Idoru: Subject,Marriage And Utopia Under The Vision Of Posthumanism

Idoru is a Cyberpunk science fiction work,and is also the only work by Cyberpunk Godfather William Gibson to express his positive Utopian imagination,which is rare in the pessimistic,anti-utopian Cyberpunk genre.The novel deconstructs the anthropocentrism and material/mind,real/virtual binary opposition by depicting the fantasy of post-human marriage between human and Artificial Intelligence,and interrogates the complexity and ambiguity of human nature.The novel is full of rebellious emotions and desire of becoming.It uses popular culture as a testing ground to draw a picture of the near future information technology.It responds to the current post-humanist theory and demonstrates the people and their life styles is characterized by an immersive relationship with technology: human beings seems to be increasingly defined by its own technological creations.The technology notions this paper refers are post-humanism-related,referring to emerging technologies that combine organisms to machinery,such as biotechnology and cybernetics,as well as information technologies that pose new challenges to lifestyle and social political forms,such as virtual reality and the Internet.Gibson metaphorizes technology(personalized,gender,and politicized)and considers the relationship between people and technology from the three levels of subjectivity,intimacy,and community politics.The body of this article is divided into three parts.The chapter 1: the theoretical starting point of this paper is the individual's location undergoing constant Re/definition in Posthumanism theory.Technology puts forward specific challenges to the concept of the subjectivity of Western traditional Liberal Humanism,the so-called self-consistent,rational,autonomous individual subjectivity whose identity remains untouched seems to lack applicability at the moment.The Posthuman subjectivity that emerges as a combination of human flesh and information technologies represents categorical fluidity and mobility.Artificial intelligence "Idoru" Rei Toei emerges as a continuous flow of information in cyberspace,the novel regards it as "a new way of human life".However,the affirm of Rei is not in accordance with the traditional Platonic priority of the mind to the body and the Transcendence of virtual reality to reality.On the other hand,Rei Toei,emerges as an embodied informational entity,expresses equal emphasis and entanglement on the duality of materiality/virtuality,corporeal / information,physical/spirituality.Chapter 2: Analysis of the possibility of the Alchemical marriage between Rez and Rei and the possibility of marriage between human and Artificial Intelligence.This part actually challenges the stereotype of gender and brings discussion to the field of ethic through the genderlized technology.Rei is a metaphor for non-human.Through “Alchemical marriage”,Interpersonal connections and alliances between Individuals and groups are realized,thereby summoning a human-machine ethics and human ethics that respects and accommodate heterogeneity.Chapter 3: Gibson compiles Information Technology as a metaphor of Utopia.As a realm of resistance,Cyber Kowloon's Walled City escaped from being commodified is a community that do not subscribe to hierarchical and repulsive thinking.This article critically examines its potential as an effective area of resistance,and analyze the spatial metaphor in the novel and release the social critical meaning of the work.As a metaphor of decentralization,anti-hierarchy,and anarchic social community,Kowloon's Walled City also includes Gibson's occluded,nostalgic,dystopian political tendencies,denying the reality of change,and evading concrete Political issues.Through the reading and analysis of the technical metaphor of the novel and the relationship between human and technology through post-humanism theory,this thesis is not only to explore a beautiful possibility of mutual benefit relationship between human and AI,but also to think carefully about the dilemma technologies bring to human.The prospects and purposes of this paper point to the care and reflection of the current technical reality.I hope to use the text of Idoru and Posthumanism theory as a catalyst to activate the reader's imagination and concern for the present,coping with the challenges and opportunities that technology brings to humanity cautiously and flexibly.