Until Death Do Us Part and They Upload Us Into Clones: An Analysis of Film Narratives About Mind Uploading and the Myth of Immortality
Апстракт
The fear of death and the myth of immortality are themes long present in various narratives, whether literary or visual. Science fiction as a genre offers us many venues for new explorations of this idea. Mind uploading is one of them. This fictional technique, related to cloning, is performed when the mind and consciousness of a person are transferred to another biological body or machine with the help of technology. In this way, a person continues their social life through their brain functions. This paper looks at four separate recent screen narratives - the movies Self/less, Transcendence, and Replicas, and the episode "Be Right Back" of the TV show Black Mirror. With the help of Tzvetan Todorov's structural analysis, we find clauses that arc present in all of the plots and see what ideas and topics they share. The paper also uses the idea of anthropological reading of science fiction and therefore uses scientific research to analyze these themes. By looking at anthropological find...ings of immortality, mortality, death in modern society, and digital techniques, we see how the analyzed narratives portray a unique mixture of fear of and longing for all the mentioned processes and ideas. Finally, this paper shows how science fiction could possibly reflect reality - both through presenting thoughts of society and inspiring future technological advances and ideas (in this case, the quest for immortality). While humans are still far from achieving eternal life, the mentioned screen narratives portray the growing stream of ideas that deal with mind uploading in the age of the interne and social media.
Кључне речи:
technology / popular culture / myth of immortality / mind uploading / film / fear of deathИзвор:
Etnoantropološki problemi, 2021, 16, 2, 527-548Издавач:
- Univerzitet u Beogradu - Filozofski fakultet - Odeljenje za etnologiju i antropologiju, Beograd
Финансирање / пројекти:
- Министарство науке, технолошког развоја и иновација Републике Србије, институционално финансирање - 200163 (Универзитет у Београду, Филозофски факултет) (RS-MESTD-inst-2020-200163)
Институција/група
Etnologija i antropologija / Ethnology and AnthropologyTY - JOUR AU - Zlatović, Anja PY - 2021 UR - http://reff.f.bg.ac.rs/handle/123456789/3256 AB - The fear of death and the myth of immortality are themes long present in various narratives, whether literary or visual. Science fiction as a genre offers us many venues for new explorations of this idea. Mind uploading is one of them. This fictional technique, related to cloning, is performed when the mind and consciousness of a person are transferred to another biological body or machine with the help of technology. In this way, a person continues their social life through their brain functions. This paper looks at four separate recent screen narratives - the movies Self/less, Transcendence, and Replicas, and the episode "Be Right Back" of the TV show Black Mirror. With the help of Tzvetan Todorov's structural analysis, we find clauses that arc present in all of the plots and see what ideas and topics they share. The paper also uses the idea of anthropological reading of science fiction and therefore uses scientific research to analyze these themes. By looking at anthropological findings of immortality, mortality, death in modern society, and digital techniques, we see how the analyzed narratives portray a unique mixture of fear of and longing for all the mentioned processes and ideas. Finally, this paper shows how science fiction could possibly reflect reality - both through presenting thoughts of society and inspiring future technological advances and ideas (in this case, the quest for immortality). While humans are still far from achieving eternal life, the mentioned screen narratives portray the growing stream of ideas that deal with mind uploading in the age of the interne and social media. PB - Univerzitet u Beogradu - Filozofski fakultet - Odeljenje za etnologiju i antropologiju, Beograd T2 - Etnoantropološki problemi T1 - Until Death Do Us Part and They Upload Us Into Clones: An Analysis of Film Narratives About Mind Uploading and the Myth of Immortality EP - 548 IS - 2 SP - 527 VL - 16 DO - 10.21301/eap.v16i2.9 ER -
@article{ author = "Zlatović, Anja", year = "2021", abstract = "The fear of death and the myth of immortality are themes long present in various narratives, whether literary or visual. Science fiction as a genre offers us many venues for new explorations of this idea. Mind uploading is one of them. This fictional technique, related to cloning, is performed when the mind and consciousness of a person are transferred to another biological body or machine with the help of technology. In this way, a person continues their social life through their brain functions. This paper looks at four separate recent screen narratives - the movies Self/less, Transcendence, and Replicas, and the episode "Be Right Back" of the TV show Black Mirror. With the help of Tzvetan Todorov's structural analysis, we find clauses that arc present in all of the plots and see what ideas and topics they share. The paper also uses the idea of anthropological reading of science fiction and therefore uses scientific research to analyze these themes. By looking at anthropological findings of immortality, mortality, death in modern society, and digital techniques, we see how the analyzed narratives portray a unique mixture of fear of and longing for all the mentioned processes and ideas. Finally, this paper shows how science fiction could possibly reflect reality - both through presenting thoughts of society and inspiring future technological advances and ideas (in this case, the quest for immortality). While humans are still far from achieving eternal life, the mentioned screen narratives portray the growing stream of ideas that deal with mind uploading in the age of the interne and social media.", publisher = "Univerzitet u Beogradu - Filozofski fakultet - Odeljenje za etnologiju i antropologiju, Beograd", journal = "Etnoantropološki problemi", title = "Until Death Do Us Part and They Upload Us Into Clones: An Analysis of Film Narratives About Mind Uploading and the Myth of Immortality", pages = "548-527", number = "2", volume = "16", doi = "10.21301/eap.v16i2.9" }
Zlatović, A.. (2021). Until Death Do Us Part and They Upload Us Into Clones: An Analysis of Film Narratives About Mind Uploading and the Myth of Immortality. in Etnoantropološki problemi Univerzitet u Beogradu - Filozofski fakultet - Odeljenje za etnologiju i antropologiju, Beograd., 16(2), 527-548. https://doi.org/10.21301/eap.v16i2.9
Zlatović A. Until Death Do Us Part and They Upload Us Into Clones: An Analysis of Film Narratives About Mind Uploading and the Myth of Immortality. in Etnoantropološki problemi. 2021;16(2):527-548. doi:10.21301/eap.v16i2.9 .
Zlatović, Anja, "Until Death Do Us Part and They Upload Us Into Clones: An Analysis of Film Narratives About Mind Uploading and the Myth of Immortality" in Etnoantropološki problemi, 16, no. 2 (2021):527-548, https://doi.org/10.21301/eap.v16i2.9 . .