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Ayn Rand and the Posthuman is a study of the American novelist's relationship with twenty-first-century ideas about technology. Rand wrote science fiction that has inspired Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, politicians, and economists. Ben Murnane demonstrates Rand's connection to, and impact on, those with a "posthuman" vision, in which human and machine merge. The text examines the philosophical intersections between Rand's philosophy of Objectivism and posthumanism, and Rand's influence on transhumanism, a major branch of posthumanist thought. The book further investigates Rand's presence and portrayal in various examples of posthumanist science fiction, including Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, popular videogame BioShock, and Zoltan Istvan's novel The Transhumanist Wager. Considering Rand's influence from a cultural, political, technological, and economic perspective, this study throws light on an under-documented but highly significant aspect of Rand's legacy.
List of contents
Chapter 1: Introduction: A Posthuman Objective.- Chapter 2: Points of Entry.- Chapter 3: The Posthuman and the Objectivist.- Chapter 4: Rand Noir vs Rand Incorporated.- Chapter 5: Objectivism in BioShock .- Chapter 6: Howard Roark, John Galt, and The Transhumanist Wager .- Chapter 7: Afterword: The Mind-Made Future.
About the author
Ben Murnanewas born in 1984. He is the author of a memoir,
Two in a Million (2008), and a collection of poetry,
Feather Silence(2010), and has written for several newspapers and academic publications. He completed his PhD at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland in 2016.
Summary
Ayn Rand and the Posthuman is a study of the American novelist’s relationship with twenty-first-century ideas about technology. Rand wrote science fiction that has inspired Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, politicians, and economists. Ben Murnane demonstrates Rand’s connection to, and impact on, those with a “posthuman” vision, in which human and machine merge. The text examines the philosophical intersections between Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism and posthumanism, and Rand’s influence on transhumanism, a major branch of posthumanist thought. The book further investigates Rand’s presence and portrayal in various examples of posthumanist science fiction, including
Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda, popular videogame
BioShock, and Zoltan Istvan’s novel
The Transhumanist Wager. Considering Rand’s influence from a cultural, political, technological, and economic perspective, this study throws light on an under-documented but highly significant aspect of Rand’s legacy.
