L’umano nell’epoca della riproducibilità tecnica: l'inconscio artificiale nella fantascienza

Emanuela Piga Bruni; Christiano Presutti

doi:10.13125/2039-6597/3805

Emanuela Piga Bruni University of Bologna
Christiano Presutti

DOI: https://doi.org/10.13125/2039-6597/3805

Keywords: Artificial Consciousness, Artificial Unconscious, Dialogue, Evidential paradigm, Psychoanalysis, Android, Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, Blade Runner, Westworld, Science Fiction.

Abstract

The pun we indulged in taking up the title of Benjamin's famous essay is useful to describe the effects of a highly disputed technological revolution, one the human community feels imminent. The cultural and anthropological consequences of the possibility of reproducing the artistic artefact made by a human being through technique were no less relevant than those that occur when the object of reproduction is the human itself. The present essay proposes a reflection on some science fiction stories in which anthropomorphic robots are described that are able to act and think in ways that require the emergence of consciousness and the unconscious, all that is more human and mysterious at the same time.
We address such a vast and complex topic through the analysis of the dialogue between the human being and the machine, between evidential paradigm and psychoanalytic session. This study analyses some works belonging to literature, cinema and television that have declined these themes with different nuances: the interrogation aimed at determining the machine malfunction or deception in Liar! (1971) and Mirror Image (1972) by Isaac Asimov; the sessions carried out to establish the human or machinic nature of the investigated subject in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) by Philip K. Dick and in the film Blade Runner (1982) by Ridley Scott; the dialogues between programmers and androids of the TV series Westworld (2016–) by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy.
Particularly relevant for the purposes of this study is Westworld, which stages the manifestation of the unconscious in the artificial intelligence. An oxymoron that unites the unconscious and its opposite, the artifice, to tell the artificial unconscious is a true representation of the impossible.

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Author Biographies

Emanuela Piga Bruni, University of Bologna

Emanuela Piga Bruni is currently a research fellow in Comparative Literatures at the Department of Italian Studies of the University of Bologna, Adjunct professor of the course "Anthropology, gender, communication processes", and collaborates with the European Master Erasmus Mundus GEMMA (Women's and Gender Studies) at the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures (University of Bologna). Her research focuses on two main fields: the contemporary historical novel, analysed through the lens of representation of conflict, and the relationship between classic novel and contemporary television series, in the framework of studies on transmedia phenomena. In this framework she has co-edited the special issue of «Between» L’immaginario politico. Impegno, resistenza, ideologia (2015) and she has written the volume La lotta e il negativo. Sul romanzo storico contemporaneo (Mimesis, 2018). Among her studies about literature and audiovisual: the monograph Romanzo e serie TV. Critica sintomatica dei finali di puntata (Pacini, 2018); the co-editing of the special issue Tecnologia, immaginazione, forme del narrare («Between», 2014).

Christiano Presutti

Co-founder of the collective Luther Blissett, he participated in the creation of books, magazines and radio programs preceding the novel Q. With Luca Di Meo (Wu Ming 3) he founded Fútbologia and wrote the documentary Nel Pallone (La EFFE, 2014).
He is the president of an ICT company in Bologna where he works as software architect and communication designer. he was a member of the Scientific Committees of several IFTS (Higher Technical Education and Training) courses for which he has lectured on the history of computer science, programming and interface design; the last two in order of time the IFTS McLuhan (Communication and Digital Marketing) and IFTS Turing (Development web and mobile software) for the Fitstic Foundation. He is a member of the board of directors of the Digicittà Consortium.

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The Human in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction: the Artificial Unconscious in Science Fiction

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