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the_croupierKevin Kelly is a very smart man, and he's come up with a very good topic that I know *I* sure would want to read:
"...The myths of superman, frankenstein, the singularity, X-Men, and science fiction aliens are attempts by our collective unconscious to imagine future versions of our species. I think it would be a wonderful exercise for some social science graduate student to round up all the examples of aliens in science fiction, and then categorize and analyze what powers they have in order to gauge the contours of desire for future humans. (Let me know if such a collection has been done.) The possibilities of a trans-human species are vast, and after only a few hundred years of a speculative fiction industry, we have probably only begun to dream up the ways we could be different. The reservoir of our imagination is immense, and will remain a prime source for what we want to be."
"...The myths of superman, frankenstein, the singularity, X-Men, and science fiction aliens are attempts by our collective unconscious to imagine future versions of our species. I think it would be a wonderful exercise for some social science graduate student to round up all the examples of aliens in science fiction, and then categorize and analyze what powers they have in order to gauge the contours of desire for future humans. (Let me know if such a collection has been done.) The possibilities of a trans-human species are vast, and after only a few hundred years of a speculative fiction industry, we have probably only begun to dream up the ways we could be different. The reservoir of our imagination is immense, and will remain a prime source for what we want to be."
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Date: 2008-11-15 08:34 pm (UTC)*shiny eyes*
Not that I....could ever do my thesis on that, given I'm majoring in political science. But.