Cybernetic Imaginations

Mark Fryers is a Lecturer in Film and Media at the Open University, UK. He has published widely on topics including environmentalism, gothic horror and science fiction and cultural history, including contributions to the Journal of Popular Television and numerous edited collections. His monographs include on The Woman in Black (1989) and a forthcoming book on the Gothic maritime.Marcus K Harmes is a professor at the University of Southern Queensland College, where he teaches legal history in the law degree and communications in the enabling program. He has published extensively in the fields of religious and political history, with a particular emphasis on British religious history and constitutional history.

• Visions and Augmentations: Cybernetics, Artificial Intelligence, Science Fiction and Popular Culture Mark Fryers and Marcus K. Harmes PART I The Cybernetic Imagination Cybernetics as Social Science Fiction Sheryl N. Hamilton Asimov’s Cybernetic Plots Emilio Gianotti Normalised Cyborgisation: Cybernetics in the Cyberpunk Franchise Tonguc Sezen and Digdem Sezen PART II Bodies Cyborgs Are Disabled: Enhancement and Disability in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (2022) Rebecca L. Jones The Fantasy of the Healthy Body: Impairment and Uncertainty in Star Wars Phaedra Shanbaum and James Williamson xvi ix 1 29 47 61 79 93CONTENTS Re-Animation: De-Ageing, Posthumous Performances and the Life of the (Post)Human Alice Giuliani Emancipation from the Emitter: Towards a General Theory of AI Disability through ‘The Samantha Complex’ Kwasu David Tembo PART III Systems and Structures Noise in The Birds: A Cybernetic Re-reading Julian Sverre Bauer ‘Do You Want to Hear It Talk?’: Mechanised Voices and Technological Anxieties in Science Fiction Cinema Dario Llinares From Alien to Avatar Intelligence: James Cameron’s Cybernetic Deconstructions Nikola Mlađenović 107 121 139 153 169 The Tyranny of Feedback: Ecological Entrapment in Frank Herbert’s Dune 185 Attila Márton PART IV Identities Cyberpunk Periphery: Intruder’s Love and Flashing Out the Visible Lamia Kosovic Trans*-Digital Life-Forms: Technology, Cybernetics and Ontology in Digimon Adventure (1999) Joule Zheng Wang ‘The Offspring’: What Does It Mean to Have and to Want a Child for an Android in Star Trek: The Next Generation? Sebastian Lederle Notes on Contributors Index