How Dumb Are Big Dumb Objects? OOO, Science Fiction, and Scale

Raino Isto

doi:10.1515/opphil-2019-0039

Abstract

AbstractThis article considers the potential intersections of object-oriented ontology and science fiction studies by focusing on a particular type of science-fictional artifact, the category of ‘Big Dumb Objects.’ Big Dumb Objects is a terminology used—often quite playfully—to describe things or structures that are simultaneously massive in size and enigmatic in purpose: they stretch the imagination through both the technical aspects of their construction and the obscurity of their purpose. First used to designate the subjects of several science fiction novels written in the 1970s, Big Dumb Objects (often called BDOs) have been understood in terms of science fiction’s enduring interest in the technological sublime and the transcendental. While object-oriented ontology has often turned to science fiction and weird fiction for inspiration in rethinking the possibilities inherent in things and their relations, it has not considered the implications of BDOs for a theory of the object more broadly. The goal of this article is to consider how extreme size and representations of scale in science fiction can help expand an understanding of the object along lines that are similar to those pursued by object-oriented ontology, especially Timothy Morton’s notion of hyperobjects.

Highlights

Where do very large objects—ones the size of planets, the size of suns, the size of whole galaxies—fit into object-oriented ontology (OOO)? Given OOO’s dedication to a ‘flat ontology,’ which “democratizes being” and asserts that objects at all scales are real,2 the answer would seem obvious: very large objects are just as actual as individual microscopic particles and vastly dispersed amorphous concepts
This article considers the potential intersections of object-oriented ontology and science fiction studies by focusing on a particular type of science-fictional artifact, the category of ‘Big Dumb Objects.’
While object-oriented ontology has often turned to science fiction and weird fiction for inspiration in rethinking the possibilities inherent in things and their relations, it has not considered the implications of BDOs for a theory of the object more broadly

Summary

Introduction

Where do very large objects—ones the size of planets, the size of suns, the size of whole galaxies—fit into object-oriented ontology (OOO)? Given OOO’s dedication to a ‘flat ontology,’ which “democratizes being” and asserts that objects at all scales are real, the answer would seem obvious: very large objects are just as actual as individual microscopic particles and vastly dispersed amorphous concepts. The purpose of the present article is to analyze a slightly different account of very large objects, objects that appear as a recognizable recurring trope in science fiction literature. These objects, known in the field of science fiction studies as “Big Dumb Objects” (a phrase often shortened to its acronym, BDO), bear a notable resemblance to Morton’s hyperobjects. Engagements between OOO and science fictional narratives of large mysterious objects are lacking, there has been some important consideration of the way the two intersect It has occurred largely, under the umbrella of speculative realism, rather than OOO. They can take us. As such, this article allows itself to be led first of all by science fiction stories of BDOs, allowing these texts (and more importantly their objects) to establish a series of ‘stopping points’ where the convergence of object-oriented philosophy and science fictional imaginary overlap

Science Fiction’s Artifacts and Referents

The Dyson Sphere and its Variants

Beyond Dyson Spheres

Conclusion