Power and limits of implants in some news g. Egan
Puissance et limites des implants dans quelques nouvelles de G. Egan
Résumé
A wide range of prosthetic transformations, based on biotech or techno-informatics infrastructures, is staged in Egan's work. But Egan's originality is in the critical questioning he introduces into the prosthetic experience: deliberately rejecting the common places of posthumanity, avoiding the ease of futuristic expectations, the narratives are more modestly of " reasonable extrapolations" leading the reader to speculate on choices whose consequences he does not spontaneously measure. Thus, Egan does not restrict the effect of the prosthesis to the only local modification of the replaced function, but extends it to the resulting overall modification. The news chosen for this contribution focuses on the case of the radical transformations that implants, especially neuronic implants, contribute to produce in a time of humanity where they are becoming widespread:
"The whole point of the negative implants was in modifying the brain, allowing the user to access mental states, skills or beliefs that he would never have been able to achieve otherwise.... There was not a single neural function, no matter how sacred or mundane, that an implant could not shape according to the user's requirements" (Fidelity, in Oceanic, p. 385)
The question then arises whether the implant does not radically change what it is made for, by generating counterproductive, even unnatural, anti-improvement effects, which it has the function of introducing? The implant creates a universe that, in the end, can backfire on the primary intention, a situation that leads to a reassessment on a non-technological register of its social, moral and human significance. If the implants are associated with an increase in power that they seem to give us, the resulting consequences may call into question these benefits, thus exceeding the technological performance alone. Thus, the new "Fidelity" raises the question of whether an implant can guarantee, against the uncertainty of love engagement, a lifetime fidelity, thus removing the very essence of love feeling.
Do implants give real power to a human who wants to change without limits? Isn't the imaginary experience of them in fictional scenarios an opportunity to free themselves from an illusory power that masks the ethical and even metaphysical issues linked to the demands of the human condition? If implants seem to be associated with a new power that it seems to transmit to us, on the other hand the resulting consequences can call into question these benefits, by putting them on a non-technological register, which we will call anthropological .
Un questionnement anthropologique Une vaste palette des transformations prothétiques, à base d'infrastructures biotechnologiques ou techno-informatiques est mise en scène dans l'oeuvre d'Egan. Mais l'originalité de Egan est dans le questionnement critique qu'il introduit dans l'expérience prothétique : rejetant délibérément les lieux communs de la posthumanité 1 , évitant la facilité des anticipations futuristes, les récits sont plus modestement des « extrapolations raisonnables » amenant le lecteur à spéculer sur des choix dont il ne mesure pas spontanément les conséquences. C'est ainsi que Egan ne restreint pas l'effet de la prothèse à la seule modification locale de la fonction remplacée, mais l'étend à la modification globale qui en résulte. Les nouvelles choisies pour cette contribution portent sur le cas des transformations radicales que les implants, particulièrement les implants neuroniques, contribuent à produire dans une période de l'humanité où ils se généralisent : 1 La mythologie théologique de la singularité de Vernor Vince est dénoncé dans J-G. Ganascia (2017) LE MYTHE DE LA SINGULARITE, Faut-il craindre l'intelligence artificielle, Seuil.
Domaines
Sciences de l'Homme et Société
Origine : Fichiers produits par l'(les) auteur(s)
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