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The Impossible Subject: Cyborg Futures

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Abstract

The final chapter moves past the structures of fantasy to question the possibility of a unity of Virtual and Real. This entails a reconceiving of the cyborg subject detached from the structures of humanity in the possibility of posthuman subjectivities, inserting a rupture from our present understanding of cybernetics. Jameson’s critique of the present through a literary staging of a utopian future is used to construct a critical distance towards the subject. The analysis of the role of digital technology and consciousness in science fiction opens this discussion, before a case study of Hannu Rajaniemi’s literary practices offers a fully posthuman framework. This stages an alternative consciousness that inserts a parallax rupture of self-awareness between the present subject and modes of rethinking its future possibilities.

Keywords

  • Black Hole
  • Digital Technology
  • Digital Medium
  • Alternative Mode
  • Science Fiction

These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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  • DOI: 10.1057/978-1-137-58449-6_6
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Benjamin, G. (2016). The Impossible Subject: Cyborg Futures. In: The Cyborg Subject. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58449-6_6

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