INCOMPATIBLE VERSIONS OF DIGITAL HUMANITY IN MIKE LANCASTER'S "0.4" AND "1.4"
Vol.9, Issue 1, 2023, pp. 39-58 Full text
DOI: https://doi.org/10.33919/esnbu.23.1.3
Web of Science: 001021117300003
Author:
Emine Şentürk https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7546-1587
Affiliation: Akdeniz University, Antalya, Turkey 01m59r132
Abstract
This study examines the topic of the human being stuck in a transitional period between being human, transhuman, and posthuman. The focus of this article revolves around the analysis of Mike Lancaster's sequel novels "0.4" and "1.4" which depict events in a fictitious world, with the former focusing on the transformation of a conventional community into a digitally enhanced one and the latter depicting the presence of several versions of the upgraded humanity. This research employs transhuman and posthuman perspectives on selected novel excerpts that indicate the author's preoccupation with ambiguity and disobedience. Digital memory record of a diary is viewed as an instance of self-awareness that provides documentation for memory and archive which would be the only sign of the existence of a human version in this real world in contrast to the digital world.
Keywords: transhumanism, digital humanity, Mike Lancaster, 0.4, 1.4
Article history:
Submitted: 19 January 2023
Reviewed: 03 April 2023
Accepted: 04 April 2023
Published: 20 June 2023
Citation (APA):
Şentürk, E. (2023). Incompatible Versions of Digital Humanity in Mike Lancaster's "0.4" and "1.4". English Studies at NBU, 9(1), 39-58. https://doi.org/10.33919/esnbu.23.1.3
Copyright © 2023 Emine Şentürk
This open access article is published and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. If you want to use the work commercially, you must first get the authors' permission.
Note: This article is a completely revised version of a paper presented at the European Society for the Study of English (ESSE) conference in Galway, Ireland, 22-26 August 2016.
References
Chislenko, S. A., Sandberg, A., Kamphuis, A., Staring, L., Fantegrossi, B., Reynolds, D., Pearce, D., Otter, D., Bailey, D., Leitl, E., Alves, G., Wagner, H., Aegis, K., Elis, K., Crocker, L. D., More, M., Sverdlov, M., Vita-More, N., Bostrom, N., Fletcher, R., Spaulding, S.,... Quinn, T. (2013). Transhumanist Declaration (2012). In M. More & N. Vita-More (Eds.), The Transhumanist Reader: Critical and Contemporary Essays on the Science, Technology, and Philosophy of the Human Future (pp. 54-55). Wiley-Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118555927.ch4
Ferrando, F. (2020). Philosophical Posthumanism. Bloomsbury. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350059511
Ferrando, F. (2013). Posthumanism, transhumanism, antihumanism, metahumanism, and new materialisms: Differences and relations. Existenz, 8(2), 26-32.
Forster, E. M. (1972). Collected Short Stories. Penguin.
Frenkel, M. S. (2003). Inheritable genetic modification and a brave new world: Did Huxley have it wrong?. Hastings Center Report, 33(2), 31-36. https://doi.org/10.2307/3528152
Fromm, E. (1984). On Disobedience and Other Essays. Routledge & Kegan.
Huxley, J. (1959). New Bottles for New Wine. Chatto & Windus.
Kurzweil, R. (2006). The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology. Penguin.
Lancaster, M. (2011). 0.4. Egmont.
Lancaster, M. (2012). 1.4. Egmont.
Lancaster, M. (2017). Ask the Author: Mike A. Lancaster. GoodReads. https://www.goodreads.com/author/4100198.Mike_A_Lancaster/questions
Orwell, G. (2003). Nineteen Eighty-Four. Penguin.
Ranisch, R. & Sorgner S. L. (2014). Introducing Post- and Transhumanism. In Ranisch, R. & Sorgner, S. L. (Eds.), Post- and Transhumanism: An Introduction (pp. 7-29). Peter Lang. https://doi.org/10.3726/978-3-653-05076-9
Shaviro, S. (2009). The Singularity is Here. In M. Bould & C. Mieville (Eds.), Red Planets: Marxism and Science Fiction (pp. 103-117). Wesleyan UP.
Vinge, V. (1993). The Coming Technological Singularity: How to Survive in the Post-Human Era. Vision-21 Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering in the Era of Cyberspace, Westlake, Ohio, March 30-31, 1993. (pp.11-22). NASA Lewis Research Center and the Ohio Aerospace Institute, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19940022856
Walmsley, J. (2012). Mind and Machine. Palgrave. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137283429
Warwick, K. (2020). Superhuman enhancements via implants: Beyond the human mind. Philosophies, 5(3), 14. https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies5030014
Review:
1. Reviewer's name: Undisclosed
Review Content: Undisclosed
Review Verified on Publons
2. Reviewer's name: Undisclosed
Review Content: Undisclosed
Review Verified on Publons
Handling Editor: Boris Naimushin
Verified Editor Record on Publons