scholarly journals The Mechanics of Engenderneering

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roy Schwartzman
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Life Forms ◽  
Moral Value ◽  
Gendered Identity ◽  
Left Hand ◽  
The Future ◽  
Science Fiction Films

THE MECHANICS OF ENGENDERNEERING: CYBORGS AND ALIENS AS MANUFACTURED EVIL IN SCIENCE-FICTION FILM This essay examines a process called engenderneering, which can be understood as personification with a twist: the investiture of non-human entities with a gendered identity. Science fiction films, despite their futuristic settings, often associate gender markers with assignments of moral value. Manufactured life forms such as robots and cyborgs highlight the extent that gender markers serve as necessary or sufficient determinants of an entity's value. Aliens, although not bound to human gender constraints, still tend to retain explicit, conventional signs of gender. To avoid projecting the negative associations of femininity into the future, perhaps science fiction narratives could transcend gender as a two-valued concept. The american novelist Ursula LeGuin raised a question whether gender was necessary to define an entity as human. To answer this question, LeGuin created in The Left Hand of Darkness the hermaphroditic...

Epilogue Imagining future cities

2020 ◽  
pp. 115-124
Author(s):  
Carl Abbott
Keyword(s):  
Big Data ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
The Future ◽  
Technological Developments ◽  
Science Fiction Films ◽  
The Ideal ◽  
Future Visions ◽  
City Planners

“Imagining future cities” contrasts the idea of the human city with the robot city, an idea that is never far away from the cities of the future we see in science fiction films. As some of these future visions demonstrate, the ideal city contains elements of both the human and robot city and is powered by big data and technological developments, as well as human connections and recognizable hubs like the bar, bazaar, and branch library. As well as function and commerce, city planners of the future will need to remember the roles of community and interaction in keeping cities alive.

scholarly journals Postcards from the future

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 12-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristin Miller
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Southern California ◽  
Northern California ◽  
Bay Area ◽  
The Future ◽  
Science Fiction Films ◽  
Photo Essay ◽  
The Way

This article contemplates the way Northern and Southern California have been used in science fiction films since the 1970s. Continuing a trend the author traces to the 1940s novels Earth Abides and Ape and Essence, Northern California represents possible utopian futures while Southern California represents dystopia. The article includes a photo essay featuring science fiction film stills held up against their filming locations in Los Angeles and the Bay Area.

scholarly journals Robotic surgery: the future is now

2008 ◽  
Vol 90 (9) ◽  
pp. 296-298
Author(s):  
Elaine Towell
Keyword(s):  
Robotic Surgery ◽  
Minimally Invasive ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
The Future ◽  
Operating Theatres ◽  
Science Fiction Films ◽  
Minimally Invasive Robotic Surgery

Once the stuff of science fiction films, the era of robotic surgery is finally upon us and experts predict it is set to revolutionise treatment for patients having surgery. Enthusiastic doctors and engineers have been collaborating since the mid-80s but only now are we seeing the fruit of their labour as cost-effective, safe, minimally invasive robotic surgery finally arrives in our operating theatres.

Beyond Eden

2020 ◽  
pp. 95-100
Author(s):  
Jonathan R. Eller
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Space Shuttle ◽  
Human Growth ◽  
Special Effects ◽  
The Future ◽  
Gene Roddenberry ◽  
Science Fiction Films ◽  
Space Age ◽  
New Generation ◽  
Interplanetary Flight

Chapter 13 opens with commentary on Bradbury’s 1980 Omni magazine article “Beyond Eden,” an essay commissioned to support the projected Space Shuttle program. In this essay, Bradbury defined his Space-Age Trinity—God, humanity, and the machines of interplanetary flight. The chapter goes on to document Bradbury’s April 1980 interviews with friends who had achieved prominence in the new generation of science fiction films: producers Gary Kurtz and Gene Roddenberry, director Irvin Kershner, and special effects artist John Dykstra. Bradbury never completed the article on the future of science fiction films that these interviews were intended to support, but he did articulate a maturing sense of Toynbee’s “challenge and response” as a way to focus the kind of human growth required to reach other worlds.

Convenções na direção de arte cinematográfica: um olhar sobre a ficção científica

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felipe Muanis ◽  
Mariana Schwartz
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Feature Film ◽  
Blade Runner ◽  
The Future ◽  
Science Fiction Films ◽  
Spike Jonze ◽  
Stephen Neale

The elements of cinematographic language can be used in many ways to portray a story. It appears that, over the years, many conventions have been established in different areas of cinematographic making. In this article, we aim to highlight the conventions of the science fiction genre, with a focus on the art direction of movies that portray the future. For this, films such as Ex_Machina (Alex Garland, 2014), Equals (Drake Doremus, 2015) and Blade Runner 2049 (Denis Villeneuve, 2017) are analyzed. Also noteworthy, is the feature film Her (Spike Jonze, 2013) as a work that goes against the others, which presents an approach to the future that stands out among so many other movies with scenarios and costumes similar to each other. As a basis for the research, the study of conventions by sociologist Howard Becker is used, in addition to the work by theorists David Bordwell, Rick Altman, Stephen Neale, Marcel Martin, Vincent Lobrutto, among others. Directors and their artistic departments use colors, shapes, materials, textures, and elements that have become conventions in science fiction films and few are those who dare to produce something aesthetically different.

scholarly journals Avaruudessa konekaan ei kuule huutoasi

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-46
Author(s):  
Pertti Grönholm ◽  
Kimi Kärki
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
The Other ◽  
Ridley Scott ◽  
Stanley Kubrick ◽  
Social Hierarchies ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Intelligent Machine ◽  
The Future ◽  
Science Fiction Films

Artikkelin kirjoittajat tutkivat kolmea tieteiselokuvaa: 2001: Avaruusseikkailu, Pimeä tähti ja Alien – kahdeksas matkustaja, joiden yksi keskeisistä teemoista on älykkään koneen ja ihmisen välinen vuorovaikutus. Kirjoittajat erittelevät elokuvien ihmisten ja koneiden muodostamia suljettuja yhteisöjä, erityisesti keinoälyn ja miehistön suhteita ja dialogia. Kirjoittajat tarkastelevat elokuvia yhtäältä tekijälähtöisesti, keskittyen niiden tulevaisuuskuviin sisältyviin kysymyksiin, varoituksiin ja uhkakuviin sekä toisaalta tarkastelemalla keinoälytematiikkaa suhteessa elokuvien omaan historialliseen kontekstiin.Keinoälytematiikan kautta elokuvantekijät ovat käsitelleet laajoja kysymyksiä, jotka liittyvät ihmisyyden eri puoliin, kuten tiedonjanoon ja uteliaisuuteen, ihmislajin ekspansiivisuuteen, taloudelliseen hyödyn tavoitteluun, väkivaltaisuuteen ja sosiaalisiin valtasuhteisiin. Samalla elokuvat esittävät kysymyksiä koneiden ja ihmisten rajojen hämärtymisestä, toiseuden kokemuksista sekä keinoälyyn liitetyistä pelon, pyhyyden ja kiehtovuuden ja ylevän teemoista.In space, even the machine doesn't hear your scream. The human-AI dialogue in three science fiction films of 1968-1979Grönholm and Kärki research three science fiction films: 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968), Dark Star (John Carpenter, 1974), and Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979). They all contain the interaction of the intelligent machine and human as one of their central themes. In particular, the authors analyse the closed communities of the space ships, focusing on the relations and dialogue between the human crew and the Artificial Intelligence (AI). Special emphasis is given to the intentions of the filmmakers – both directors and screenplay writers – and how the questions, warnings and threats about the future were envisioned in each film. On the other hand, the theme of AI itself is also historically contextualized.Furthermore, the authors consider the wider questions these films ask about the nature of humanity: thirst for knowledge, curiosity, expansion of our species, reach for profit, violence, and social hierarchies. Simultaneously, these films also seem to ask questions about the blurring of the boundaries between the human and machine, experiences of otherness, and feelings of fear, sacral, fascination, and sublime that are associated with the AI.

scholarly journals ‘Ourworld’: A feminist approach to global constitutionalism

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-75
Author(s):  
RUTH HOUGHTON ◽  
AOIFE O’DONOGHUE
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
International Law ◽  
Hierarchical Structures ◽  
Governance System ◽  
Constituent Power ◽  
Left Hand ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Status ◽  
Global Constitutionalism

Abstract:Global constitutionalism offers a utopian picture of the future of international law. Its advocates suggest a governance system is emergent that will fill the gaps in legitimacy, democracy and the rule of law present in international law. Speculation about the future of international law is shaped, partly at least, by global constitutionalism aspiring to create a better global legal order, by filling these legitimacy gaps with both normative and procedural constitutionalism. But this raises the question ‘better for whom’? Feminist theory has challenged the foundations of both international law and constitutionalism; demonstrating that the design of normative structures accommodates and sustains prevailing patriarchal forms that leave little room for alternative accounts or voices. Both international and constitutional law’s structures support the status quo and are resistant to critical and feminist voices. The question is whether it is possible for constitutionalism to change international law in ways that will open it up to alternate possibilities. Building on a seven-point manifesto of feminist constitutionalism, previously proffered by the authors, which inculcated feminist concerns into global constitutionalism, this article offers an alternative starting point: feminist science fiction. Feminist utopian tracts such as Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland and Ursula K Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness offer valuable lessons for global constitutionalist discourses. The article uses feminist utopias in science fiction to better understand how to dismantle hierarchical structures, how to build feminist societies, and how to find approaches to governance not predicated on patriarchy. It does so by focusing on feminist alternatives for constructing communities, for understanding constituent power and constituent moments, and dismantling manifestations of the public/private divide. This article demonstrates that reading feminist utopian science fiction facilitates the reimagining of global constitutionalism.

(Post)human Subjects, Disability Deployments

2020 ◽  
pp. 35-72
Author(s):  
Stuart Murray
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Disability Studies ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Cultural Representations ◽  
Future Technology ◽  
Inclusive Practice ◽  
The Future ◽  
Subject Areas ◽  
Science Fiction Films

Chapter One concentrates on recent theoretical writings on disability and posthumanism and also explores the intellectual spaces in which the subjects take shape, before moveing to a discussion of how these come together in select science fiction films. Disability Studies and critical posthumanism have much in common; a critique of humanist norms; a recognition of complex embodiment; and a commitment to intersectionality and inclusive practice among them. But they also harbour suspicions of one another. The most important divergence between the two subject areas comes in arguments surrounding transhumanism. Transhumanist assertions that the application of future technology will allow for bodily and neurological enhancement, and the ‘improvement’ of humans as a result, are met with hostility by many with disabilities who see in them suggestions that disability is a condition that might, and indeed should, be eradicated in a science-led drive towards ‘perfection’. The chapter will explore these and other debates, especially as they form around cultural representations and the ways stories are told about the bodies and technologies of the future.

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