Escape Velocity 2017

As technology pushes the boundaries of the human body and attempts to reimagine cognition through artificial intelligence, our notions of what defines humanity are forced to evolve. In the Cartestian sense, the metaphysical question of the "human soul" as separate from the body raises ontological questions about where to locate the humanity in human beings. As pertaining to questions of identity, the posthuman and transhuman elements of modern reality encourage a reimagining of the self and the subjective experience. Presenters will offer reflections on the ways in which contemporary literature is tackling this blurring of boundaries to question the relationship between technology and the essence of personhood.

In an age where non-traditional gender expression has challenged the heteronormative status quo, the question of gender in science fiction opens up a world of possibilities. But despite our immense progress in human understanding on this issue, much science fiction literature still represents gender in a binary framework, and seems anchored to traditionalist gender roles and character portrayals throughout the genre. Presentations will comment on the ways in which our modern notions of gender shape our speculations on the future, most specifically, in the contexts of posthumanism, transhumanism and artificial intelligence.