Posthumanist Representations of Consciousness, Nature, and Matter: Science Fiction in the Age of AI

This open access book analyzes how contemporary novels engage with the question of what it means to be human after AI stopped being a mere fantasy and became reality in the 1990s. Considering the increasing threat to all life forms, including humans, posed by the Anthropocene, the age-old belief in the humanist notion of intellect as the highest expression of superiority has become increasingly doubtful. Especially because it has been technology, constructed with human intelligence, that has given rise to global warming and pollution. This book contends that the selected novels align with a posthumanist approach that emphasizes the centrality of an ethics of care and relationality, illustrating how the humanist notion of intelligence, which has traditionally served as a justification for anthropocentrism, is replaced in the novels with consciousness, a trait shared by all sentient beings. The analysis highlights how, through representations of artificial intelligence and the concept of mind uploading, the novels critique anthropocentrism and advocate for a relational perspective grounded in care and responsibility.