Law and Culture in the Age of Technology

by Daniela Carpi

Overview

Scientific experiments and medical improvements in recent years have augmented our bodies, made them manipulable; our personal data have been downloaded, stored, sold, analyzed; and the pandemic has given new meaning to the idea of ‘virtual presence’. Such phenomena are often thought to belong to the era of the ‘posthuman’, an era that both promises and threatens to redefine the notion of the human: what does it mean to be human? Can technological advances impact the way we define ourselves as a species? What will the future of humankind look like? These questions have gained urgency in recent years, and continue to preoccupy cultural and legal practitioners alike. How can the law respond and adapt to a world shaped by technology and AI? How can it ensure that technological developments remain inclusive, while simultaneously enforcing ethical limits to its reach?

The volume explores how fictional texts, whether on the page or on screen, negotiate the legal dilemmas posed by the increasing infiltration of technology into modern life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783110786859
Publisher:	De Gruyter
Publication date:	06/21/2022
Series:	Law & Literature , #22
Pages:	135
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.06(h) x 0.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Daniela Carpi.

Table of Contents

Introduction

What Comes After Postmodernism? 1

Chapter 1 Transcendence: Death or Rebirth of Metaphysics? 16

1 Introduction to the movie 16

2 Human being vs technological being 21

Chapter 2 The Technological "Monstrum": Her by Spike Jonze 31

1 What is a monster? 31

2 Her 35

Chapter 3 Dan Brown's Origin: Can God Survive Technology? 42

1 Introduction to the novel 42

2 Intelligence augmentation 44

3 The library 45

4 The artistic perspective 48

5 The new human 51

6 Legal problems 54

7 Conclusion 55

Chapter 4 The Circle: Technological Dictatorship 59

1 Introduction 59

2 The Company 60

3 Identity 62

4 Privacy 66

5 Totalitarianism 71

6 Conclusion 75

Chapter 5 Ian McEwan's Machines Like Me and People Like You: Can a Machine Be "Killed"? 77

1 Introduction 77

2 Hubristic action 77

3 Oxymoronic nature of the android 81

4 Creativity 83

5 An erroneous sense of justice? 84

6 Conclusion 89

Chapter 6 Ex Machina: Technological Re-reading of Myth 91

1 Introduction 91

2 The Edenic myth 92

3 The Platonic myth 95

4 The contract: Faustus's myth 97

5 The myth of the labyrinth 98

6 The new human 101

7 Conclusion 101

Chapter 7 Blade Runner 2049: The Christological Perspective of Technology 103

1 Introduction 103

2 The miracle 103

3 Memories 105

4 The quest 107

5 Conclusion 111

Conclusion: The Promethean Dialectic of Technology 114

Bibliography 124

Primary Sources 127

Filmography 127

Index of Names 128