Shells, Ghosts & The God Left Out of the Machine: Part I
The following is a literature review to support an essay on how Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell (1995) engages with philosophical and religious themes underlying transhumanism and the cyberpunk genre.
“I teach to you the Overhuman. The human is something that shall be overcome. What have you done to overcome it?
All beings so far have created something beyond themselves: and you want to be the ebb of this great flood and even go back to the beasts rather than overcome the human?”
Nietzsche (2005, p.11)
With the rapid development of technologies such as bioengineering, nano-technology, virtual reality and artificial intelligence, radical changes to the human condition are taking place. Such changes are embraced by proponents of transhumanism (Bostrom, 2005) – sometimes interchangeable with ‘posthumanism’ (Terranova, 2001) – who encourage the utilisation of these technologies to free humanity from biological limitations (Fukuyama, 2004). Transhumanist advocates support the acceleration of human evolution by means of science and technology, free from religious creed and dogma (Terranova, op cit.).
Cyberpunk Comic Reality Hackers Kickstarter 100% Funded!
Within just seven days of launching the Kickstarter campaign for my cyberpunk comic Reality Hackers, we hit the funding target! This was my first attempt at launching a crowdfunding campaign. I’ll be honest – at first I wasn’t sure if…
Cyberpunk Comic Reality Hackers Kickstarter announced!
On April 5th 2019 I will be launching a Kickstarter campaign for my cyberpunk comic Reality Hackers. The campaign will raise money to print the first issue, as well as offer some cool extra goodies! I’ll also be spending March releasing teasers of the story-line, character biographies and more.