Dystopian Research Articles

Beyond the traditional distinctions of genome editing: evaluating a vulnerability framework

Over 40 years ago, the 1982 Splicing Life report outlined the two distinctions that have orientated much of the normative and legal landscape of genetic intervention or genome editing since – that of somatic versus germline (or heritable interventions) and medical versus non-medical (or enhancement) applications. During this time, these distinctions have been used to ethically prioritize some areas of research and potential application, such as somatic treatments, while considering others for prohibition, such as germline enhancements. Nevertheless, somatic interventions may also be done for controversial enhancement purposes while some germline interventions may be done with greater prima facie justification (e.g., the enhancement of athletic ability versus the avoidance of Tay-Sachs disease). Even with new somatic treatments that are generally lauded, exemplified with the case of Casgevy, many issues still arise – such as cost and access, particularly salient on a global level. The concerns over a dystopian future of genetic haves and have nots, as a result of enhancement and/or germline interventions, that perhaps may happen, should not distract us from a greater attention to what is happening in the here and now. In this paper, we will highlight the limits of the two distinctions in terms of moving from questions of “should a technology be used” to “how should a technology be used.” We argue that an additional focus on vulnerability and marginalization can be useful to support the attempt to better prioritize which interventions should be permitted or prohibited. We show how this can better dovetail with calls for effective (global) governance and reasonable consensus by focusing on the most urgent issues and developing policy accordingly, while leaving aside more abstract issues for further discussion.

Why biodiversity matters in agriculture and food systems.

Imagine a world where the variety of food sources we rely on is reduced to a mere handful of species. This is not a dystopian future. It's the path we are on right now, and it's happening silently in fields, farms, and forests across the globe. Biodiversity-the lifeblood of our ecosystems and food systems-is under siege. Driven by climate change, habitat destruction, and the relentless march of agricultural expansion, we are witnessing an unprecedented erosion of genetic diversity. This loss is more than just a scientific or environmental concern; it's a direct threat to global food security, and by extension, human survival.

The "Magical Theory" of AI in Medicine: Thematic Narrative Analysis.

The discourse surrounding medical artificial intelligence (AI) often focuses on narratives that either hype the technology's potential or predict dystopian futures. AI narratives have a significant influence on the direction of research, funding, and public opinion and thus shape the future of medicine. The paper aims to offer critical reflections on AI narratives, with a specific focus on medical AI, and to raise awareness as to how people working with medical AI talk about AI and discharge their "narrative responsibility." Qualitative semistructured interviews were conducted with 41 participants from different disciplines who were exposed to medical AI in their profession. The research represents a secondary analysis of data using a thematic narrative approach. The analysis resulted in 2 main themes, each with 2 other subthemes. Stories about the AI-physician interaction depicted either a competitive or collaborative relationship. Some participants argued that AI might replace physicians, as it performs better than physicians. However, others believed that physicians should not be replaced and that AI should rather assist and support physicians. The idea of excessive technological deferral and automation bias was discussed, highlighting the risk of "losing" decisional power. The possibility that AI could relieve physicians from burnout and allow them to spend more time with patients was also considered. Finally, a few participants reported an extremely optimistic account of medical AI, while the majority criticized this type of story. The latter lamented the existence of a "magical theory" of medical AI, identified with techno-solutionist positions. Most of the participants reported a nuanced view of technology, recognizing both its benefits and challenges and avoiding polarized narratives. However, some participants did contribute to the hype surrounding medical AI, comparing it to human capabilities and depicting it as superior. Overall, the majority agreed that medical AI should assist rather than replace clinicians. The study concludes that a balanced narrative (that focuses on the technology's present capabilities and limitations) is necessary to fully realize the potential of medical AI while avoiding unrealistic expectations and hype.

Ripperdocs and game makers: Bioethics in the dystopian future of (post)cyberpunk fiction

Ripperdocs and game makers: Bioethics in the dystopian future of (post)cyberpunk fiction

A hovering ghost from the future: the posthuman gothic landscape of Bangalore in Appupen’s ‘Bangaloids’

ABSTRACT The academic discussion surrounding the Gothic is dominated by British and American traditions. The globalgothic, concerned with gothic discourses outside the canonical traditions, is a developing arena, and gothic voices from other parts of the globe need to be studied. Appupen’s ‘Bangaloids’ is a dystopian short story that represents the gothic voice from India. Part of Bangalore: A Graphic Novel (2017), a city-centric graphic storytelling initiative, the story responds to the social trauma caused by fast-paced urbanism and questions some of the deepest fears about the human condition. This paper argues that ‘Bangaloids’ presents Bangalore’s fictitious posthuman gothic landscape to make readers contemplate a dystopian future. It analyses the gothic matrix of the metropolis; theories on modern gothic are used to comprehend Bangalore’s gothic character. It also studies the formal qualities of the graphic medium that highlight the gothic themes and facilitate storytelling.

Why Do We Fear The Robopocalypse? Human Insecurity in The Age of Technophobia

The paper aims to determine where exactly fear of intelligent machines is located in the narrative layers embedded in science fiction film stories based on the intelligence explosion hypothesis. The analysis departs from the assumption that the Robopocaliptic narrative, a science fiction narrative depicting the dystopian future of human–robot relationship, is constitutive of the irrational technophobic stance widespread in the public opinion of today’s postindustrial societies. As narration plays an essential part in our daily reflective and social practices, we are naturally inclined to look for narrative structure in popular culture, particularly in film, the most popular form of visual art, and the easiest one to consume. Nine science fiction films have been selected as relevant empirical evidence: The Invisible Boy (1957), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Westworld(1973), Futureworld (1976), Demon Seed (1977), Blade Runner (1982), The Terminator (1984), The Matrix (1999), Ex Machina (2015). The Robopocaliptic narrative interwoven with the themes of the analysed films uncovers four recurrent ideas or messages that create robotophobia: redundancy of the human race, moral indifference of robots, robots as emotional abusers, and the loss of control over one’s own mind and body. The author proposes that these four ideas or messages mirror four layers of fear, all pointing to a meta-fear: the fear of rejection to be recognised and treated as a morally worth human being. In conclusion, the author suggests that Axel Honneth’s concept of recognition opens a plausible avenue to clarify the roots of the fear of the Robopocalypse.

Octavia Butler's Bloodchild and the Posthuman Complexities: A Process of Becoming

This paper examines the human-nonhuman relationship for co-reproduction and co-existence between two species in Octavia Butler's speculative fiction "Bloodchild". The humans called the Terrans and the aliens called the Tlics make a contract for reciprocity to save the futurity of both. This research analyzes Butler's speculation of some posthuman complexities related to identity, gender, reproduction and forceful bonding in the far future. The multifaceted female protagonist T'Gatoi, the male human surrogacy, non-normative pregnancy and experimental birth foreground the horror of dystopian future that Butler attempts to make humans aware of. Based primarily on the textual evidence, the paper uses Donna Haraway's concept of "speculative feminism", Deleuze and Guattari's notion of "becoming" and Rosi Braidotti's theory of critical posthumanities to argue for the author's warning to humanity against futuristic crises and call for a critical thought exercise to retrospect on human tyranny, egotism and sense of otherness. It proposes that overcoming the anthropocentric rule over nature and the "others" for the sake of natural equilibrium and socio-cultural harmony can help instill collective consciousness and promote community building to save this planet and the others for a sustainable future.

Scratches on the wall: racial capitalism, climate finance and Pacific Islands

ABSTRACT Critique surrounding climate finance is mounting against a backdrop of an escalating ecological crisis manifesting unequally across the globe. This paper uses learnings from racial capitalism to unpack the modalities of climate finance, using the Pacific region as an illustrative case. It argues that racial capitalism is enacted through modalities of climate finance, in part, by the erection of walls. One type of wall enacted by climate finance is epistemic: its definitions place it as the inherent object of Northern interventions. Moreover, financial walls are maintained through debt in climate finance, creating borders of deprivation through ongoing practices of indebting already burdened regions. The paper also highlights the way borders can manifest through regulation, in particular, through climate funds delineating arduous benchmarks of already burdened states. These walls contribute to the racialized process of creating ‘sacrifice zones’: places that have borne the cost of benefits accrued elsewhere, left without in a state of depletion. The paper explores the material futures that are being enacted by these modalities of climate finance through the case of climate migration. Yet these dystopian futures must not be taken for granted, rather, the walls which separate climate affected communities from hopeful futures must be dismantled.

Understanding the Ethical Issues of Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs): A Blessing or the Beginning of a Dystopian Future?

In recent years, scientific discoveries in the field of neuroscience combined with developments in the field of artificial intelligence have led to the development of a range of neurotechnologies. Advances in neuroimaging systems, neurostimulators, and brain-computer interfaces (BCIs)are leading to new ways of enhancing, controlling, and "reading" the brain. In addition, although BCIs were developed and used primarily in the medical field, they are now increasingly applied in other fields (entertainment, marketing, education, defense industry). We conducted a literature review following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines to provide background information about ethical issues related to the use of BCIs. Among the ethical issues that emerged from the thematic data analysis of the reviewed studies included questions revolving around human dignity, personhood and autonomy, user safety, stigma and discrimination, privacy and security, responsibility, research ethics, and social justice (including access to this technology). This paper attempts to address the various aspects of these concerns. A variety of distinct ethical issues were identified, which, for the most part, were in line with the findings of prior research. However, we identified two nuances, which are related to the empirical research on ethical issues related to BCIs and the impact of BCIs on international relationships. The paper also highlights the need for the cooperation of all stakeholders to ensure the ethical development and use of this technology and concludes with several recommendations. The principles of bioethics provide an initial guiding framework, which, however, should be revised in the current artificial intelligence landscape so as to be responsive to challenges posed by the development and use of BCIs.

‘I Don’t Want to Be Other. I Want to Be Normal’: Mental Boundaries and the Polish Experience in the UK in Agnieszka Dale’s Fox Season and Other Short Stories

Borders and frontiers are often problematized in Agnieszka Dale’s Fox Season and Other Short Stories (2017), where mental borders seem to be more divisive than spatial boundaries. Many of these narratives feature Polish immigrants in Britain who struggle with their displaced condition in various ways. As some of the stories in the collection reveal, the scenario of post-Brexit Britain compromises conviviality amongst different groups, including the Polish community. Special attention is placed upon how several narratives in the volume underscore the prevalence in British society of Polish stereotypes as the crystallisation of the still widespread animosity against non-Europeans. Homi Bhabha’s notions regarding the formation and dynamics of stereotypes will be helpful in understanding the mechanisms beneath such constructions. Likewise, some of the major tenets of social theory, as well as Edward Said’s notion of ‘Orientalism’, will contribute to shedding light upon this resentment towards the Polish minority, occasionally adopted too by already established immigrants against their former compatriots. This article will ultimately intend to draw attention to the cautionary nature of Dale’s collection as a call for harmony and the appreciation of difference among nations, thus preventing the gloomy perspectives the dystopian futures of some of these stories forecast upon Europe.

Beyond Grammars of Utopia: Crisis of Imagination and Utopianism by Negation or Affirmation in James Joyce’s <em>Ulysses</em>

Do utopias emerge from envisioning where we want to live or where we do not want to live? According to Theodor Adorno, polarity, i.e. the grammatical distinction between affirmation and negation, is central to utopian thinking and showcases a crisis of imagination, as we can only conceive a utopian world by negating a given reality (Adorno in Bloch 1975, 68-70). My paper negotiates this idea through a grammatical-conceptual reading of James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922). Specifically, it argues that Ulysses first lays out a negative utopianism following Homer’s Odyssey but in the course of the narrative tests out the logical necessity that precludes affirmative utopian thinking. Starting from episode 12, ‘Cyclops,’ the Homeric utopianism ‘by negation’ (De Jong 2001, 233-35) seems inadequate to erect a utopian project, for a negative dystopia need not amount to a utopia; the Joycean Ireland negates the Homeric dystopia without being a utopia either. Utopianism by negation proves exclusionary too, for a negative utopia is dystopian for the ones negated, like nationalistic Ireland is a dystopia for a Jew like the protagonist, Leopold Bloom. Bloom offers an alternative to negative thinking by envisioning a utopian state that affirms everyone. Climactically, in episode 18 ‘Penelope’, Molly Bloom answers ‘yes’ to the query ‘where’. This unsyntactical, absurd affirmation exposes the limits of imagination, as delineated by Adorno, since we cannot understand possible worlds that are ‘yes’ as a response to ‘where’. However, it also prefigures conceptual structures yet to come, structures that may build utopian worlds based on the affirmation ‘where one does want to live’. These conceptual mechanisms that underlie utopian world-making and are captured through grammatical structures are identified as ‘grammars of utopia’ and constitute the overarching theoretical project in which this paper is inscribed.

The role of temporal analogies in collective movements

AbstractAlthough the importance of temporal perspectives for understanding collective movements has been theoretically emphasised, they are rarely considered in research. Focusing on the mass protests against COVID‐19 policies in Germany, we investigated how protesters make use of temporal references in their protest narratives. Results from 11 multi‐site protest observations and 31 interviews showed that participants (a) drew historical perpetrator and victim analogies and imagined a dystopian future, bolstering perceptions of injustice, (b) drew on resistance narratives and imagined the ideal, utopian future society, increasing their perceived efficacy and (c) countered feelings of insignificance by identifying with past heroes. Protesters living in the East of Germany drew comparatively more resistance analogies than those living in the West, who often likened those complying with the COVID‐19 policies to the perpetrators of the past national‐socialist and communist dictatorships. The findings empirically underline the importance of integrating historical–cultural–future perspectives into models of collective action.

"We are our own virus": Exploring a future where we might eat each other

Author Agustina Bazterrica offers a glimpse into a speculative future where humans are harvested for meat by other humans in her 2020 publication Tender is the Flesh. Drawing on a cultural history of the evolution of bioethical regulations, this article debates how easily a future such as the one Bazterrica describes might come to be. Using Tender is the Flesh as a foundation to explore the fragility of bioethical regulations and how they might, in a dystopian future, devolve under specific circumstances this article asks, what does this reversion look like and how easily could it occur? Is the future Bazterrica imagines one that is realistic or far-fetched? To answer these questions, this article explores specific topics such as codes of ethics, race, policy, dehumanization, ownership, agricultural ethics, and propaganda.

The importance of public health in "Sólo Gente"

Public health is a crucial issue in any society, and Argentina is no exception. Through the implementation of effective policies and programs, it seeks to promote and protect the health of the entire population, prevent diseases and improve the quality of life of citizens. This paper will analyze the importance of public health, a central theme in the movie "Sólo Gente". The plot of the movie takes place in a dystopian future where society is highly controlled and people live under constant surveillance. Through this futuristic setting, the film indirectly addresses several aspects related to public health. In the film, the government has exceptional control over people's health and uses advanced technology to monitor and control their physical and mental well-being. This depiction raises ethical and social questions about privacy and free will. It also highlights the importance of people having autonomy over their bodies and health decisions. In the context of public health, the film also shows how the state can use its power to prioritize certain aspects of health over others; another important aspect is the importance of equitable access to health care and how exclusion from the system can lead to negative consequences for those who do not have access to health services. In conclusion, the film "Just People" addresses several issues related to public health, such as privacy, individual liberty, health prioritization, health care systems, and equity in access to health services.

Rental Units

Should everyone be a parent, at least for a summer? In this work of philosophical short story fiction, the narrator lives in a dystopian future where climate change has made it illegal to have children without government permission. This has given rise to super realistic robot children that can be purchased or, for those that can’t afford to purchase, rented. The narrator has a strong desire to be a mother and has, for the last 10 years, rented the same seven- and five-year-old robot girls each summer to parent. It’s an expensive habit, but she loves her summers taking her “children” to the local swimming pool. She loves reading them stories at bedtime, and tucking them in. As the summer winds down, trauma hits as one of her girls shuts down. She has reached the end of her service cycle. The narrator is devastated by the loss of her child, even though her younger daughter hardly seems to notice the loss at all.

Everyday Heroism and the Journey of the Community in The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

This article examines the impact of everyday heroism on community in the science fiction novel The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (2014) by Becky Chambers. While science fiction often features superhuman action or scientist heroes and technocratic dystopian futures, Chambers’s novel represents the recent trend of hopepunk, which sets stories within mundane social interactions to imagine gradual positive change. Instead of its action-adventure potential, the narrative in Chambers’s novel focuses on the relationships between a multi-species crew of a spaceship, creating a heightened sense of the crew as a found family where individuals come to accept and support each other – and in this way, the story centers around the journey of the community towards equality, inclusion, and hope. I argue that the everyday heroism in the novel is transparent but highly prosocial, overall resulting in a representation of everyday heroism as a way to imagine more hopeful futures.

Hegemonic Surveillance at Work: Fabricating the cyberized, totalized and thespianized employee

Recent developments in technology have intensified the totalizing potential of surveillance within the workplace. Our paper proposes a theory of hegemonic surveillance to enhance our understanding of these processes. We argue that it is necessary to theorize surveillance as a multilevel phenomenon. Accordingly, we propose a model of hegemonic surveillance that starts from the outer socio/political level, characterized by neoliberalism. This sees workers in wholly economic terms, as units of productive capacity, rather than fully fledged human beings. It is an ideological context that underpins the growth of surveillance within the workplace. We employ Gramsci’s ideas of hegemony to theorize the normalization of surveillance that is thus produced. Surveillance is increasingly inescapable (performance is monitored and measured at all times, in all spaces) and pervasive (it encompasses all aspects of human performance, including emotions, health and lifestyle). Extending Burawoy’s ideas of consent, we argue that the performance of consent is central to the perpetuation of hegemony. Such performances, while seemingly voluntary, are becoming mandatory in ever more work contexts. At an individual level, we articulate the risk of totally surveilled employees becoming cyberized, totalized and thespianized. While acknowledging resistance, and ourselves seeking to resist technological determinism, the purpose of this paper is to theorize a dystopian future of work that could come to pass if present trends remain unchecked.

An Ecolinguistic Study of Environmental Degradation and Human Survival in Atwood’s MaddAddam

The current study explores environmental degradation and human survival by analyzing a dystopian novel MaddAddam. This study employs the theoretical framework of Ecolinguistics given by Stibbe (2015). Ecolinguistics explores the relationship of language and ecology. Atwood’s MaddAddam depicts environmental negligence which causes challenges to human survival. This study explores the connection of ecological degradation and genetic engineering by analyzing its discourse. The current study aims to explore the discourse of MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood, which depicts environmental degradation and evokes a sense of urgency for human survival in an eroded environment due to genetic engineering. The findings of the study reveal that genetic engineering has caused environmental degradation, which has resulted in threat to human survival in a dystopian future. The discourse of the novel develops a narrative which requires an immediate action for environmental sustainability.

COMMODIFICATION OF ASIAN FEMININITIES IN CHA'S IF I HAD YOUR FACE

This research paper probes the postfeminist commodifying schemas of beauty politics that shape the identities of women in Asian fiction. It focuses on the transformative journey of Kyuri, an enchantingly beautiful Salon girl, as depicted in Frances Cha's novel, If I Had Your Face. Set against the backdrop of the vibrant metropolis of Seoul, South Korea, Kyuri's narrative represents the profound yearning of Asian women deeply immersed in the allure and sophistication of glamour and beauty. Employing Naomi Wolf’s Beauty Myth, this article examines the multifaceted experiences of the Asian women portrayed in the novel. Schemas of beauty industry lead them to commodified futures. In the highly competitive realm of beauty industry, the quest for physical perfection compels Asian women to undergo transformative facial procedures, seeking unrelenting pursuit of an idealized standard of beauty, perpetuated by the glamorous world and media. Repeated surgical interventions for artificial beauty standards ensnare them in a disquieting dystopian future. Xenofeminism celebrates the techno-material and antinatural bodies. In this paradigm, the characters in If I Had Your Face grapple with the unsettling and dehumanizing consequences of their pursuit of beauty: a dystopic future.
 
 Keywords: Xenofemism, Techno-material, Antinatural, Dystopia, Beauty Myth

Anthropogenic impacts of mining on indigenous peoples in Western Australia: Divergent values

The Anthropocene epoch is known as the time when the actions of humans began to impact the planet in unprecedented ways. There is consensus that the “golden spike” coincided with the advent of colonialism and especially settler colonialism. Indigenous Peoples have been impacted by what has been called contemporary colonialism or new colonialism. This has had implications, not only for their local environment, but also for their cultures, languages, health, economies, and political self-determination. Our study is framed by theories of contemporary and new colonialism as well as cultural colonialism and how this is manifested in the discourses of mining companies as they trivialise or ignore community and fuse Indigenous futures with extractive industries, also failing to recognise the non-human rights of the land and post-humanist/new materialist perspectives. The auto-ethnographic yarn (knowledge sharing) told in this article is the voice of an Indigenous Aboriginal Yawuru man living in Western Australia. Through thematic analysis of his, and other Aboriginal people’s yarns, we reveal Indigenous values and beliefs of permanence, community care, and the ensoulment of nature. Thematic analysis of the scripted narratives of the value statements of two mining companies operating in Western Australia uncovers a notion of community care discordant with that of Aboriginal people as well as a focus on courage and curiosity. The occlusion of any traditional, bottom-up understandings of human/non-human relationships in the values statements of the mining companies contrast with the way that Indigenous People’s narratives point towards ecological, social and economic sustainability in an Anthropocene dystopian future.