The area I am interested in researching for my dissertation revolves around posthumanism and biotechnology. I am especially intrigued by the extent to which human beings will remain human. Several media texts predict a future of cyborgs and robots, or even a transition from the physical to the digital world. The scenarios range from creating human clones for “organ harvesting”, as in “The Island”, to using cyborgs as a new body, in “Surrogates”, to transferring our mind into the virtual world, as described in the novel “More Than This”. This implies biological as well as cultural changes, changes to the body and to society. I want to look at how the concept of the “self” will be transformed, how we will identify ourselves when we reach the stage of posthumanism – that is, if we reach it in the first place. There are also notions that suggest that human beings have always been posthuman.

There have always been fictive visions of our modifying our bodies to make them better, faster, stronger even immortal. The question however is, how realistic these concepts are. The representation of the posthuman being is often supernatural and unrealistic. There are all kinds of superheroes and villains who are able to transform their bodies with the help of advanced science and technology. On the other hand, there are Iron Man and Batman, who quite literally use technology as a tool. Neither of them experiences a change in their human bodies, but rather use advanced technologies to fight evil. And then there is mutation, as in X-Men and Spiderman. However, in X-Men mutation happens “naturally”, it is part of human evolution and not caused by bio-, or nanotechnology. Ironically, at the same time society sees mutants as being non-human. It would be interesting to find out whether a human being who advances with the help of technology is seen as being more human than someone who mutates due to natural causes. I imagine that when technologies are used, we control and are in control of the transformation, whereas in the case of a mutation we would not be able to control it.

Read the complet proposal here: Proposal_FB.docx