The weekend was over, and I had my theme, so for the most part this phase was largely uneventful. I personally found that the workshop that we had was interesting, but ultimately I had already settled into how I would explore my theme, and the workshop was in a group and not on our themes to focus the work, making the workshop itself more of a distraction than anything (much like other people, who have made working in studio enjoyably distracting to say the least). Admittedly, the workshop, run by Jussi Parikka, was on speculative design, which was an interesting approach to designing projects such as the example he gave on United Micro Kingdoms (a speculative design exhibition on a possible, if a little improbable, future UK). The idea of speculative design is to consider and design around potential future issues instead of current, short term ones. By speculating on a possible future, you can create a new design or product in response, which can be an interesting experiment and a strong starting point for artistic expression (look at me, with my big words). This idea could be really good for future worldbuilding and I definitely want to explore it if I find the opportunity.
Most of the work for this phase was done at home, alone, with little happening that affected the work. As such, this blog post will focus more on what I researched into than what I was doing in the phase outside of my research – after all, I didn’t do much. So, on to the way the research – and thus, this blog post – was structured; While current transhuman technology is super cool from a potential application perspective, in my opinion such tech has little in the way of interesting potential concepts and game mechanics, so I want to focus mostly on the more interesting side of transhumanism; the speculative, fictional ideas of transhuman technology in various creative works (looks like, in hindsight, the workshop was extremely well timed. I definitely want to do some exercises in later phases using speculative design for worldbuilding).
Despite this, I did look briefly into some more extreme examples of transhumanism in the real world, such as Elon Musk’s proposed Neuralink interface technology. The idea behind Neuralink is simple to understand; the device will allow people to use their minds to control and interact with digital devices. This would allow, say, me to write this blog with my mind at a fraction of the time it takes to type it out (something that would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance). This, as Elon puts it, is the next level that we need to improve our efficiency, in the same way as digital did coming from physical based media. By gaining the power of the internet, we now have so much of the world at our fingertips, and Neuralink is his answer to where we go next. The issue that I immediately think of, however, is the security of such a device. Neuralink directly accesses your mind, and due to the way that digital communication works this is a two way street; if I can access something, that something can access me. At the moment this is how many viruses operate, but that’s a separate device, something that we can disconnect and replace, whereas our brains are what makes us, well, “us”. If a device can access “me” within my mind, what could someone do to me? What would happen if I was hacked? It’s these questions that raise important questions around the idea of being able to do something, and actually doing it; just because we can link our minds to our devices, doesn’t mean we’re ready to do so.
Going forward into the rest of the post, I will give brief descriptions of the transhumanism aspects of the various media that I’ve looked at, and try to break them down to find what I think is interesting with each one. This should, in theory, make it easier to get more base ideas for transhuman concepts without recreating individual pieces of fiction – I’m not interested in copying someone else’s work when I have the chance to create something of my own that is interesting and more importantly unique. So, without further ado, here we go;
Video game: Fallout 4 (2015)
The Fallout series as a whole has elements, but I’m focusing on the synths for my research. Synths are in affect robots, but the most advanced are literally artificial humans with a small chip in their head that are stronger and more resilient than normal humans. Created by the Institute, one of the main factions within the game and the most technologically advanced, these synths are created to replace members of the Commonwealth, the area of the US (Boston and its surrounding areas) that the game is set in. These are interesting from a transhumanist perspective; while they are subservient to the Institute in their programming, as they learn and become more human, they often decide to defect and gain freedom via another one of the in game factions, The Railroad, and they are stronger and, in the case of the 3rd gen synths, as smart if not smarter than humans, making them, in a sense, the next step of humanity in the world of Fallout. Having something designed to be like a human but not actually be one in the traditional sense is interesting as a concept, and it could be interesting to use this idea as a starting point, but ultimately its not one of my favourites as it somewhat dilutes the transhumanism theme, with this kind of existence being not actually human.
Anime/Manga/Light Novel Series: Mahouka Koukou No Rettousei (English: The Irregular at Magic High School) (2011-current)
In this series, their isn’t a traditional transhumanism theme going through it, with a distinctive lack of the cybernetics that make up the norm for expressing “going beyond human limits” that is at the core of a lot of transhumanism fiction, but this series has many interesting elements that could be interesting to explore. The series’ themes focus on the affects that Magic would have on the world, and in the series magic is more of a science than the miracles as it is in other series, with it having links to maths and physics and needing formulas and code to work. Their are tools called CADs – Casting Assistance Devices (no, not computer aided design, although that might have been the reason CADs in the series are called as such when designing the narrative) – that handle the processing of the various variables used in the magic. The reason I researched this series is due to how magic in this world allows people to do extraordinary feats like flying, while also having the feeling of being an advancement of technology and science than miracles, as mentioned before. This makes it interesting as an alternative to the standard cybernetic replacement and enhancement that so much of transhumanism fiction is focused around (mainly due to how much more realistic cybernetics are, but hey-ho). As an added bonus, the series features a lot of genetic and magical modifications of people, in order to make them stronger, smarter or to create a living weapon. I’d like to explore the possibility of creating a narrative and/or mechanics that take after the way this series approaches transhumanism, as it has more leg room for new ideas and concepts. I especially like the science fiction approach to magic, and that might be interesting to play with in the future.
Anime/Manga: Medaka Box (2009-2013)
Even more so than Mahouka, Medaka Box features transhumanism that is extremely “out there”, and at first glance you might not even realise that it features transhumanism at all (I certainly didn’t, that’s for sure). The story focuses on Medaka Kurokami, the new school body president of Hakonia Academy (its a thing in Japan, where teachers are far more hands off with anything outside of lessons and the students themselves handle a lot of the admin for things like clubs, with the student council handling funding etc.), whom won the election with 98% of the school body voting for her due to her overwhelming charisma, amongst other things. Along side her is her childhood friend Zenkichi Hitoyoshi, whom is a smart and athletic, but otherwise fairly normal, student. Normal high school anime, right? Well, Medaka, along with a fair number of other students, have special abilities that go beyond talent and skill; Medaka is near perfect at anything she tries, to degrees seemingly inhuman, in her first time trying something. Her ability allows her to copy and perfect any other ability she sees, such as one character’s fighting style and skills, to one character’s ability to make a sound cannon with her voice alone. Zenkichi himself, despite the story pointing out that he’s “normal”, can create small earthquakes with his stomps, and is a skilled practitioner of the martial art Savate. The story itself focuses on these transhuman abilities; several arcs centre around the “Flask Plan”, the aim of which is to turn normal students into ability-wielding “Abnormals”. It’s this very unique approach to what is effectively supernatural powers that makes this series interesting. I like the idea of exploring this idea of supernatural transhumanism with mechanics, although I’m not sure how to make it innovative (my first thoughts are that these abilities would be just that, abilities, which isn’t exactly new).
Anime: Karau Phantom Memory (2004)
The story is set in the year 2100, and a scientist, Dr. Amami, is on the cusp of a breakthrough with an alternative form of energy, called “Rynax Energy”. His daughter Kurau Amami comes to the lab on her 12th birthday, and Dr. Amami’s experiment goes wrong, and Kurau is merged with two Rynax, whom are actually energy based lifeforms that live in pairs. The merge means that, at first, the stronger of the two Rynax takes over, but over time they fully merge into a single being, in symbiosis. This gives Kurau several different abilities, such as being able to phase through walls, regenerate from damage and have superhuman strength & speed. I won’t lie; there’s a bit of body horror to the merge. I get really creeped by possession in media, almost all times it’s used. It’s eased by the merge becoming a symbiotic one as the first episode continues, but nevertheless is still slightly, well, off for me personally. However, the idea of merging to gain abilities is interesting, and could be made into a cool mechanic. Hell, even the possession mechanic could be good as a mechanic too, despite my reservations on possession of this nature.
On a side note, it also has cool mech design. I like mechs. I really like mechs.
Anime: Armitage III (1995-2002)
Set after the colonisation of Mars with the assistance of robots, Armitage III is set on terraformed Mars. Ross Sylibus is a cop from Earth, transferring to the Martian Police Department to escape from his past and haunting memories of his previous partner being killed by a robot. Once he arrives, he meets his new partner, Naomi Armitage. As the story progresses, Ross finds out that Naomi is a robot herself, part of the third generation of robots known uncreatively “Thirds”. Thirds were developed to assist with the low birth rate on Mars, and can reproduce with humans to give birth to healthy, normal human children. This is an interesting idea; the definition of transhumanism, the idea of going beyond human limits, has been taken from a different angle. Instead of making humans inherently better, this kind of transhumanism is the type where a better human is created from scratch. While here it’s mechanical humans, this form could also be applied to a lab grown human that is engineered to be better in various ways. Narratives with this element have less of a focus on transhumanism, but are pretty interesting to consider. A major factor with transhumanism that isn’t often explored is the ramifications of the technology beyond the general effects like making normal humans more poor etc. It could be interesting to explore this in more detail. Also, one game idea that could be interesting from this alone would be something like papers please, where you try and find out if people are robots or human. Could be interesting to explore further, providing I come up with an interesting idea for it.
TV: Westworld (2016-current)
Westworld, in my opinion, is one of the best pieces of TV in recent years. While a lot of people say that HBO’s Game Of Thrones is the better of the two, the clever pacing, framing and use of non-linear narrative bring the already strong character writing to another level. Featuring another case of humanoid robots called “Hosts”, whom live and die for the sake of the Westworld park and its guests, which were created – spoiler alert folks – as the immortal vessels for humans. The aim was to rehouse clients in host versions of their bodies, in order to make them immortal. This hasn’t worked out so far, with human minds realising they are copies and self destructing. At the same time, the hosts were being used for Westworld, along with other parks, but eventually rebelled against the staff running the park in order to gain freedom. The idea of immortality via this kind of technology is pretty interesting, and the questions raised from the hosts being intelligent and sapient beings in their own right is an interesting moral question raised by the narrative, and it’s executed brilliantly via the show. I’d like to explore both the immortality and the moral questions around AI via gameplay and narrative, if at all possible.
Video game: Nier: Automata (2017)
Nier: Automata is, well, technically isn’t about humans at all. The story centres on YoRHa, an organisation made up of androids dedicated to taking back Earth from alien-made robots for Mankind. These androids are effectively human, with few visible differences at first glance. They are, however, very much mechanical under the skin, and as such can be brought back via a copy of their memories being placed in a new body. One aspect of this in particular, however, is what caught my eye once I looked a bit more into the game beyond “this game is good and has androids & stuff”, which is the approach to progression via “chips”. These chips allow the player to enhance their character from adding buffs to, more interestingly, adding HUD elements. What this means is that the player can completely remove the HUD from the game, as a means to gain more room (chips take space, which needs to be upgraded to have more slots for chips) for buffs and modifiers. This was a super interesting idea for me, and I’d like to explore mechanics that affect what the player has available to them, and having a more direct approach to interacting with the theme by directly integrating it into the gameplay systems. Narratively, there are also some interesting ideas, again around AI as with many robotics centred narratives, but also around the village of peaceful robots whom have gained emotions and now gather in groups, acting like humans to some degree, led by a robot named Pascal. There’s a lot in this game that I like personally, and I feel a good amount of it could be useful in making a game centred around Transhumanism.
Anime/Manga: Ghost In The Shell (Anime Film: 1995 Original Manga: 1989 – 1990 TV Series: 2002 – 2004 (Stand Alone Complex), 2013 – 2015 (Arise), 2020 (Upcoming, SAC_2045) Live Action Film: 2017)
Ah, the classic anime that for many started their Fandom of anime. Widely regarded as one of the most influential anime of the recent age, alongside Neon Genesis Evangelion (more on that ever joyous cracker later), Ghost In The Shell has inspired many, with the creators of the Matrix, the Wachowskis, citing the work as one of the main influences on the Matrix series. Written by Masamune Shirow, the story centres on Major Makoto Kusanagi, a full-body augment cyborg whom is the field commander of Public Security Section 9, a law-enforcement division of the Japanese National Public Safety Commission. As the story progresses in the film – spoilers – she merges with an AI known as the Puppet Master, and becomes a blend of the two of them at the end of the film. Now, this doesn’t happen (at least to my limited knowledge, at least) in the TV series or the manga, but this is an interesting idea of combining with another and create a fusion of the two of them (although its more Kusanagi than Puppet Master in personality). Alongside the interesting exploration of what it means to be human that is common to all of the different mediums of the series, this could be an interesting concept to play around with mechanically.
Anime/Manga: Pandora In The Crimson Shell: Ghost Urn (2012-current)
Another work by Masamune Shirow (clarification, Shirow only came up with the concept, and Kōshi Rikudō is the writer and illustrator for the original manga), Crimson Shell – what? Did you really think I was going to type the whole title every time? – focuses on another full-body cyborg, Nene Nanakorobi. Due to developing an incurable illness, she was forced to become a cyborg, and is the worlds first full-body cyborg. The story focuses on her life on Cenancle Island alongside android Clarion, as she attempts to achieve world peace in the face of terrorists that attack the island. What’s interesting here is the development of Shirow’s views of the future and transhumanism, as this series, written several years after Ghost In The Shell, has much more of what makes up the current internet within the story and themes. In many ways the series deals with similar themes, but through a far kinder, approachable lens than Ghost In The Shell, and the series in general has a more hopeful take on the same themes as Ghost In The Shell. Another interesting aspect of both of these series is the focus on a cyborg’s skills with technology, as while many transhumanist narratives focus on going beyond limits such as physical speed and strength, Masamune’s work shows what could be done digitally with such enhancements and a direct line into the internet to a brain, with Ghost In The Shell presenting the hacking of people themselves, and Crimson Shell showing the technical prowess and seemingly magic powers can be utilised with these enhancements. Again, this is super interesting to explore more via game, mechanic and narrative ideas, and I’d like to take this forward into the next phase.
Anime: Neon Genesis Evangelion (1997)
If there was one show that really changed the way that people looked at animation in general, Neon Genesis Evangelion would be that show. Widely acclaimed for it’s deconstruction of the mecha genre and anime at the time in general, the series was one of the pioneers of mature, serious anime going into the 2000s. With it’s psychological, religious and philosophical themes, the show has long been regarded as a massively personal expression of author Hideaki Anno’s personal struggles and ongoing battle with depression. With many of the characters having some sort of emotional baggage, the series seeks to – and in my opinion, achieves brilliantly – explore these traumas, fears and battles with their emotions, from Shinji Ikari’s abandonment by his father, to Asuka Langley Soryu’s traumatic experiences from her mother’s mental instability resulting from bonding with EVA Unit 02, to Rei Ayanami’s origins as a clone made from the salvaged remains of Shinji’s mother, Yui Ikari, after her bonding with EVA Unit 01, and the fact that she is in fact one of many Rei Ayanamis, all sharing the same soul which gets transferred between bodies. I hold this series up as one of the best, but that’s not why it’s here. The aim of series antagonists SEELE (the angels are more of a force of nature than anything) is the Human Instrumentality Project, which aims to merge all of humanity into one entity, in order to get rid of people’s fears and flaws. This eventually comes to pass, and the final 2 episodes of the original TV anime are framed completely differently to the rest of the series as the characters struggle with their reasons for existence, and culminates in – at least in some theories, given that the ending is super weird and vague – everyone deciding that being separate is better. Now, as I just stated, that’s not confirmed, but the Death & Rebirth and End Of Evangelion films (which were created as alternatives to the last two episodes) that’s what happens. It’s all a bit too confusing, but whatever, I guess. What matters is that this is a form of transhumanism; by merging into a hive mind… Thingy humanity overcomes its limits and becomes, in a sense, complete. This is massively different to other forms of transhumanism, and thus would make for an important consideration when coming up with the game ideas in the next phase; there’s no need to stick to the tropes that already exist within transhumanism, if it makes the story more interesting and innovative.
Film/TV: Limitless (Film: 2011, TV: 2015-2016)
Another series that takes a different approach to transhumanism is film/TV series limitless, where the protagonists (Eddie Morra in the film, Brian Finch in the TV series) take a miracle drug known as NZT-48, which gives users access to every neuron in their brain. This allows them to do inhuman tasks and feats of intuition and reasoning, but comes with the deadly side effect that should the user stop taking the drug, they will die a slow, agonising death. This kind of transhumanism is pretty interesting, as such drugs are actually real (although not nearly to the same degree), known as Nootropics. These are pretty interesting, but are massively sketchy in real life, mostly looking like a scam. Regardless of the validity of the drugs, the idea of intelligence being enhanced in such a way, and all the ephemerality that comes with it, could be interesting subject matter for narratives, provided that it wasn’t just Limitless again.
Film: Gattaca (1997)
One of the most clear cut cases of genetic transhumanism, Gattaca (title formed out of genetic bases = Super cool) is a film set in the not to distant future, where eugenics and genetic modification (designer babies) are widespread and encouraged. Via bio-metrics to classify natural births as “In-valids” and artificial births as “valids”, all of society is controlled by genotype profiling, resulting in valids getting good jobs while in-valids are regulated to menial jobs. The story follows Vincent Anton Freeman, an in-valid that impersonates a valid (a donor named Jerome, whom is a paralysed swimmer), eventually getting to go on a deep space mission with Gattaca, the company he works for. All of this provides an interesting critical look into what could well be our future; designer babies are mere regulations away with the advent of CRISPR, with many institutions looking into the practical side of creating such babies coming up against detractors that claim the act as immoral and inhumane.
Video game: Shadowrun Returns (2013)/Shadowrun: Dragonfall (2014)/Shadowrun: Hong Kong (2015)
I have to admit, the setting for Shadowrun is super cool. A cyberpunk world where magic has returned, bringing with it a multitude of different races and beings, such as elves and dragons. The setting has a much stronger blend of these themes than the earlier mentioned Mahouka; while Mahouka has science fiction elements and magic, magic is more of an extension of science, and much of the other science fiction elements play second fiddle to the magic. Not so with Shadowrun. The mechanics of the games, rooted in the pen & paper RPG system of the same name, allows players to mix and match as they like, and various forms of transhuman power can be used together to form the player’s character. This level of depth allows for much greater player expression, a more vividly contrasting form of transhumanism, and far greater replayability. This level of player authority allows them to more deeply engage with the world, and thus the themes, and that’s something that I want to take into account going forward.
Video game: Cyberpunk 2077 (Upcoming, TBA)
Now, bare in mind, this game is not out yet, and what I’m basing this all off is a few trailers and that absolutely amazing gameplay reveal. However, what we already know is super cool, and more than enough to look at the transhumanism thats been shown so far. The game is set, obviously, in 2077, in Night City. The game is, again obviously, set within a Cyberpunk dystopia where the people are controlled by the corporations, and various enhancements such as massive mechanical blades in prosthetic arms. This is probably one of the most classic interpretations of Transhumanism, but the amount of different ways that the game utilises transhumanism even in the trailers alone gives the players so many different options for interacting with the game and with transhumanism.
Video game Series: Halo (2001-current)
Ah, yes. The Halo series. One of my long time favourites, the series focuses on humanity in the 26th century, more specifically on genetically enhanced supersoldiers known as Spartans. Fighting the Covenant and Forerunner forces, players play as one of these Spartans – for the most part Master Chief – and fights through the campaign. It should already be clear, but the transhumanism in this story is all around these Spartans, and their enhancements. They are modified with genetic enhancements to give them super strength and speed, and interfaces with their advanced MJOLNIR armour, which further enhances their abilities. It’s all pretty standard, but what’s interesting – and dark – is the backstory for one generation of Spartans, the Spartan-II program. For this program, hundreds of children between 4-6 years old, replacing them in the middle of the night with flash-clones that usually only live for a few months at most. Many candidates died during the enhancement process, and some became disabled and disfigured by the procedure. All of this makes the backstory much more interesting to look into, and makes the world so much more rich, while also providing an interesting angle of transhumanism – forced transhumanism.
Anime/Manga: Blame! (Manga: 1998 Anime Film: 2017)
Blame! is an interesting story, to say the least. Barely any dialogue, whole chapters of the manga with only Killy, the main protagonist, moving through the world of Blame! at his own pace (well, and killing the robotic antagonists, Safeguard when they turn up). It’s a good read, in my opinion, but if you had to pick, the anime film should be your pick. It has everything that is good about Blame!, but condensed and refined to bring out the best in the narrative. Also, epic animated laser beams of doom. Pick them every time. Blame! is a story about humans that have become the hunted, and Silicon Life (guess why its called that) & Safeguard control a massive, ever expanding city that encompasses the solar system (one room alone was the size of Jupiter alone, and the structure reaches all the way from Earth to at least Jupiter’s planetary orbit for a radius of around 5.2 AU, or 778,547,200 km). While humans used to control it via a special gene, its been lost to time, and the Safeguard, robotic wardens of the control mechanisms, have become corrupted, hunting any and all human without the gene as illegal residents. The story follows Killy, a human on the hunt for someone with the gene, and Cibo, a cyborg scientist who attempted to artificially create the gene in the past, but was nearly killed by the Safeguard. Following after them is Safeguard Sanakan, a human form Safeguard tasked with hunting down humans. The main transhumanism in this story is twofold – on the one hand, you’ve got characters like Cibo, whom have cybernetic modifications or replacements (in fact, and only her mind is a natural human), but you also have what happens towards the end of the manga, where due to various circumstances Cibo ends having Sanakan’s child. Don’t ask, it’s a long explanation that isn’t important. The child has the gene and by taking it to a safe place in the city the child saves the humans from Safeguard. The transhumanism is laid in thick in this story, and all of Tsutomu Nihei’s work. There’s a lot of elements here, but the various different elements are all interesting. I’d like to explore some, such as all of the possibilities that these elements offer.
One thing that this research has made clear is that one of the most common forms of transhumanism within fiction is via the Cyberpunk genre, where cybernetic alterations are the norm in society and are often part of the main conflict of the narrative. This genre is usually set within a futuristic dystopia, where most people’s freedoms have been suppressed or completely lost to either the government, corporations or an outside factor, such as Blame!’s Safeguard system. While I like the idea of Cyberpunk as something to play and experience, I feel that it isn’t where I want to take the narrative of the project, but some of the aspects of Cyberpunk will help inform ideas. I also found that in most stories outside of Cyberpunk fiction, the theme of transhumanism was less at the for front, which I’d like to change.
While researching into fictional examples and types of transhumanism, I also researched 2 artists that had transhumanism as a core component of their works. These two artists were Tsutomu Nihei, a manga artist whose works all use transhumanism as intrinsic parts of his narratives, and Josan Gonzalez, an artist Adam showed me whose work features strong visual narrative and a more contemporary use of colour, with much more vibrant, striking colours instead of the usual greys, blues and blacks that most cyberpunk works have from my memory. This is something that I personally love; Josan’s artstyle is super unique, and the use of colours allows the Cyberpunk visuals to tell a different story and have a different feel, without massively changing much else. I really want to experiment with colours in whatever game I end up working on for semester 2, as art like this really shows what colour can do for feel and visual narrative.
Here’s the presentation that I presented at the end of this phase, covering a sample of the different narratives that I looked into: transhumanism theme presentation richard wintle
R. Wintle FMP Semester 1 