Symbiotic fictional experiments in the visual arts

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-118
Author(s):  
Ana Carvalho
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Visual Arts ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Thought Experiments

Abstract Sameness and difference, seen through the use of the term symbiosis, are tooled for the construction of other, future realities. Two examples from literature will describe how symbiosis is, in science fiction, used as means to propose connections with Otherness, through a return to a nature recovered, and as part of rational human deliberate actions towards the recovery of our present damaged planet. Science fiction is where the methodological approach is formulated, as thought experiments, within Ursula Le Guin's literature, from where to develop the process to create two visual artworks. These visual artworks, both different series of images, depart from the term symbiosis, to reflect on what is different within the same, and on the construction of sameness in what is different.

Zombies, Epiphenomenalism, and Physicalist Theories of Consciousness

2006 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 481-509 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Bailey
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Computational Model ◽  
Philosophy Of Mind ◽  
Thought Experiments ◽  
Computer Programs ◽  
Recent History ◽  
Philosophical Work ◽  
The Mind

In its recent history, the philosophy of mind has come to resemble an entry into the genre of Hammer horror or pulpy science fiction. These days it is unusual to encounter a major philosophical work on the mind that is not populated with bats, homunculi, swamp-creatures, cruelly imprisoned genius scientists, aliens, cyborgs, other-worldly twins, self-aware Computer programs, Frankenstein-monster-like ‘Blockheads,’ or zombies. The purpose of this paper is to review the role in the philosophy of mind of one of these fantastic thought-experiments — the zombie — and to reassess the implications of zombie arguments, which I will suggest have been widely misinterpreted. I shall argue that zombies, far from being the enemy of materialism, are its friend; and furthermore that zombies militate against the computational model of consciousness and in favour of more biologically-rooted conceptions, and hence that zombie- considerations support a more reductive kind of physicalism about consciousness than has been in vogue in recent years.

scholarly journals Identity Theft: A Thought Experiment on the Fragility of Identity

Conatus ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 71
Author(s):  
David Menčik
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Personal Identity ◽  
Thought Experiment ◽  
Psychological Impact ◽  
Thought Experiments ◽  
Identity Theft ◽  
Psychological Continuity ◽  
Temporal Proximity ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
The Prestige

This paper intends to discuss some aspects of what we conceive as personal identity: what it consists in, as well as its alleged fragility. First I will try to justify the methodology used in this paper, that is, the use of allegories in ontological debates, especialy in the form of thought experiments and science fiction movies. Then I will introduce an original thought experiment I call “Who am I actually?,” one that was coined with the intent to shed light on several aspects of the issue under examination, that is, the fragility of personal identity. Then I will move on to Christopher Nolan’s film The Prestige, as well as to Derek Parfit’s ‘divided minds’ thought experiment, to further discuss the fragility of personal identity; next to identity theft, the prospect of duplication is also intriguing, especially with regard to the psychological impact this might have on both the prototype and the duplicate. I will conclude with the view that spatial and temporal proximity or coexistence, especially when paired with awareness on behalf of the duplicates, would expectedly result in the infringement of the psychological continuity of one’s identity.

scholarly journals Speculative feminism and the shifting frontiers of bioscience: envisioning reproductive futures with synthetic gametes through the ethnographic method

2021 ◽  
pp. 146470012110301
Author(s):  
Mianna Meskus
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Science Studies ◽  
Thought Experiments ◽  
Sperm Cells ◽  
Cultural Products ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Feminist Analysis ◽  
Stratified Reproduction ◽  
Ethnographic Methodology

Scientists are developing a technique called in vitro gametogenesis or IVG to generate synthetic gametes for research and, potentially, for treating infertility. What would it mean for feminist concerns over the future of reproductive practice and biotechnological development if egg and sperm cells could be produced in laboratory conditions? In this article, I take on the question by discussing the emerging technique of IVG through the speculative feminist analysis of ambiguous reproductive futures. Feminist cultural and science studies scholars have explored the transformative effects of biomedicine on reproduction through science fiction novels and other cultural products. I theorise the speculative and visionary in biomedicine in the context of ethnographic methodology by drawing on ‘thought experiments’ conducted with stem cell scientists as shared acts of future-oriented contemplation. I develop the figure of SF proposed by Donna Haraway to investigate how science facts and speculative fabulation together shape futurities of reproduction. I propose including shifting frontiers in feminist thinking of the SFs in bioscience. Biomedical research aims to shift the borders between what is known and not known in reproductive biology, subsequently raising new technical, ethical and political issues in terms of stratified reproduction. The article shows that synthetic gametes are anticipated to intensify selective procreation. Simultaneously, IVG is seen to forge new biogenetic relationships and possibilities for non-normative reproduction and kin-making. Following Haraway, I argue that by ‘staying with the trouble’ of these biotechnological visions, feminist speculative analytics on technoscience offers a valuable tool to envision more hopeful and equal futures together with scientists.

Parallel Worlds

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jad Smith
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Thought Experiments ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Good Science ◽  
Parallel Forms ◽  
Chess Game ◽  
John Brunner ◽  
The City

This introductory chapter discusses the metaphor of parallel worlds as it relates to the work of John Brunner. Brunner once observed that while we all inhabit the same world, we live in and among parallel worlds. He believed that a good science-fiction writer should cultivate awareness of parallel forms of experience and open up vistas onto the future that make readers more mindful of them. In keeping with this view, he developed plots with an eye toward the possible interplay of parallel worlds, imagining zones of contact as native to human experience as the tense friendship of the WASP and “Afram” roomies Donald Hogan and Norman House in Stand on Zanzibar (1968), and as foreign to it as the alternate ecology and symbiotic biotechnologies of The Crucible of Time (1983). Throughout his career, he made a practice of conducting idiosyncratic “thought experiments” in his fiction. These ranged from mirroring the moves of a famous 1892 Steinitz-Chigorin chess game in the plot of The Squares of the City (1965) to exploring the ethical quandaries of artificial intelligence through the grafted consciousness of a sentient spaceship in A Maze of Stars (1991). Time and again, Brunner proved himself an idea merchant of the first and best order. His narrative ventures often brought together parallel genres just as dynamically as parallel worlds, and he enjoyed a lasting reputation for handling even conventional storylines and concepts with an alluring difference that made them distinct—and distinctly his.

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