Transhumanist Dreams and/as Posthuman Nightmares in Black Mirror

Grzegorz Maziarczyk

doi:10.18290/rh.2018.66.11s-10

Grzegorz Maziarczyk The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Faculty of Humanities

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18290/rh.2018.66.11s-10

Keywords: transhumanism; posthuman; Black Mirror; utopia, dystopia

Abstract

This paper analyses a TV series Black Mirror in relation to transhumanism, a philosophical movement that endorses (bio)technological augmentation as a means whereby mankind will transcend its current biological limitations and reach a new, posthuman stage in its evolution. Taking tendencies observable in contemporary Western societies as the starting point for its depiction of the near future, Black Mirror gives fictional representation to such transhumanist concepts as disembodied, transferable consciousness and enhanced cognition, and suggests that more often than not they may give rise to posthuman dystopia rather than utopia, envisioned by transhumanism.

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