From Fear of the Other and the “New Exotic Lover” to Posthuman Love: The Representation of Female Gendered Intelligent Machines in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Galatea 2.2, Ex Machina and Her.

Abstract

Through the analysis of the science fiction novels 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' and 'Galatea 2.2' and the films 'Her' and 'Ex Machina' this thesis shows that female gendered intelligent machines destabilise the humanist ideal of human uniqueness in terms of cognition and empathy but confirm persistent cultural ideas of gender roles that are based in humanism. It shows the transition from viewing the intelligent machine as the other to be feared and as the “new exotic lover” to the “symbolic hybrid” as the final instalment which means a move away from established notions of identity formation towards a posthumanist understanding of human-machine relationships. In connection to Cary Wolfe’s deconstruction of cognitive sciences, this thesis shows that theorists like Daniel Dennett try to overcome the Cartesian mind-body problem and dismiss consciousness as a human exclusive and universal trait, but reinstate humanism by distinguishing between humans and nonhumans on another criterion: language. The analysis of these science fiction works in connection to posthumanist theory by Braidotti, Haraway and Butler shows that humanist ideals can be destabilised in science fiction, but by relying on established ideas of women and on gender performativity, the characters in the stories limit the chances of creating meaningful relationships between humans and intelligent machines. However, there are works like 'Galatea 2.2' that show companionship between humans and nonhumans instead of rivalry or sexual objectification and with films like 'Her' there is definitely some posthuman love going on in 21st century science fiction. But there is still a long way to go if contemporary science fiction films like 'Ex Machina' deal with posthuman elements in terms of cognition, but still rely on culturally established ideas of women to secure a position of domination.