Singularity: Changing Currents of Transhumanism, Exploring Cyborg and Extended Reality in Select Films

Abstract

The long-standing human wish to overcome the biological constraints has transformed into an age of technological advancement into enhancement and has resulted in the emergence of transhumanist thinking and the idea of singularity. With developments in artificial intelligence, cybernetics, and extended reality, the line between human and machine is becoming more and more indistinct in the posthuman condition, with identity and cognition being redefined, as well as lived experience. This change, along with its enticing potentials, also poses serious questions about autonomy, morality, and the loss of human essence in hyperreal technological spaces. In these regards, the current study will analyze three science-fiction movies Limitless (2011), Transcendence and RoboCop (2014) that, in turn, will intersect on the issues of cognitive enhancement, artificial intelligence, and cyborg embodiment. In the prism of transhumanism and critical posthumanist theory, the study examines how these films reflect the changes in the dynamics of human consciousness and identity in technologically mediated societies. The analysis of cyborgization and extended reality intersections allows tracking the paradigm shifts in the concepts of existence and agency. Finally, it clears the way to interdisciplinary investigation of the ethical, philosophical, and societal consequences of new technologies in changing the definition of what it means to be human..