays on ‘Cultures of Technological Embodiment’ states in its introduction that ‘It should, perhaps, come as no surprise to us that, in an increasingly hyper-aestheticized everyday life, it is through various fictions that we endeavour to come to know ourselves.’ In this paper I analyse the ‘various fictions’ of three sci-fi movies to explore how societal ideas of and feelings towards technology and embodiment have shifted in the past 40 years and where we might (want to) go in future. I do this by examining how they treat three binaries: body/mind, human/technology, female/male. I hope to show a significant (though by no means unambiguous) trajectory: earlier science fiction, especially cyberpunk, portrayed the human mind as good, technological bodies as bad. RoboCop exemplifies this inclination. The birth of the internet began a shift, clearly demonstrated by The Matrix’s adamant insistence that the human mind cannot be trusted. Dangerous technology lurks not only in the physical machine but in the digital mind. Advancements in Artificial Intelligence and the explosion of social media now lead us to seek refuge in our bodies, rather than our weak minds. Transcendence will help us explore this final movement. Underneath this primary story I want to tease out a significant subplot, exploring the ways in which gender gets mixed up in these portrayals of bodies, minds, humans, cyborgs, and technology. If theology and the church are to engage in public discourses around religion, science, and technology, we must examine the way we culturally code and imagine technology, including its relation to embodiment – as well as understanding the fears that drive these characterisations. Only then can we meaningfully respond to them.

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