Speaker
Description
Technological advancements have driven the discussion on posthumanism; this discussion could lead to a future where understanding what it means to be human causes a significant crisis, which is a key theme in cinema. Since the Industrial Revolution, the question “Is humanity becoming mechanized?” has transformed into “Are machines becoming human?” in this new cinematic world. In a world like this, humanity can no longer clearly understand its existence; it does not know who or what it is, and is unsure whether it is referencing its mind or a machine’s when defining something, which points to a profound crisis that concepts such as identity or social crisis cannot describe. This crisis, rooted in intellectual transformations dating back to the Humanism and Enlightenment, will likely shake the ontological foundations of what it means to be human in the posthuman era. It may be too early to designate the present period as belonging to the posthuman era or determine if we are currently in it; however, in terms of technological advancements, it seems likely that we have just entered such a period. We may be unable to observe in detail the effects of posthumanism while experiencing it. Still, cinema provides the most significant insights into what such an era might be like and what kinds of changes we have undergone. The cognitive paradigms and socio-technological developments that have led us toward such an era can be traced through iconic films such as Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927), Blade Runner (1982), and Ex Machina (2014), each contributing uniquely to the discourse on the process through posthumanism. These films explore questions such as the blurring of boundaries between humans and machines, the replacement of human relationships with emotional connections to artificial intelligence, and the preservation of identity in a mechanized body or the possibility of attaching artificial intelligence to a human body. Within this context, the discussion focuses on how the inability of humans to recognize themselves, define their existence, and maintain their subject position in cinema leads to a crisis. In this sense, films act as a mirror that reflects this crisis, expresses it, explores it further, and also immerses the audience directly into its complexities.
| Keywords | film studies, crisis of humanity, posthuman, technology, science fiction cinema |
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| ridadefidan@trakya.edu.tr |