Posthumanistyczny android oraz transhumanistyczny gracz w “Detroit: Become Human”

• Authors: Agata Waszkiewicz
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The aim of this paper is to offer a close reading of the 2018 science fiction video game Detroit: Become Human which, despite its promising and novel narrative, offers a simple and otherwise familiar narrative of conscious androids who gradually begin the fight for emancipation from their human creators and owners. However, offering a complex branching narrative with multiple endings affected by the player’s choices, the game encourages the discussion on the relationship between the player and the game system, furthermore drawing on the posthuman and transhuman theories, the concepts of Donna Haraway’s cyborg (1999) and the postmodern identities theories. On the narrative level the android characters will be scrutinized as embodying the humanist underpinning, especially when contrasted with the human characters who are lacking the agency and the self-consciousness. Furthermore, on the non-diegetic level, the game strategies will be shown as influencing the player who, in contact with the game is allowed to experiment with their identities, and, furthermore, to explore the transhumanist and postmodern identities.

PL

Celem artykułu jest analiza gry wideo science-fiction z 2018 roku pod tytułem Detroit: Become Human, która pomimo obietnicy nowatorskiej narracji oferuje prostą i skądinąd znaną fabułę dotyczącą świadomych androidów, które stopniowo rozpoczynają walkę o emancypację spod władzy swoich ludzkich twórców i właścicieli. Jednakowoż, oferując skomplikowaną narrację, rozgałęzioną z wieloma zakończeniami zależnymi od decyzji graczy, gra zachęca do dyskusji na temat relacji pomiędzy graczami a systemem gry, opierając się na teoriach posthumanistycznych oraz transhumanistyczych, na koncepcji cyborga zaproponowanej przez Donnę Haraway (1991), jak również na postmodernistycznych teoriach tożsamości. Na poziomie narracyjnym przyglądać się będę tym bohaterom, którzy jako androidy ucieleśniają założenia humanizmu, szczególnie kontrastując w tym z postaciami ludzkimi, które charakteryzują się brakiem samoświadomości. Co więcej, na niediegetycznym poziomie, strategie gry będą przedstawione poprzez swój wpływ na gracza, który w zetknięciu z grą może eksperymentować ze swoją tożsamością, albo wręcz, eksplorować swoje transhumanistyczne oraz postmodernistyczne właściwości.

Keywords

EN

Detroit: Become Human; transhumanism; posthumanism; android; cyborg

PL

Detroit: Become Human; transhumanism; posthumanizm; android; cyborg

• Publisher: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej
• Journal: Acta Humana
• Year: 2018
• Volume: 9

Dates

published

2018

online

2019-09-12

Contributors

author

Agata Waszkiewicz

References

• Asimov Isaac (1942), Runaround, “Astounding Science Fiction”, vol. 1, pp. 94.
• Asimov Isaac (1990), The Laws of Robotics, [in:] Idem, Robot Visions, New York, NY: ROC, pp. 423–425.
• Baelo-Allué Sonia (2003), Blurring Posthuman Identities: The New Version of Humanity Offered by Bicentennial Man (1999), “Odisea”, vol. 4, pp. 17–30.
• Balsamo Anne (1996), Technologies of the Gendered Body: Reading Cyborg Women, London and Durkham, NC: Duke University Press.
• Blizzard Entertainment (1998), StarCraft.
• Blizzard Entertainment (2004), World of Warcraft.
• Bodine Ann (1975), Androcentrism in Prescriptive Grammar: Singular 'They', Sex-Indefinite 'He', and 'He or She', “Language in Society”, vol. 4 (2), pp. 129-146.
• Bodley Antonie Marie (2015), The Android and our Cyborg Selves: What Androids Will Teach us about Being (Post) Human, [online:] http://hdl.handle.net/2376/5508 [accessed: 20.03.2019].
• Bostrom Nick (2003), The Transhumanist FAQ: v 2.1., “World Transhumanist Association”, [online:] http://transhumanism.org/index.php/WTA/faq/ [accessed: 11.03.2019].
• Bukatman Scott (1993), Terminal Identity. The Virtual Subject in Postmodern Science Fiction. Durham, London: Duke University Press.
• Cavallaro Dani (2000), Cyberpunk and Cyberculture. Science Fiction and the Work of William Gibson, London, New Brunswick NJ: The Athlone Press.
• Dontnod Entertainment (2015), Life Is Strange.
• Filiciak Marcin (2003), Hyperidentities: Postmodern Identity Patterns in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games, [in:] The video game theory reader, eds. M. J.P Wolf., B. Perron, New York: Routledge, pp. 87–102.
• Floridi Luciano, Sanders J.W. (2001), Artificial Evil and the Foundation of Computer Ethics, “Ethics and Information Technology”, vol. 3 (1), pp. 55–56.
• Figueroa-Sarriera Heidi (1995), Cyborgology; Constructing the Knowledge of Cybernetic Organisms, [in:] The Cyborg Handbook, eds. Ch. Hables Gray, H. Figueroa-Sarriera, S. Mentor, New York & London: Routledge, pp. 1–14.
• Haraway Donna (1991), Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature, New York: Routledge.
• Hayles N. Katherine (1999), How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Kirkup Gill, Janes Linda, Woodward Kath, Hovenden Fiona (1975), The Gendered Cyborg: a reader, London: Routledge.
• LaGrandeur Kevin (2015), Androids and the Posthuman in Television and Film [in:] Palgrave Handbook of Posthumanism in Film and Television, eds. M. Hauskeller, C.D. Carbonell, T.D. Philbeck, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 111–119.
• Lange Amanda (2014), “You’re Just Gonna Be Nice”: How Players Engage with Moral Choice Systems, “Journal of Games Criticism”, vol. 1 (1), pp. 1–16.
• Lebowitz Josiah, Klug Chris (2011), Interactive Storytelling for Video Games: A Player-centered Approach to Creating Memorable Characters and Stories, Burlington: Focal Press.
• MacDorman Karl F., Ishiguro Hiroshi (2006), The Uncanny Advantage of using Androids in Cognitive and Social Science Research, “Interaction Studies”, vol. 7(3), pp. 289–296.
• Makuch Eddie (2018), What Happened to Telltale Games? Here’s a Timeline of Important Events, [online:] https://www.gamespot.com/articles/what-happened-totelltalegames-heres-a-timeline-o/1100-6462046/ [accessed: 4.11.2018].
• Navarro-Remesal Victor, García-Catalán Shaila (2015), Let’s play master and servant: BDSM and directed freedom in game design, [in:] Rated M for Mature: Sex and Sexuality in Video Games, eds. E.W. Lauteria, M. Wysocki, London: Bloomsbury Academic, pp. 105–118.
• Preston Dominic (2018), Detroit: Become Human review. [online:] https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/review/playstation-gamessoftware/detroit-become-human-review-3678118/ [accessed: 24.03.2019].
• Quantic Dream (2005), Fahrenheit.
• Quantic Dream (2010), Heavy Rain.
• Quantic Dream (2013), Beyond: Two Souls.
• Quantic Dream (2018), Detroit: Become Human.
• Robertson Jennifer (2010), Gendering Humanoid Robots: Robo-Sexism in Japan, “Body & Society”, vol. 16 (1), pp. 1–36.
• Robinson Martin (2018), David Cage: "I'm not a frustrated movie director”, [online:] https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-08-16-david-cage-im-not-a-frustratedmovie-director [accessed: 4.11.2018].
• Rose Mark (1981), Alien Encounters: Anatomy of Science Fiction, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
• Schrank Brian (2014), Avant-garde Videogames. Playing with Technoculture, Cambridge: MIT Press.
• Schueller Malini Johar (2005), Analogy and (White) Feminist Theory: Thinking Race and the Color of the Cyborg Body, “Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society”, vol. 31 (1), pp. 63–92.
• Simons Geoff L. (1986), Is Man a Robot?, Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons.
• Vinci Tony (2014), Posthuman Wounds: Trauma, Non-Anthropocentric Vulnerability, and the Human/Android/Animal Dynamic in Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric
• Sheep?, “The Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association”, vol. 47 (2), pp. 91–112.
• Wolfe Cary (2009), What is Posthumanism?, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Identifiers

DOI

10.17951/ah.2018.9.197-212