Our Posthuman Past: Victorian Realism, Cybernetics, and the Problem of Information

Abstract

This essay argues that Victorian realism pre-imagines the conditions of early artificial intelligence by reading Elizabeth Gaskell’s Cranford (1853) alongside key cybernetic texts. In doing so, it claims that Victorian realism influences twentieth-century definitions of what it means to be human—definitions that have sparked contemporary debate about information and embodiment. By examining realism’s representation practices, information practices can be better understood, not just in the twenty-first century, but as part of an ongoing debate.