TRANSHUMANISM AND THE ANTHROPOCENE IN BECKY CHAMBERS’ A CLOSED AND COMMON ORBIT

Abstract

Transhumanism has been rising in both popularity and influence on western societies and philosophical thought. Dreams of mind transfer, immortality, or cloning as well as the fear of sentient and intelligent artificial intelligence (AI) can be traced in some of Netflix’s most popular series such as Altered Carbon (2018), from the novel by Richard K. Morgan, or Orphan Black (2013), to mention just a few. Similarly, transhumanism may be spotted in Becky Chambers’ fiction. The novel analysed in this paper, A Closed and Common Orbit (2016), a sequel in the author’s Wayfarers series, explores the possibility of cloning human bodies, the production of sentient AI, and the subsequent ethical implications of both science fiction tropes. Far from showing transhumanism as a miracle solution to limitations in human bodies and capacity to avoid climate change, the text presents the suspicions and fears transhumanism may raise in the USA. This article provides evidence of how the Anthropocene and transhumanism operate in Becky Chambers’ novel, the ethical effects concerning intrinsic and extrinsic values and their possible subversion through a posthumanist alliance under the Anthropocene.