Return to search

'Brains are Survival Engines, not Truth Detectors': Machine-Oriented Ontology and the Horror of Being Human in Blindsight

This paper is an examination of the horror elements found in Peter Watts’ Blindsight. In depicting an encounter with aliens, this science fiction novel explores topics such as the nature of sentience, mankind’s relationship with technology, posthumanism, and the limitations of the human body and mind. Blindsight also envisions entities (aliens, vampires, and artificial intelligences) capable of interacting with material realities inaccessible to human beings. Using Levi R. Bryant’s machine-oriented ontology, this thesis demonstrates how Watts employs these themes and issues to problematize anthropocentrism and the notion of selfhood. These elements—and more—will be discussed and shown to match the criteria associated with ontological horror.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:mau-22298
Date January 2018
CreatorsTaiari, Hassen
PublisherMalmö universitet, Fakulteten för kultur och samhälle (KS), Malmö universitet/Kultur och samhälle
Source SetsDiVA Archive at Upsalla University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeStudent thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text
Formatapplication/pdf
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Page generated in 0.002 seconds