Niladri Mahapatra
State Aided College Teacher, Dept. of English, Bhatter College, Dantan, West Bengal, India
Abstract
Though science fiction is a fictitious narration about posthuman possibilities, it has the dialectic of science; and the verisimilitude of this narrative structure has radical base to vaticinate the ameliorated techno-science and the posthuman shift. For example, H. G. Wells’ The Time Machine described a wonderful explanation of time travel, a topos of posthumanism, which was logically proved one decade later by Einstein’s theory of relativity. Again, in this modern time, the invention of robot epitomizes the far-fetched sagaciousness of science and reconstructs the value of posthuman productivity but surprisingly the term robot was first used by author Karel Capek in his play R.U.R (1920) and the concept of robot was used earlier by science fiction writers. In addition, the thought of autopoietic robot with cybernetic brain is also depicted in many science fiction stories sometimes to show a future of techno-liberal utopianism in which robots and humans are living simultaneously or sometimes to make us vigilant about a neo-luddite society in a dystopian future. And, the ontological possibility of autopoietic robot had been successfully experimented by bio-scientific epistemology in 1970s. Historically, science fiction is neglected as a genre of importance and posthumanism is treated as a theory of fashion; but this article’s effort to analyze the truth of posthuman ontology in science fiction with the epistemologies of science will help the reader to think critically about the radical metamorphosis from human to posthuman. And, the scientification, which means the radical method of finding the truth with the help of scientific and logical facts, of the posthuman generic tropes of science fiction debunks the truth in fictionalized science and the radical truth of the posthuman ontology.
Keywords: Posthuman, Time travel, Robot, Scientification, Radical truth.
Posthumanism constitutes a wide range of varying discourses which functions several phenomenon of evolution as a whole. Posthumanism as a theory has the caliber of forming exalted imagination which is believed as unbelievable, and it hurls all the readers in conundrum about the truth of its possibility. This puzzlement is also carried by the reader throughout the reading of science fiction, for no bewilderment comes to convince that this is real or factual – only what comes in his mind is that it is possible or that it illuminates some aspect of reality. So, the imagination, being a hyper-real realm designed by a science fiction writer, is not only for mere entertainment but to carry the hypothesis of the possibility of posthuman topoi. To create an astounding plot, science fiction talks about unknown events that have been created because of the scientific development and shows future as well as parallel worlds which are totally different from our present society. These plots include posthuman topoi like prophetic caveats, utopian desires, weird voyages, and paraphernalia of imaginary worlds, titanic disasters, techno-political solicitude and techno-totalitarian society – exhibiting every conceivable attitude that systematizes techno-social metamorphosis. And, every posthuman topos of science fiction plot has the scientific foundation with an assertion that the probable can be possible. The paradigmatic and trans-generational explorations of science fiction are the posthuman tropes which have already come to pass, and a few more may be coming day by day. So, in the productive investigation for the answer of the hypothetical query “what if”, posthuman ontology of science fiction narrative attempts to conceptualize historically the affinity between the immediate human condition and the unborn posthuman condition with its speculative representation of scientific facts and advanced technologies. In a sense one could argue that this is the reason why the posthumanist thinking lies at the heart of science fiction. Science fiction helps us to prepare for the affective shift from biosocial to techno-social and posthuman epoch; and the scientification of science fiction is crucial to examine its cognitive mechanism with scientific truths that provides plausible devices as catalysts for our belief about the truth of posthuman ontology. Even, it also asserts that science fiction, as a truth narrative, and posthumanism, as a theoretical approach, matter for us.
In 1971, futurist Alvin Toffler coined the term “future shock” to enunciate that our civilization is, today, in a state of constant flux for technology is in an evolutionary foment, and numerous people are struggling because they cannot adjust with this etiological metamorphosis of the society. So, to elevate with this situation, the people have been informed about their coming ontology and probable effects on a mutable being which is mutating within a mutable time. Now, an acute observation on the purpose of science fiction urges us to convey that science fiction is very salubrious to enable people’s brain to take a preparation for the future with its plethora of plausible and anticipatory predictions of things to happen. In addition, science fiction sometimes guides technological development and builds social relationships with technology to create a condition in which people can realize the value of technology – for example, some developers of Google Earth have credited Neal Stephenson’s 1992 novel Snow Crash as an inspiration and attributed it as a heuristic creative form. On this regard, the argument of pioneering author and editor Hugo Gernsback was very potent. According to him, science fiction not only predicted the future, but also molded it proficiently by providing imaginative but anticipatory ideas to scientists and inventors so that they can proceed to transform imagination into reality. So, by reading these books, people get an advance look and integrating knowledge of the coming scientific developments and the technocratic society. Another noteworthy writer and editor of the Astounding Science Fiction magazine, Campbell went in the path of Gernsback and stated “Science-fiction has the interesting characteristic of causing its own predictions to come true” because future scientists “will have read the magazines, seen the stories, and recognized the validity of the science-fiction engineering!” (qtd. in Westfahl 2). By depending upon the scientific technique of extrapolation, Campbell said, “Science-fiction, being largely an attempt to forecast the future, on the basis of the present, represents a form of extrapolation” (qtd. in Westfahl 2). Readers also like to read those predictions and immediately accept them. As an example – when the Sputnik was launched in 1957, Campbell was so loquacious to claim that it was already known to science fiction readers. Thus, the verisimilitude of science fiction has been created through the reading. Being a vehicle for exploring science, science fiction cultivates very startling topics of science that has been also researched by the theoretical approach of posthumanism. Barry B. Luokkala believes that “things that were purely science fiction at the time when the movie or television episode was produced, but are now reality, thanks to recent breakthroughs in science and technology” (19). To consolidate this point, we can say that not only for movie or television series but also for science fiction as a genre, it is also very prominent. As an example – the early science fiction story of scientist Johannes Kepler’s Somnium had a genuine scientific base. It helps to produce our concept of the solar system by showing us the laws of planetary motion. Again, another important earlier science fiction work that implants the seed of the recent biotechnological development of posthumanism, specially the relationship between human and man-created human, was Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, published in 1818. The novel shows Victor Frankenstein’s aspiration and success in creating a living human creature from the pieces of dead bodies which he gathered. More than 150 years later of this novel, in 1964, the attempt of first real-life hand transplant was occurred at Clinica Guyaquil, in Ecuador. But, it was really unfortunate that the transplanted hand had been rejected after three weeks. Again, in 1998, in Lyon, France, the operation was successful. Nowadays it has become very common organ transplantation. Even, in addition, the metal robotic hand is now transplanted and created a new kind of product which is known as cyborg – the hybridization of human and machine. The existence of essential attributes that defines what it is to be homo sapiens has been transformed into the existence of the post-human qualities of cyborg, robo sapiens and homo dues which was apprised by many early science fiction stories. So, the task of science fiction is not only to give fun or entertainment but also to inspire the people with the help of floating imaginative juices of science fiction writers that have scientific foundation with a claim that the posthuman possibility is becoming posthuman actuality.
In the early 20th century, the emergence of science fiction is oft-remembered because in this time, we got prophets like H.G. Wells and Jules Verne whose narrative edifices are prophetic enough to claim the truth of a certain degree of posthuman ontologies. In his 1895 novel The Time Machine, Wells interpreted the concept of four-dimensional space time. It is true that till now we have not discovered the time machine, but Einstein’s “Theory of Relativity” has a cue about the possibility of time machine because of four dimensions. Before Einstein, Sir Isaac Newton gave the notion that space and time are absolute quantities. But, this notion was discarded by Einstein when he introduced the speed of light as the only one absolute quantity and the perception of space and time is deflected by motion. That is why; we all are rambling or travelling in time at the rate of 1 hour per hour. Now, the question is that – is it possible to travel in time faster and slower than “1hour per hour”? The answer is very perplexing to think by experiencing in daily life. But, Einstein’s special theory of relativity, developed in 1905, has a conciliating answer. According to this concept, for everything, there is a speed limit of 186,000 miles per second but it is only light which can travel at that speed limit through empty space. If anyone gets the speed of light in this space-time, time goes slower for him than the people to whom he left behind. As an example – if a person leaves this earth in a spaceship at the fraction of light-speed in 2019 and comes back, only a few years might have passed on that ship but many years would be passed on earth. The time in spaceship is slowed down in respect of the time of the earth and every objects of the spaceship which are liquidated in the time of spaceship are also slowed down in the same ratio of time of spaceship. So, the speed of the time has been changed; the spaceship has its own time and the earth has its own time and the time of earth is faster than the time of the spaceship. The time of the earth is the future is respect of the time of spaceship. This is called as “time dilation”. And, the equation of Einstein’s time dilation is
The equation shows that t is the experienced time from time frame of Earth, t′ is the movable time available in the spaceship, v stands for relative speed, and c is the speed of light. However, in 1977, the theory had also been vigorously experimented at CERN laboratory in Geneva on subatomic particles called “muons” and the result carried the truth of the assertion of “time dilation” formula. But, in the field of space-time, travelling faster than light is not possible for anything that has enough mass. Then, another approach of the possibility of time travel is found in Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. This theory blends space and time as “spacetime” which curves in the presence of mass. It approves that it is possible to distort space in such a way that a person could travel from Calcutta to California as quickly as he could step through doorway. Thus, it assumes the possibility of worm holes – a kind of tunnel through spacetime and it connects very distant parts of the universe by allowing the theoretical possibilities of Einstein’s theory. And, it was Carl Sagan who for the first time introduced the concept wormhole, a wild speculation, very efficiently in his science fiction work Contact. Initially he talked about a black hole for his main character to travel much distances through the galaxy in a short time. Then, he talked with Kip Thorne, a physicist who is specialized in general relativity, for some advice. And, Thorne suggested him to use wormhole instead of a black hole. So, wormhole is a shortcut through space. But, the problem is that wormholes are very unstable. There is no path to keep wormhole open for a long time to use it. And, this time travel concept was rejected by Stephen Hawkins who spent much time to get the result of Einstein’s equation of general relativity, including black holes and worm holes. Even, according to him, Einstein’s theory is a failure when it works for small or subatomic level as it deals with very large massive objects to prove itself as authentic. Thus, the theory of quantum mechanics has been occurred which is very successful in elucidating mechanism of the objects at the subatomic level. As stable wormholes do not exist, in this process the time travel is not possible. May be in future, scientists will also discover the solution of this problem as it is seen in science fiction. It is true that practically time travel has not been done yet but theoretically it is possible if we can produce much more advanced technology. So, it would not be wrong to attribute H.G. Wells “as a secular prophet, educating his readership on the evolving tendencies within his culture, and the first section of his novel resemblances a scientific lesson culminating in a demonstration” (Seed 98).
In this search of the scientific correctness in the representation postbiological epistemology in science fiction, the reference of the amelioration of medical science is very connate. On this topic, I have already discussed how Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein influenced the organ transplantation technique. There are also other instances of science fiction stories which influence on medical science to include cloning, generic engineering and bacterial or viral research which individually indicate the establishment of postbiological trope. To create a doppelganger of any living animal, the cloning technique, a considerable scientific method of producing the same structure from which the structure has been taken, was invented by the scientist. But, it is certainly interesting to convey that the concept was first introduced by A.E. van Vogt in his novel The World of Null-A which adroitly interprets the idea of human cloning. And further it was also illustrated in novels like Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War and Ira Levin’s The Boys from Brazil as well as movies such as Jurassic Park, a 1993 movie where we find the cloning dinosaurs, animals and insects. And, very quickly, the idea of cloning transforms into reality in 1996 when Dolly, a sheep cloned from an adult cell for the first time. After that, the technique of cloning gets a considerable progress and has been mentioned as a way of preserving endangered species. If cloning is possible for the mammals, it would not be wrong to say that cloning is also for humans. But, there are several ethical issues, which are now under the posthuman ethical study, are necessary to apply and those issues stop us to do cloning of human being. Thus, there are several inventions in medical sciences which have been imitated from science fiction stories.
Again, there is no field has been seen as a greater influence of science fiction than computer science. The science fiction of Golden Age is replete with the instances of computers containing the sum total of all human knowledge and somehow these are comparable with modern Google, Yahoo or Bing search. Barry B. Luokkala observed this development very poignantly and stated – “As the speed and data storage capacity of computers continue to advance, a technological achievement comparable to Commander Data seems to be coming closer to reality. Current projections suggest we are very near the threshold of machines that match the speed and memory capacity of the human brain” (82). As an example, in Jules Verne’s novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, computer technology has been applied for designing the submarine. Even, science fiction predicts the rise of an all-encompassing web and virtual milieu, and thus expecting a possible posthuman world of artificial intelligence that examines humanity’s relation to its own material constructions, sometimes to celebrate progress, sometimes in a more negative spirit of what Issac Asimov described as technophobia – a fear of coming technological dystopia. So, science fiction is saturated with technological representations – a tradition that has been started from the late 19th century. On this regard we can talk about the contribution of Hugo Gernsback who identified technology with the general progress of humanity. In his science fiction magazines, he always preferred those stories which celebrated technology and science. In these stories, imagining and sketching the artificial creatures such as robots become very popular phenomenon. The word ‘robot’ as a neology was used by the Czech writer Karel Capek in his play R.U.R.: Rossum’s Universal Robots. Derived from the Czech word “robota”, the word carried the suggestions of heavy labor, even of slavery. As the application of the term developed, the meaning had been changed into self-contained, probably remote-controlled artificial device that mimics the actions of a human being. But, the concept of robot is very ancient as it was used in Jewish mythology (the Golem) and even further back to Greek mythology (Talos). Neither one of these examples is purely technological in nature – both involve mysticism or supernatural powers to animate them. Nevertheless, it is instructive to begin our discussion of robotics with Talos, the bronze giant made by the Greek god Hephaestus, to guard the island of Crete. After 1920, the use of this concept reached its culminating point in science fiction. The writer Issac Asimov had always a positive vision of robots and thus, robots occupied a great place in his stories. Even, he alerted us about technophobia, in his own words “Frankenstein complex”, and formulated his famous three laws to govern robot behavior. The first law is – a robot must not harm a human, nor by inaction allow a human to come to harm. The second law requires a robot to obey any order given by a human, the only exception being an order which would result in harm to a human. The Third Law is self preservation, which can be overruled by a direct order from a human or set aside if a human is in danger. But, robotics always haunts us by imagining an apocalyptic posthuman future governed by robots where human may be colonized by robots – a posthuman world of ‘robocolonialism’. Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids dream of Electric Sheep very emphatically portraits a futuristic dystopia in which androids have been produced to perform tasks requiring human-like intelligence, but in environments that are too dangerous or undesirable for humans. But, is it possible to create such robots which are self-conscious and will bring for us a neo-technical posthuman world as it is seen in the science fiction stories. About this view, the concept autopoiesis, developed by biologists Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela, is very crucial to examine as it describes the self-production capability of robots. All life can be understood as an autopoietic process – a process of self-reproduction or self-preserving. So, artificial intelligence with autopoietic imperative is, indeed, very dangerous as this can give birth of a new species. And a species of self-preserving robots would present us with a critical Darwinian challenge. Therefore, a new law should be added with Asimov’s three laws of robotics and it is – a robotics creator shall not program a robot with unqualified dictatorial autopoietic imperative. But, is it possible for a robot to become autopoietic? The concept of “autopoietic machines” first appeared in Maturana and Varela’s influential work Autopoiesis and Cognition: The Realization of the Living where autopoiesis has been described as a cognitive notion on a biological level. In the process of self-maintenance, such as food providing, the process has a cognitive value. To clarify this point, I would like to refer the origins of Maturana and Varela’s reflection, which is found in a physiological research, described in the article “What the Frog’s Eye Tells the Frog’s Brain” by Jerome Lettvin. The experiment reveals an info-cognitive method that how the frog’s eye transforms communicative information to the frog’s brain. The frog does not see anything around him which is not moving. Even, he can’t identify his food if it is not moving. Such perception carries cognitive as well as epistemological consequences and creates a specific language of information. In the voice of Lettvin – “it shows that the eye speaks to the brain in a language already highly organized and interpreted, instead of transmitting some more or less accurate copy of the distribution of light on the receptors” (qtd. in Hayles 135). Katherine Hayles interpreted very keenly the sentient technique of frog’s brain about any object as –
“The frog’s brain became part of a cybernetic circuit, a bioapparatus reconfigured to produce scientific knowledge. Strictly speaking, the frog’s brain had ceased to belong to the frog alone. I will therefore drop the possessive and follow the authors by referring to the frog’s brain simply as the brain” (134).
So, this is another process of identifying object to do any action where brain is working as a cybernetic circuit. And, it would not be wrong to convey that we can fit this kind of circuit with robots to behave like humans or animals. Thus, the frog experiment with its results becomes a posthuman epistemological scenario and brings the notion of autopoiesis to the posthuman arena. While the biologists confronted with such idea of autopoiesis and cybernetic brain with practical experimentation, it was already promulgated in several science fiction stories like “Anukul” by Satyajit Ray, an Indian prophet of science fiction short stories. The setting of the story is posthuman future where the anthropomorphic robots are the coexisting partners of humans. In the story, a Bengali man buys a robot, named “Anukul”, as a housekeeper at a time of neo-luddite movement – a protest, which emerges from the technophobia in general and robophobia in particular, against sabotaging technology for making a link with anti-globalization movement and anti-science movement. The story shows how the humans are losing their livelihoods to the robots and the world has been divided between those who support the new technology and those who don’t like this kind of technological interference on the basis of posthuman dualisms such as intelligence vs instinct, human consciousness vs robotic circuits. The story represents Anukul as an efficacious robot who has no human consciousness but he looks and behaves like humans. He is so furnished that he can read the holy book Gita and can give the reminiscence to the reader of the creature’s reading ventures in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. So, it is obvious that his brain is not human-like rather cybernetic, a systematic mechanical autopoiesis. As frog’s brain work in a particular pattern which he/she can’t cross, Anukul’s technological brain has also a pattern which he couldn’t cross. As an example, for Anukul, a slap is not only a method of insulting someone but also an act to which he should react as revenge. That is why, if someone slaps him, he immediately takes revenge by giving him an electric shock. At the end of the story, we find that Nibaran Babu, a neo-luddite apostle, dies after Anukul gives him an electric shock of high voltage in defence of Nibaran Babu’s slap as an insult. If he would have human consciousness, he wouldn’t give electric shock in an act of revenge. So, this act of revenge is a function which has been set in his brain. And, his brain becomes a cybernetic circuit about which Katherine Hayles was so optimistic. Thus, the notion of autopoietic robot was functioned ideologically in Ray’s science fiction short stories before the notion was experimentally proved.
But, it is really difficult to create human consciousness in a robot because human consciousness is very complex to understand and to create it. But, critic Richard Dawkin cited that as human beings have DNA, so humans are also machine made of flesh and blood. That is why; Pepperell claims “there is no distinction between the mechanical and the organic when it comes to considering DNA” (10). In believing this notion, scientists created cyborg – a hybridization of human and machine. Coined by Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline in 1960, the term cyborg refers to an advanced product that was popularized by David Rorvik in As Man Becomes Machine and the construction of robots and cyborgs in the human image suggests that technology frequently operates in science fiction to dissect the body for the purpose of reconstruction and modification with the help of cybernetic and biotechnological developments. This reconstruction of the self into virtual bodies and digital identities has turned Baudrillard’s simulacra into ultimate hyper-realities. So, the bifurcating line between human and robot has blurred. Using electronic pacemakers, high technological prostheses, plastic surgery – all these practices show how humans are becoming cyborgs, which are the techno-ontological productions of posthuman epistemology. As an example, the name of Kavin Warwick is oft-remembered. He is the first human who has inserted a microchip in his body and has also been considered the first cyborg with some new kind of capabilities which no human had previously experienced. For instance, while based at Columbia University (New York), he was able to control a robotic arm placed at the University of Reading. Even, Warwick believed it as super(trans)human power and human beings are going to divide in subspecies where cyborg like machine is going to become more intelligent and powerful than common human beings. Thus, the possibility of posthuman ontologies through the hand of cyborg is very extreme and was before foreseen by the science fiction writers. The proper evidence of this bio-technological cyborgification was found in Frankenstein which Brian Aldiss and others have taken as the proto-text of science fiction. But, the perfect man-machine mixture was popularized in science fiction before the Second World War. In 1843, Edgar Allan Poe described a man with extensive prostheses in the short story “The Man That Was Used Up”. In 1911, the first literary cyborg character named Nyctalope was introduced by Jean de La Hire in his work The Nyctalope on Mars. Similarly and most famously in 1987, the movie Robo Cop shows us a Detroit policeman to whom the control of the city police force has been given. On the other hand, Donna Haraway’s 1985 essay “A Cyborg Manifesto” breaks the crackers upon the floor of identity politics. For her, cyborg is not only a mere concept rather a weapon by which we can destroy the rigid boundaries, notably those separating human from animal and human from machine. Even, in the essay, she urges that with the help of cyborg the feminists should move beyond the limitations of traditional gender, feminism and politics. Thus, the essay becomes a milestone in the development of feminist posthumanist theory. Haraway’s motto was reflected in Marge Piercy’s 1991 novel He, She and It, set in a Jewish enclave within the America of 2059. An illegal cyborg named Yod (the tenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet) has been created to protect the settlement just as, according to legend, the Golem was created out of clay in the 16th century to protect the Jewish community of Prague. The cyborg was very much radical and also it was less known to him that he was hybrid creature and his creation was treated as a kind of birthing. So, the scientification of science fiction stories bear in our mind that science fiction narratives vaticinated how technology will become the fulcrum of human discourse by re-accessing the next stage bio-logical outfit of human named as transhuman. Thus science fiction shares the notion of technogenesis of which the word “techno” was interpreted eminently by Martin Heidegger in his essay “The Question Concerning Technology” through an ontological reverberation of technology. Heidegger’s address of technology signifies the process of transforming human essence into a technological essence which can’t be destroyed rather will be restored and embodied with our society. So, for Heidegger, technology is a way of manifestation that helps for the revelation of transhumanism such as cyborg engineering which was reflected in the stratum of science fiction narratives by imagining the collective transformations of the conviviality of human and technology.
Posthumanism is the salad of ideas which is contained in a fictional bowl of a genre called science fiction. Among these flavors of ideas, the speculative vision of futuristic ambience with technological weltanschauung and the acute belief of the existence of multi-universes with unknown autochthonous civilizations of aliens with poly-identities have been intertwined in a way that mystifies the readers with credible forces. In the history of science fiction, the presentation of the histories of future is protuberant and works like Samuel Madden’s Memoirs of the Twentieth Century (1733), Louis-Sebastien Mercier’s The Year 2440 (1771), Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s 1871 novel The Coming Race and post-Darwinian novels are the succinct examples of the futuristic narration. Moreover, contemporary science fiction Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? of Philip k. Dick visions disturbing apocalyptic future, popularly known as dystopia being a part of Orwellian adjectives and it so strategically renders everyone’s heart to think about this rapid metamorphosis as an agathokakological transformation and the futuristic world which would be a boon or curse for us. So, science fiction very firmly demands an augmented history of posthuman future which is metaphysically and technically possible. And, the scientification of these science fiction texts radically elevated the speculative nature of science fiction with reflexive and scientific reasons. To do this scientification, we have to make a keen focus on particle physics. It is believed that the Big Bang manifestation is the cause for which the entire universe is made up of particles. And, all the particles whose ontology has been already acknowledged by us or which are available in this world have certain mass and charge. And, according to particle physics, every type of particle has an associated particle with the same mass but opposite charges. These are called as antiparticles. As an example, the antiparticle of electron is positron which has a positive electric charge. The Dirac equation, formulated by Paul Dirac around 1928, prognosticates the existence of antiparticles along with the expected solutions for the corresponding particles. But, the problem is that when a subatomic particle collides with its respective antiparticle, the pair annihilates each other and the whole energy and momentum are being conserved by a process of allocation among the set of other particles in the final state. This explanation creates inquisitiveness of why the formation of particles after the Big Bang resulted in a universe consisting almost entirely of particles, rather than being a half-and-mixture of particles and antiparticles. That is why, it is a mysterious phenomenon and also perplexing, but it forces to believe that all these antiparticles, which are not available in this world, are available in another world which is very similar to this earth but made of much more powerful matter or probably it exists parallel with this earth. Again matter, which is made of very small particles, and the ways through which matter materializes are very important for the theoretical scenario of science fiction. Matter, on a subatomic level or in the form of particle, is not static or fixed, but constantly vibrating. According to string theory, the reasons of this vibration of matter are some tiny vibrating loops of energy, defined as strings. These strings are like the strings of musical instrument. As the musical strings, depending on how they vibrate, produce different sounds, the vibrations of these strings of energy would be responsible for matter to exhibit different properties, consequently producing different kinds of particles, and eventually, different modes of existence. If we change this vibration of matter, the harmonious structure of the whole matter will be changed to a new structure and the appearance of the existence of this new matter will be occurred according to the vibration. Thus, string theory asserts the possibilities of the different modes of existence of matters just through the changing of vibrations. Again, the epistemological interpretation of string theory claims ten physical dimensions to work mathematically. But for an unknown limitation in the phenomenal world, we can only observe four dimensions – height, width, depth and time; and the other dimensions of string theory have been compactified in such a way that they are too diminutive to appear in our dimension. But, topologically each infinitesimal dimension has an appearance as an individual universe which exists with different physical laws like different masses and constants of gravity. Thus, this mechanism generates the possibility of an infinite number of universes and this universe might be one of many. So, the hypothesis of the multiverse is inherently a posthuman approach; it not only stretches any universe-centric perspective but also it materializes the possibility of the impossible within its epistemological and ontological realm of inquiry.
Conclusion
As science fiction depicts, we are evolving and may be entering in a posthuman epoch where human, technology and non-human seem as an entwined whole involved in a becoming towards “post”, a condition which is beyond the human stature and culture with advanced science and technology. The scientification of science fiction texts proves the optimistic relationship between science fiction and science facts by rejecting the question of rationality of the mind-boggling techno-scientific achievements and the extrapolation of an impending posthuman future. This is the reason that all theorists, who believe in posthumanism, assume familiarity with science fiction literature. On this regard, Donna Haraway pronounced that the boundary between science fiction and social reality has become blurred; it is like an ocular beacon. Last but not the least; it is clear to us that the scientification of science fiction texts resolves the most imbroglios about the truth and vaticination of posthuman ontologies in the science fiction texts which are historically represented as mere figments. So, science fiction is about the phenomena with enhanced technologies and things of posthuman milieu that could happen but just haven’t when the fiction was written. Barry B. Luokkala was so loquacious to opine that – “Things which were entirely in the realm of science fiction just a few years ago are now looming on the horizon. Included here are just a few of the many research projects currently under way, which should yield exciting discoveries and new technologies, in the near future” (164). This view reverberates the relation between the science fiction genre and the theory of posthumanism – a knitted relation that ask similar questions about what does it mean to be human and what is coming after human? One comes out as a genre and another comes out as a theory but both negotiate with the same plausibility like the truth in them that was predicted earlier and the truth of them that they speculate to be true. Moreover, by proving all of these scenarios as true, both science fiction and posthumanism confront us with the difficult but crucial task of moving beyond homogeneity and anthropocentricism.
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Niladri Mahapatra is a State Aided College Teacher in the Department of English, Bhatter College, Dantan, West Bengal, India. He was awarded his M.Phil Degree in 2019 from the Department of English, Ravenshaw University, Cuttack, India. His research area focuses on posthumanism and Indian science fiction. His areas of interest include ancient philosophy, renaissance literature, modern literature, postmodern literature, literary theory, posthumanism, futurism etc. He published several articles and scholarly papers in several International journals and edited volumes. He also presented several scholarly papers in international conferences, seminars and symposiums. He is now working as a copy Editor in the journal The Golden Line: A Magazine on English Literature (ISSN 2395-1583 Print), (ISSN 2395-1591 Online).
[Volume 5, Number 1, 2023]
