Mark McClelland’s "Upload" (2012): The Perils of Leaving Biology behind to Achieve Virtual Immortality

Carmen Laguarta-Bueno

doi:10.18172/jes.5562

Autores/as

Carmen Laguarta-Bueno Universidad de Zaragoza https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3056-2608

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18172/jes.5562

Palabras clave:

Transhumanismo, Transferencia Mental, Poshumanismo Crítico, (Des)Corporealización, Upload, Mark McClelland

Resumen

En los últimos años, a consecuencia de los últimos avances en el campo de la neurotecnología, algunos críticos han afirmado que la técnica de ‘transferencia mental’ (‘mind-uploading’ en inglés) podría convertirse en una opción técnicamente viable en un futuro no muy lejano. Mientras los críticos transhumanistas ponen sus esperanzas en este procedimiento y sueñan con un futuro posbiológico en el que los seres humanos vean aumentadas sus capacidades cognitivas, emocionales y sensoriales, los poshumanistas críticos advierten de los riesgos inherentes a la idea de dejar atrás la biología para alcanzar la inmortalidad virtual. Estas advertencias se han visto reflejadas en algunas producciones culturales del siglo XXI, como por ejemplo Upload de Mark McClelland (2012), una novela que también es representativa de una nueva tendencia dentro de la ciencia ficción que engloba diferentes novelas escritas por profesionales de la tecnología. Aunque la novela puede parecer en una primera instancia un manifiesto a favor del método de transferencia mental, el objetivo de este artículo es demostrar que las estrategias narrativas utilizadas por McClelland revelan una visión poshumanista crítica del cuerpo como una parte esencial de la identidad humana.

Descargas

Los datos de descargas todavía no están disponibles.

Biografía del autor/a

Carmen Laguarta-Bueno, Universidad de Zaragoza

Carmen Laguarta-Bueno is a lecturer at the Department of English and German Studies at the University of Zaragoza. Her present research focuses on contemporary US fiction and her main research interests range from trauma studies to transhumanism, critical posthumanism, and bioethics. She is the author of Representing (Post)Human Enhancement Technologies in Twenty-First Century US Fiction (Routledge, 2022). Her work has been published in journals such as Atlantis and The Nordic Journal of English Studies, and in volumes such as Transhumanism and Posthumanism in Twenty-First Century Narrative (Routledge, 2021). Carmen has also been an academic visitor at the University of California, Riverside (2018), Trinity College, Dublin (2019) and New York University (2021).

Citas

Bostrom, N. 2005a. “Transhumanist Values”. Journal of Philosophical Research 30 (1): 3-14.

Bostrom, N. 2005b. “The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant”. Journal of Medical Ethics 31 (5): 273-277.

Braidotti, R. 2013. The Posthuman. Cambridge and Malden: Polity Press.

Brooker, C., cre. 2011-2019. Black Mirror. UK and USA: Zeppotron and House of Tomorrow.

Davies, R. T., cre. 2019. Years and Years. UK and USA: Red Production Company.

de Teresa Nogueras, J. M. 2021. 2037. Paraíso Neuronal. Zaragoza: Mira Editores.

D’souza, C. 2013. Memories with Maya. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.

Ebbesen, M. and T. G. Jensen. 2006. “Nanomedicine: Techniques, Potentials, and Ethical Implications”. Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology 1 (1): 1-11.

Ferrando, F. 2013. “Posthumanism, Transhumanism, Antihumanism, Metahumanism, and New Materialisms: Differences and Relations”. Existenz 8 (2): 26-32.

Grey, A. and M. Rae. 2007. Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs that Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

Hauskeller, M. 2012. “My Brain, My Mind, and I: Some Philosophical Assumptions of Mind-Uploading”. International Journal of Machine Consciousness 4 (1): 187-200.

Hayles, N. K. 1999. How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.

Hughes, J. 2004. Citizen Cyborg: Why Democratic Societies Must Respond to the Redesigned Human of the Future. Cambridge: Westview Press.

Kass, L. R. 2003. “Preface”. Beyond Therapy: Biotechnology and the Pursuit of Happiness. Ed. The President’s Council on Bioethics. New York: Harper Perennial. xix-xxi.

Koene, R. A. 2014. “Feasible Mind Uploading”. Intelligence Unbound: The Future of Uploaded and Machine Minds. Eds. R. Blackford and D. Broderick. Malden, Oxford and Chichester: Wiley Blackwell. 90-101.

Kurzweil, R. 2005. The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology. London: Viking.

Lanier, J. 2010. You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto. New York; Alfred A. Knopf.

Lanier, J. 2013. Who Owns the Future? New York, London, Toronto, Sydney and New Delhi: Simon & Schuster.

Lanier, J. 2018. Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now. New York: MacMillan.

Levchuk, K. 2019. “How Transhumanism Will Get Us Through the Third Millennium”. The Transhumanism Handbook. Ed. N. Lee. Cham: Springer. 75-88.

McClelland, M. 2012. Upload. Lulu.com.

McKibben, B. 2004. Enough: Genetic Engineering and the End of Human Nature. London: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC.

Moravec, H. 1988. Mind Children: The Future of Robot and Human Intelligence. Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press.

More, M. 2011. “True Transhumanism: A Reply to Don Ihde”. H +/-. Transhumanism and Its Critics. Eds. G. R. Hansel and W. Grassie. Philadelphia: Metanexus. 136-146.

More, M. 2014. “The Enhanced Carnality of Post-Biological Life”. Intelligence Unbound: The Future of Uploaded and Machine Minds. Eds. R. Blackford and D. Broderick. Malden, Oxford and Chichester: Wiley Blackwell. 222-230.

More, M. 2019. “Max More – Is Life After Death Possible?” Closer to Truth, 25 September. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRAZrObg3k8>. (Accessed 12 October 2022).

Morgan, R. K. 2002. Altered Carbon. London: Gollancz.

Patra, I. 2017. “The Philosophy of ‘Novum’ and ‘Cognitive Estrangement’ in Two Singularity Science Fiction Novels”. International Journal of Humanities & Social Science Studies 3 (6): 151-163.

Pfister, W., dir. 2014. Transcendence. UK, China and USA: Alcon Entertainment, DMG Entertainment and Straight Up Films.

Pilsch, A. 2017. Transhumanism: Evolutionary Futurism and the Human Technologies of Utopia. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press.

Prisco, G. 2013. “Transcendent Engineering”. The Transhumanist Reader: Classical and Contemporary Essays on the Science, Technology, and Philosophy of the Human Future. Eds. M. More and N. Vita-More. Malden, Oxford and Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. 234-240.

Schwab, K. 2018. Shaping the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Geneva: World Economic Forum.

Stephenson, N. 2019. Fall; or, Dodge in Hell. New York: William Morrow & Co.

Thompson, J. 2017. “Transhumanism: How Far is Too Far?” The New Bioethics: A Multidisciplinary Journal of Biotechnology and the Body 23 (2): 1-18.

Vint, S. 2007. Bodies of Tomorrow: Technology, Subjectivity, Science Fiction. Toronto, Buffalo and London: University of Toronto Press.

Walker, M. 2013. Happy-People-Pills for All. Malden, Oxford and Chichester: Wiley Blackwell.

Walker, M. 2014. “Uploading and Personal Identity”. Intelligence Unbound: The Future of Uploaded and Machine Minds. Eds. R. Blackford and D. Broderick, 161-177. Malden, Oxford and Chichester: Wiley Blackwell.