Abstract
In this paper I will explore cybercultural thinking about inter-gender relations, seeking to understand certain mythologies about love and sex in the digital age. I will look at the burgeoning market for AI based companions, and seek to understand what causes people to look outside of the company of flesh-and-blood humans. What sensations or emotional needs are fulfilled by choosing a cybercompanion over a human? Is this a gender motivated choice? In this age of computer-dominated interaction, where we are told that more people reach for a keyboard than a hand, I hope to understand what can be learned about the human condition and its ever-changing cultural mores. To understand these questions, I will examine pop-cultural themes in science-fiction, and then relate these themes to real-world developments in cyber-technology. These include cyborgs who are ‘real enough’ to pass for human, such as the Replicants in “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”; androids who are fully functional, but somewhat less than or other than human, such as Lieutenant Commander Data in “Star Trek: The Next Generation”; demonstrations of new technology using robot/android story lines, such as Sony Playstation’s “Kara” by Quantic Dream project; and created, near-human races, such as Margaret Atwood’s “Crakers” and David Mitchell’s “Fabricants.” I will look at how human characters relate sexually and romantically to non-human characters, and then examine the phenomenon of medical cybernetic augmentation as a way of exploring when we are no longer merely human, but still ‘human enough.’
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Notes
Levi-Strauss specifically excludes science from the material available to the bricoleur.
It is important here to highlight something that in the early twenty-first century might escape our polyglot nation: Rosen is a Jewish name. Also, in “Blade Runner” Rachel’s last name is different, but when she takes her hair down out of its elaborate style, it is uncontrollably curly and wavy. Certainly these details were input on purpose, giving further analogy to the androids/Replicants second-class status, as throughout history such status has been given to Jews. Beginning in the Old Testament, and continuing with Jews being blamed for the Medieval plagues, Jews have been seen as something less/other than human. The mysticism of the Jewish practice of Kabballah was seen as a corruptive influence, and associated with their seemingly magical ways with money. The conflation in Dick’s work of the mega-corporation, and Rachel’s innocence of her true status as an android, almost directly corresponds to Shylock’s daughter Jessica, in Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice.” Additionally, Rachel’s Uncle/creator is dismayed not only at the loss of his “niece” but also of his investment, the supposedly undetectable android.
To emphasize Data’s uncanniness, he already has an exact duplicate—a twin—called Lore. Lore has fully functioning emotions, and is, for lack of a better word, evil.
Although it has little to do with my current argument, I would be lax if I did not point out that Star Fleet educated, graduated, commissioned, and promoted Data, and is presumably paying him. If he is not a sentient being, then why is he drawing a salary? However, this may speak less to an actual continuity problem than to the fact that Star Trek: The Next Generation is an episodic show with stories neatly packaged in approximately forty-five minute long bursts, with only the occasional double episode. There may not have been time for such an argument to be made.
The viewer may assume that at some point Data shares his secret with Picard, as if he had not, Picard would not have been able to use the hologram of Yar in Data’s defense in “The Measure of a Man.”
I attended a talk given by Atwood for New Hampshire Public Radio on September 18, 2013. When the interviewer asked where she came up with such fantastic ideas, Atwood paused incredulously and said “…science.”
In this movie, the concept of “eating soap” represents not only the colloquialism of “washing one’s mouth out with soap” but also cannibalism. The first mention is in a 2012 timeline where a character has uttered a swear word, and a nurse offers to wash his mouth out with soap. In the 2144 timeline, the fabricants are made to drink “one soap sack” per day. This sustains them, and they cannot eat other food. In due course, Sonmi needs to be convinced to help the Union cause. Hae-Joo takes her to a huge ship where fabricants are taken when they have served for 12 years and are told that they are going to “exaltation,” that they will ascend to their version of heaven. Instead of ascending, though, they are killed, beheaded, skinned, and liquefied into “soap,” which they are then fed during their daily shifts. Soap and cannibalism also go together in a different way. When clothes are washed in water near funeral pyres, they come out cleaner—the lye of the ashes and the glycerin from the fat of the corpses create a natural saponification effect when exposed to water.
An interesting etymological observation: Unanimity means we are all in agreement, while union means we are all together. The choice of these two particular similar but non-synonymous words for the competing factions fascinates me, especially as when being questioned by government agents, Sonmi-451 and Hae-Joo Chang are told “Unanimity requires compliance.” (Cloud Atlas 2012).
This asterisk notation is currently an accepted way to discuss and indicate all types of trans* people—transgender and transsexual. This does not represent the notation on the Sinthetics or Real Doll websites.
It is unclear from the testimonial what this refers to exactly—the different prototypes are named, but I am unsure as to whether he then changed her name once he received her, or if the Angelica prototype used to go by a different name.
In light of the recent killing spree by Elliot Rodger, (Isla Vista, California and UC Santa Barbara, May 23, 2014) who mentions that his hatred of women stems from his “involuntary celibacy” or “incel” status, one can respect the choice of a man who knows that he does not wish to interact with human women, and who chooses instead to purchase a sex doll. Whether of the Real Doll/Sinthethics quality, or a lesser quality, this still represents a safer, kinder, more responsible way of dealing with (presumed) sexual frustration. Although the argument can be made that this represents an unhealthy vision of womankind, a vision that shows a woman with open orifices and without the ability to speak, it is possible that more emphasis should be put upon dealing with problems of social anxiety, while at the same time accepting that some problems have no human solutions, and as such a non-human option should be available and de-stigmatized.
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Gibson, R. More Than Merely Human: How Science Fiction Pop-Culture Influences Our Desires for the Cybernetic. Sexuality & Culture 21, 224–246 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-016-9391-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-016-9391-9