SciFi in the Mind’s Eye: Reading Science through Science Fiction

SciFi in the Mind’s Eye: Reading Science through Science Fiction. Margret Grebowicz, ed. Chicago, IL: Open Court, 2007.

Reviewed by Rebecca Janicker, SFRA Review #285 (Spring 2008): p. 16-17.[1]

Covers "such fields as film, literature, and media studies and researchers in more science-based areas like virtual reality and visual and representational technologies," with the most relevant materials identified by Janicker in sections on "Genders" and (reasonably) "Technologies."

In terms of gender, Janet Vertesi considers literary, cinematic and anime depictions of the gynoid — the female cyborg — arguing that this figure shows female identity to be inextricably linked to physicality, and further, that femininity need not be bound to humanity. [...]

[... VR] researchers, point to a long collaboration between cyberpunk and virtual reality research, showing how the former raised questions that scientists have worked to answer ever since. They draw on scientific research, including psychology and social science journals, to explore the human experience of cyberspace and avatar realism. These are linked to literary examples such as accounts of how Vernor Vinge’s definition of “the other plane” shaped real-life research and William Gibson’s influential Neuromancer (1984) led to research into the augmentation of human experience in cyberspace. [...] (162). In contrast to this, Andrew Pavelich argues that postapocalyptic science fiction often puts forward visions of dangerous scientific and technological advancement as cautionary tales. He discusses the inherent ambivalence about technology and draws on the philosophy of science to show that intelligence does not necessarily entail extensive technological advancement. (Janicker p. 17)

So see for cyborgs, cyberspace, VR, and, necessarily with the "gynoid," AI.

RDE, finishing, 12Jan21