Coming in 2011: Souls in Science Fiction
December 23, 2010
Following the success of the Religion in Science Fiction serial, I have begun work on a sequel provisionally entitled Souls in Science Fiction. My use of "soul" in this context is deliberate, via a door opened by Douglas Hofstadter, and combines elements from philosophy of mind, metaphysics and theories of personal identity.
The serial will explore and contrast the philosophy of Descartes, David Chalmers, Daniel Dennett, Justin Leiber, John Locke, Mary Midgley, Derek Parfit and others concerning the notion of a "person", "conscious mind" or a "soul" by looking at how these concepts have been portrayed in popular science fiction including Avatar, Dollhouse, Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica, Caprica, Star Trek, Stargate Universe, Doctor Who, 2001: A Space Odyssey and the 1972 films Solaris and Silent Running.
The Souls in Science Fiction serial will commence in Spring 2011.
Can I also suggest Firefly and Moon.
Matt
Posted by: Sandbags | December 23, 2010 at 06:48 PM
Matt: I don't think I'll tackle Firefly, as it doesn't really get under the skin of the issues I want to cover, but Moon is an interesting and relevant example. If I can work it in somewhere, I shall do so. :)
Cheers for the input!
PS: Why does your name appear as "Sandbags?" :-/
Posted by: Chris | December 31, 2010 at 04:47 PM
That's my Twitter ID which I'm using to authenticate to Typepad. Although it's kind of annoying since it doesn't seem to remember that I've done it so I have to keep re-authorising it every time.
Computers eh?
Matt.
Posted by: Sandbags | January 07, 2011 at 01:45 PM