Virtually Grown Up: Posthumanism and Artificial Intelligence in Fiction for Young People

Abstract

When considering depictions of artificial intelligence in literature and media, one might first think of Schwartzeneggar’s Terminator or Clarke’s Hal 9000. These figures are emblematic of the fear and distrust humans feel toward the potential for power and change intrinsic to non- and super-human intelligence. Yet the friendly, nostalgia-evoking figure of Pinocchio, a child made of wood, and the bumbling, environmentally-friendly Wall-E are both equally valid imaginings of AI. What makes our perception and the cultural impact of these various figures so markedly different? This chapter will explore iterations of AI presented in literature and media for young people in order to examine how our understanding of AI, and of the ontological and societal discontent AI might cause, is informed by our relationship with and understanding of young people. One of the ways we mediate this relationship is through the production of books, television shows, films, and video games designed with young audiences in mind. As scholar N. Katherine Hayles points out, “literary texts[…]actively shape what the technologies mean and what the scientific theories signify in cultural contexts” (21). Examining AI in youth literature and media will therefore expand our understanding of the cultural impact of AI by illuminating AI figures placed in cultural products designed for young people. Like fictional depictions of AI, the figure of a young person in youth literature and media presents a distance from and potential threat to human ontology and society.This exploration will be grounded in posthumanist theory, which seeks to disrupt the staid categorizations and hierarchies generated by Enlightenment humanism with hybridity, boundary dissolution, and possibility. My analysis will draw on several posthumanist concepts, including Donna Haraway’s concept of diffraction, which “does not map where differences appear, but rather maps where the effects of difference appear” (70), and Karen Barad’s theory of “intra-action,” which takes related figures to be the primary ontological unit over Cartesian individuals. I will analyze the relationships between young humans and AI figures across several texts by focusing on the “effects of difference” generated, as seen through an “intra-active” lens.