Eighteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

“We will no longer tolerate the tyranny of aging and death.” With these words, famous transhumanist Max More starts his “Letter to Mother Nature.” The slowing, elimination, or even reversal of human aging takes center stage in the transhuman project, either explicitly or implicitly, and for good reason. As a society, we have to deal with an aging population and all the challenges that come with it caused by better medical care and higher standards of living. Additionally, the idea that humans can somehow halt their own aging or achieve immortality has been around since ancient times and the tales of Gilgamesh for example. However, ideas like these are still well and alive in modern fiction, only mythical means, magic, and alchemy gave way to the sciences. This paper’s aim is to contextualize the fictional with the real and ask some important questions about the technologically and scientifically ever progressing world we live in. By critically examining twenty-first century works of authors like Margaret Atwood or Charles Stross, and productions like “Black Mirror,” this paper looks at depictions of aging and its relation to the real-life transhuman project. Furthermore, this is framed with a Marxist reading of the texts. Ultimately, this paper shows the important role fiction can play in asking the right questions of our society. In the words of Kewin Warwick, “SF can not only accurately represent potential future scenarios. It can certainly give ideas to scientists; it can raise philosophical questions for us all.”