The notion of the Anthropocene is founded on the premise that traces of human activity on the earth will remain legible in the geological strata for millions of years to come, showing evidence of an anthropogenic 'signature' inscribed in the rock by the human species. Spectrality and Survivance shows how embedded in this understanding of the Anthropocene is a speculative and specular gesture that transforms the notion of the future into an anthropocentric reflection of the present, prohibiting any true engagement (...) with the possibility of a non-anthropocentric and post-anthropocenic world. In this volume, Marija Grech develops an alternative conceptual paradigm from which to think the Anthropocene beyond any limited notion of human language, human thought, human systems of meaning, or even a human world. Grech considers how the geological trace of the Anthropocene might be said to 'survive' outside of the possibility of any human readership, and how the very survival of the human in and beyond the Anthropocene might necessitate such thought. (shrink)

Outside of the Vulcans, Klingons are the most enduringly famous humanoid race in the Star Trek universe, a fearless and fearsome interstellar military power in the Beta Quadrant. The Klingons are singularly intriguing as a veritable pastiche, a motley conglomeration, of various human cultures. Klingon culture is so well developed, in fact, that they are the only Star Trek race to have had their language published in a dictionary for fans who wish to nurture their inner warrior spirit. This chapter (...) explores some of the human cultural representations that find in the favorite bumpy‐headed, bat'leth‐swinging, raktajino‐drinking aliens that can help to reflect on how human society has evolved and where one may be headed in the future. The Klingon religion is an interesting combination of mythical and spiritual elements, along with a grounded humanism that characterizes Gene Roddenberry's fundamental vision of the future by eschewing the contemporary existence of deities. (shrink)

In this book the main emphasis is twofold: on autonomous machine intelligence, and on mind uploading. This chapter shows that, while science fiction (SF) has depicted the extreme embrace of the “prosthetic impulse,” most notoriously in Star Trek's“Borg,” this is used as a warning of the potential Faustian consequences of such tendencies. The Star Trek franchise has also highlighted the converse, the Pinocchio syndrome, a reverse prosthetic impulse, most notably in the android Commander Data. Data is a sentient android and (...) a full member of the Enterprise starship crew in Star Trek: The Next Generation. The inverse of the Pinocchio syndrome, the prosthetic impulse, is arguably exemplified by Star Trek's Borg, who constitute a relentless inhuman tide that threatens to overwhelm every species violently, assimilating all individual beings into the Borg collective, stifling their lan vital and incorporating them as part of a hive mind, with an inexorable “insect mentality”. (shrink)

Resumen La figura femenina en el arte cinematográfico ha sido mostrada mediante arquetipos y cumpliendo distintas funciones. Nos proponemos en este estudio analizar los personajes femeninos por medio de la narrativa audiovisual en dos películas emblemáticas de la cinematografía de Hitchcock: Recuerda y Vértigo, en las que la mujer se contempla como empoderada, pero también sometida, llegando a una negación de su propia identidad. Consideramos que la forma del tratamiento de la mujer en el cine de dicha época radica en (...) la situación social de la misma, sufriendo un tratamiento discriminatorio, que es admitido por los personajes femeninos justificándolo en un enamoramiento, que anula la propia personalidad. Abstract The female figure in cinematographic art has been shown through archetypes and performing different functions. We propose in this study to analyze female characters through the audiovisual narrative in two emblematic films of Hitchcock’s cinematography: Spellbound and Vertigo, in which women are seen as empowered, but also subjected to a denial of their own identity. We consider that the treatment of women in the cinema of that time lies in the social situation of the same, suffering a discriminatory treatment, which is admitted by the female characters justifying it in a crush, which annuls the own personality. (shrink)