In what ways do Graham and Hayles seem to agree with the anxiety that “when a body is integrated into a cybernetic circuit, modification of the circuit will necessarily modify consciousness as well” (Hayles 115).

In our assigned chapter Graham reintroduces a common criticism against human like A.I., “that it cannot simulate emotion, intuition, instinct, imagination or innovation: that, in brief, a computer lacks ‘soul’.”(Graham 127) What examples in our texts and media so far advance or refute this critique?

In Chapter 5, Graham references Kaku’s envision of “every individual would in theory be able to possess a software program containing their own personal genome sequence, perhaps on CD-ROM” (Graham 118). This predicted use of a CD is one of many instances when current reality has already surpassed predictions from only the past decade. For example, in Minority Report the clear discs used to view the precogs’ visions of crimes or in Elysium having to use a cord to connect to Max’s stored information. In modern day, this could all be accessed wirelessly using the cloud, Bluetooth, etc. What do these faults say about posthuman predictions, if even the minor details are already far surpassing predicted advancements in technology?

How does the class warfare in Elysium manifest? More specifically, what are the characteristics of each class and how are Posthuman philosophies and technologies employed in the society? In some of our texts and films we have seen this joint theme of economics and Posthumanity, and Hayles points out in our chapter “These visions of self-regulating economic and political systems produced a complementary notion of the liberal self as an autonomous, self-regulating subject” (86) addressing how the two schools of thought have been joined from the start.

Hayles suggests that “the cyborg complicated [liberal humanism] by its figuring of a rational subject who is always already constituted by the forces of capitalist markets” (88-87) Do you think the cyborgs in Elysium (the police, parole officers, military agents) are fully conscious and/or rational? Do they own themselves or do they function under the forces of a capitalist market? In what way does this support or contradict what Hayles is saying?

While their advanced technology and life on another planet deems Elysium as a posthuman film, the characters’ reckless competition between one another suggests immature, rather than advanced, minds. Thus, disregarding the technology, what aspects, if any, of Delacourt’s, Agent Kruger’s, Spider’s, Max’s, Frey’s, and Matilda’s personalities suggest that they truly encompass posthuman characteristics?

In Winner’s “Are Humans Obsolete?” he talks about how science and the creation of new technology “benefited some groups more than others and left working people in the dust” (pg 26). He also comments that if the “wider populace knew what the intellectuals and entrepreneurs had in store for them” they would prefer to be given a closer look at the predicted outcomes and ways to be more involved in the said outcomes. If the wider populace in Oryx and Crake had known about the sterilization effect of BlyssPluss, how might that have changed the story as a whole? Do you think that people would still have used it, despite the sterilization and risk of human extinction, due to the other benefits?

The Children of Crake were intended to live as immortal beings, as immortality comes from lack of fear. In order to achieve this, Crake eliminated an interest in art, reading, or religion. However, with the revelation that the Crakers built an effigy to summon Snowman home, this distinction is called into question. Has Crake really achieved immortality for his creations? Is his concept of immortality flawed? Is there a way for humans to become immortal?

When the Craker’s mating ritual is explained, it is also explained Crake formulated their sex acts are based on all sorts of animals (baboons, octopus, penguins, silverfish), yet Jimmy says that we would just become “hormone robots”. In a way, Crake’s creation of this sexual system is organized and does remove all the negatives that come with sex (rape, jealousy, anger, infidelity) but Jimmy asks what about the art of sex? What do you think of this organized sexual behavior and how does it play into the posthuman argument?