AIs, Androids, Machines, Sexbots: Questioning Humanity in Three Contemporary Narratives

The essay aims to offer a transversal and transdisciplinary map of some cultural products(presenting themselves as science fictions, dystopias, but also possible utopias), all released between 2018 and 2019, where the human is forced to confront the new technology of the ‘machine’ – such as Artificial Intelligence or androids. In them, the appearance of new forms of ‘life’, which demand to be recognised and progressively develop strong ‘moral judgements’, prompts a reflection on the redefinition of the community, the re-vision of the anthropocentric construction of the world, and the radical act of re-thinking the human and humanity in a more collective and sustainable way. Drawing on the theories of Rosi Braidotti, Judith Butler, Donna Haraway, and Fredric Jameson, the essay will analyse the film Aniara, directed by Pella Kågerman and Hugo Lilja, the exhibition Training Humans, held in Milan at Fondazione Prada, and, in particular, the novels Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan and Frankissstein: A Love Story by Jeanette Winterson.