Transhumanism and Utopia in Kenneth Folingsby’s Meda: A Tale of the Future

• Authors: Marta Komsta

Title variants

PL

Transhumanizm i utopia w powieści Meda: A Tale of the Future Kennetha Folingsby’ego

• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The paper examines the evolutionary aspect of morality in Kenneth Folingsby’s Meda: A Tale of the Future, a nineteenth-century utopia, in the context of the transhumanist tenets of progress and enhancement sensu Nick Bostrom, Max More, and others. A literary descendant of Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s The Coming Race, the key evolutionary utopia of the late Victorian period, Folingsby’s narrative depicts progressive disembodiment of the futuristic eutopia as a result of the unprecedented development of the human brain. Echoing Bulwer-Lytton’s satirical stance on the implications of the evolutionary process, Meda attempts, thus, to delineate the guided evolution of the utopian community in terms of the correlation between moral progress and intellectual enhancement.

PL

Artykuł analizuje ewolucyjny aspekt moralności w Meda: A Tale of the Future, dziewiętnastowiecznej utopii Kennetha Folingsby’ego, w kontekście transhumanistycznych rozważań dotyczących kwestii postępu w ujęciu Nicka Bostroma, Maxa More’a, i innych. Powieść Folingsby’ego, literackiego potomka The Coming Race Edwarda Bulwer-Lyttona, ważnej utopii ewolucyjnej późnej epoki wiktoriańskiej, ukazuje proces postępującego odcieleśnienia (disembodiment) futurystycznej eutopii jako skutku bezprecedensowego rozwoju ludzkiego mózgu. Podobnie jako ewolucyjna satyra Bulwera-Lyttona, Meda ukazuje tym samym transformację utopijnej społeczności w kontekście powiązania moralnego postępu z intelektualnym rozwojem.

Keywords

EN

transhumanism; utopia; brain; disembodiment

PL

transhumanism; utopia; mózg; odcieleśnienie

• Publisher: Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II. Towarzystwo Naukowe KUL
• Journal: Roczniki Humanistyczne
• Year: 2018
• Volume: 66
• Issue: 11: Anglica. Zeszyt specjalny
• Pages: 45-55

Contributors

author

Marta Komsta

• Wydział Humanistyczny, Uniwersytet Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej w Lublinie

References

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Identifiers

DOI

10.18290/rh.2018.66.11s-4