AIs, Androids, Machines, Sexbots: Questioning Humanity in Some Contemporary Narratives

Abstract

The essay wants to offer a transversal and transdisciplinary map of some cultural products (presenting themselves as science fictions, dystopias, but also possible utopias), all released between 2018 and 2019, where the human is forced to confront with the new technology of the ‘machine’ – as Artificial Intelligence or android. In them, the appearance of new forms of ‘life’, which demand to be recognised and progressively develop strong ‘moral judgements’, calls for a reflection on the reconsideration of the community, the re-vision of the anthropocentric construction of the world, and the radical act of re-thinking the human and humanity in a more collective and sustainable way. With reference to the theorisations of Rosi Braidotti, Judith Butler, Donna Haraway, and Fredric Jameson, the essay will analyse the film Aniara, directed by Pella Kågerman and Hugo Lilja, the exhibition Training Humans, held in Milan at Fondazione Prada, and, in particular, the novels Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan and Frankissstein: A Love Story by Jeanette Winterson.