“The End of Human Exceptionality”: The Shift of the Anthropological Dominant in Science Fiction

Based on the methodological proposals of literary anthropology, in particular on the conceptual ideas of C. Levi-Strauss (structural anthropology), J. Ortega y Gasset (“dehumanization of arts”), J.-M. Schaeffer (“the end of human exceptionality”), M. Foucault (the fall of a human being from the humanistic pedestal of culture), the article under studies emphasizes the violation of the anthropological dominant in science fiction, which is very typical of the fantasy genre. Consequently, there arise new principles of constructing personosphere of a literary text. On the example of the novel “City” (1953) by an American science fiction writer Clifford Simak, the article traces the way a human being shifts from the center of personosphere to the “outskirts” of narration, whereas its image acquires fictional parameters. This all happens due to the phenomenon of “anthropocene” (the term by G. Canavan), which implies the harmful consequences of the human reigning over the nature. In addition, the author of the article introduces the notion of “phantasoid’ – a character of the fictional world of fantasy (outlined by the narrator) that functions exceptionally in the imagination of a certain fantastic character and is somehow related to his previous experience. The novel by C. Simak outlines a gradual shift of the anthropological vector: the heterogeneous image of a human turns into a counter-image, whereby particular significance is attached to the change in the attitude towards mankind. In the text, human culture is perceived as something alien, while Simak’s image of a human being ruins the so called imagological stereotype, along with the reader’s receptive expectations. The role of the attractor in the novel is assigned to “antromorphized” and “humanized” creatures (plants, animals, objects, robots, mutants), which indicates the drastic breach with the previous genre tradition, as well as higlights a peculiar polemic connection with classical literary science fiction. This all proves the metamorphic nature of science fiction and its transition into the hyperreal dimensions of fantasy, where different artificial forms of life and mentality can peacefully coexist with each other.

Asking the Wrong Questions About American Science Education: Insights from a Longitudinal Study of High School Biotechnology Lab Instruction

The discussion of American science education is often framed by the questions: Why do American precollege students do poorly on international science assessments and what we are doing wrong? Rather we need to ask: Why do so many international students come to US universities for science, what are we doing right in science, and how do we stay ahead in science education? Poor scores on international assessments belie the fact that the U.S. has the best science education system in the world. Our study of 6,200 high school teachers in 1998 and 2018 documented striking success in retooling classrooms for lab-based instruction in biotechnology and provided a pre-COVID-19 snapshot of what is right with American biology education. However, it also highlights the need revitalize our precollege teaching resource with a renewed National Science Foundation commitment to in-service training.

I Am that I Am: Subjectivity and World View in the Science Fictions of Philip K. Dick

<p>In this account of American science fiction writer Philip K. Dick's work, the aim has been to describe the involvement of assumptions inherited from philosophical and scientific discourse in both the understanding and experience of subjectivity. It is argued that Dick's representations of identity both picture the tensions engendered by the prevalent reality standard with which he had to deal and, in their development, come to articulate a path beyond the impasse this standard presents. The fundamental insufficiency of the world view Dick's fiction both encounters and embodies is epitomised by the twin questions with which he characterised his work: 'what is human?' and 'what is real?' In coming to terms with the significance of these questions the work of the Austrian philosopher and scientist Rudolf Steiner has been engaged as a critical foil to Dick's fictionalising. Special attention is given to the epistemological basis of Steiner's anthroposophy and its account of the world and our peculiar situation in it that, far from asserting any external and unvarying standard of truth, describes a process essentially evolutionary and unfixed. It is claimed that in Steiner, as in Dick, the human contribution to both identity and reality constitutes the validity of each, a matrix of subject and object from which one's self is delivered, in each instance a new beginning.</p>

I Am that I Am: Subjectivity and World View in the Science Fictions of Philip K. Dick

<p>In this account of American science fiction writer Philip K. Dick's work, the aim has been to describe the involvement of assumptions inherited from philosophical and scientific discourse in both the understanding and experience of subjectivity. It is argued that Dick's representations of identity both picture the tensions engendered by the prevalent reality standard with which he had to deal and, in their development, come to articulate a path beyond the impasse this standard presents. The fundamental insufficiency of the world view Dick's fiction both encounters and embodies is epitomised by the twin questions with which he characterised his work: 'what is human?' and 'what is real?' In coming to terms with the significance of these questions the work of the Austrian philosopher and scientist Rudolf Steiner has been engaged as a critical foil to Dick's fictionalising. Special attention is given to the epistemological basis of Steiner's anthroposophy and its account of the world and our peculiar situation in it that, far from asserting any external and unvarying standard of truth, describes a process essentially evolutionary and unfixed. It is claimed that in Steiner, as in Dick, the human contribution to both identity and reality constitutes the validity of each, a matrix of subject and object from which one's self is delivered, in each instance a new beginning.</p>

Impact of Intellectual Property Rights on the National Science System

After using the 2020 developments of the COVID-19 vaccines as an example of successful cooperation between academia, industry and government for supporting research and translating its results into innovations assisted by patents, the article turns to the national science systems. First, it addresses the pioneering role of the 1945 “Science the Endless Frontier”, the Magna Carta of American Science and its patent policy. Retraced are the subsequent US developments revealing a gradual turn from incentivizing knowledge and technology transfer from government funded institutions to industry by allowing it only in the form of non-exclusive licenses, to imposing the public research sector an obligation to commercialize its research results by allowing exclusive licenses and assignments of intellectual property rights to private business. This all by recognizing and preserving academic freedom and inquiry. Next, it pays attention to developments in countries where legislators followed overall the US model. Finally, the contribution discusses the intellectual property rights system in the light of the specific needs of academic researchers.

Undoing the Double-Cross: Promoting Public Accountability in American Science Agencies

The leadership and advisory boards of American science agencies are largely organized according to the ideas set forth by an influential scientist, Dr. Vannevar Bush, after World War II. Although American science agencies are publicly funded, only experts control what research is funded and how each agency operates. Wielding his unique position of power after the war, Dr. Vannevar Bush suppressed the ideas of his adversary, Senator Harley Kilgore, resulting in the absence of public accountability and citizen input that defines American science agencies today. We argue that citizens must have a seat at the table in the leadership of science agencies to promote trust in science, reduce inequity, increase efficiency, embrace democratic principles, and address the needs of the American people. By providing a mechanism for non-expert citizens to influence the direction of American science agencies, Congress can now finally rectify the double-cross of Senator Harley Kilgore by Dr. Vannevar Bush.