Sean McQueen
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781474414371
- eISBN:
- 9781474422369
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474414371.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
This book theorises shifts in and across critical approaches to capitalism, science, technology, psychoanalysis, literature, and cinema and media studies. Analysing a wide range of novels and films, ...
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This book theorises shifts in and across critical approaches to capitalism, science, technology, psychoanalysis, literature, and cinema and media studies. Analysing a wide range of novels and films, the book brings renewed Marxian readings to cyberpunk texts previously theorised by Gilles Deleuze and Jean Baudrillard, and places them at the heart of the emergence of biopunk and its relation to biocapitalism by mapping their generic, technoscientific, libidinal, and economic exchanges. Biocapitalism is the frontline of capitalism today that promises to enrich and prolong our lives and threatens to extend capitalism's capacity to command our hearts and minds. Biopunk is the literature and film of this new space.Less
This book theorises shifts in and across critical approaches to capitalism, science, technology, psychoanalysis, literature, and cinema and media studies. Analysing a wide range of novels and films, the book brings renewed Marxian readings to cyberpunk texts previously theorised by Gilles Deleuze and Jean Baudrillard, and places them at the heart of the emergence of biopunk and its relation to biocapitalism by mapping their generic, technoscientific, libidinal, and economic exchanges. Biocapitalism is the frontline of capitalism today that promises to enrich and prolong our lives and threatens to extend capitalism's capacity to command our hearts and minds. Biopunk is the literature and film of this new space.
Myles W. Jackson
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780262028660
- eISBN:
- 9780262327190
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262028660.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This book uses the story of the CCR5 gene to investigate the interrelationships among science, technology, and society. Mapping the varied ‘genealogy’ of CCR5- intellectual property, natural ...
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This book uses the story of the CCR5 gene to investigate the interrelationships among science, technology, and society. Mapping the varied ‘genealogy’ of CCR5- intellectual property, natural selection, Big and Small Pharma, human diversity studies, personalized medicine, ancestry studies, and race and genomics, this historical study links a myriad of diverse topics. The history of CCR5 from the 1990s to the present offers a vivid illustration of how intellectual property law has changed the conduct and content of scientific knowledge, and the social, political, and ethical implications of such a transformation. Because this gene codes for the HIV-co-receptor, this account explores how Big and Small Pharma alike drew upon state-of-the-art research to come up with a new form of HIV/AIDS treatment. An important mutation of the gene renders its fortunate possesses by and large immune to AIDS. Since this mutation is found in some populations with a much greater frequency than others, the gene also serves as a prime example of how molecular biology has been drawn into debates about race. Finally, this book discusses the relevance of history of science to current science policy issues.Less
This book uses the story of the CCR5 gene to investigate the interrelationships among science, technology, and society. Mapping the varied ‘genealogy’ of CCR5- intellectual property, natural selection, Big and Small Pharma, human diversity studies, personalized medicine, ancestry studies, and race and genomics, this historical study links a myriad of diverse topics. The history of CCR5 from the 1990s to the present offers a vivid illustration of how intellectual property law has changed the conduct and content of scientific knowledge, and the social, political, and ethical implications of such a transformation. Because this gene codes for the HIV-co-receptor, this account explores how Big and Small Pharma alike drew upon state-of-the-art research to come up with a new form of HIV/AIDS treatment. An important mutation of the gene renders its fortunate possesses by and large immune to AIDS. Since this mutation is found in some populations with a much greater frequency than others, the gene also serves as a prime example of how molecular biology has been drawn into debates about race. Finally, this book discusses the relevance of history of science to current science policy issues.
Sean McQueen
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781474414371
- eISBN:
- 9781474422369
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474414371.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
This introductory chapter outlines the theoretical approach with which this volume develops a Marxian, psychoanalytic, and schizoanalytic programme. The foundations for this programme is an overall ...
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This introductory chapter outlines the theoretical approach with which this volume develops a Marxian, psychoanalytic, and schizoanalytic programme. The foundations for this programme is an overall engagement with the science-fictional thought of Deleuze, Baudrillard, and other noted intellectuals who have contributed to science fiction (SF) studies, and the grounds for this engagement is called ‘becoming-Deleuzian’, the transition from late capitalism to biocapitalism, and their cognate expressions, cyberpunk and biopunk. After establishing how Deleuze and Baudrillard will underpin a Marxian analysis of SF, the chapter then goes on to identify the parameters of their contributions to Marxism, and their relationship to SF.Less
This introductory chapter outlines the theoretical approach with which this volume develops a Marxian, psychoanalytic, and schizoanalytic programme. The foundations for this programme is an overall engagement with the science-fictional thought of Deleuze, Baudrillard, and other noted intellectuals who have contributed to science fiction (SF) studies, and the grounds for this engagement is called ‘becoming-Deleuzian’, the transition from late capitalism to biocapitalism, and their cognate expressions, cyberpunk and biopunk. After establishing how Deleuze and Baudrillard will underpin a Marxian analysis of SF, the chapter then goes on to identify the parameters of their contributions to Marxism, and their relationship to SF.
Sean McQueen
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781474414371
- eISBN:
- 9781474422369
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474414371.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
This chapter focuses on Deleuze and Guattari's ‘becoming-animal’. Deleuze and Guattari's animal is one of the specific concepts that attracted Baudrillard's critical attention. His ‘The Animals: ...
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This chapter focuses on Deleuze and Guattari's ‘becoming-animal’. Deleuze and Guattari's animal is one of the specific concepts that attracted Baudrillard's critical attention. His ‘The Animals: Territory and Metamorphoses’ developed a sustained critique of their position. Here, the chapter takes Deleuze and Guattari's thesis that there are three animals — Oedipal, State, and demonic; and far from being a general taxonomy, they are ontological categories defined by the intertwinement of desire, technoscientific experimentation, and investments of capital. This chapter thus establishes the organising theme — contagion. In so doing, it seeks to show how Deleuze and Guattari, as well as Baudrillard and SF acquire a new relevance in biocapitalism.Less
This chapter focuses on Deleuze and Guattari's ‘becoming-animal’. Deleuze and Guattari's animal is one of the specific concepts that attracted Baudrillard's critical attention. His ‘The Animals: Territory and Metamorphoses’ developed a sustained critique of their position. Here, the chapter takes Deleuze and Guattari's thesis that there are three animals — Oedipal, State, and demonic; and far from being a general taxonomy, they are ontological categories defined by the intertwinement of desire, technoscientific experimentation, and investments of capital. This chapter thus establishes the organising theme — contagion. In so doing, it seeks to show how Deleuze and Guattari, as well as Baudrillard and SF acquire a new relevance in biocapitalism.
Sean McQueen
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781474414371
- eISBN:
- 9781474422369
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474414371.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
This chapter recasts Karel Čapek's 1920 play, R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots), as the foundational biopunk text, as it reveals a profound intimacy between capitalism and the life sciences, though ...
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This chapter recasts Karel Čapek's 1920 play, R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots), as the foundational biopunk text, as it reveals a profound intimacy between capitalism and the life sciences, though the play is better known for introducing the term ‘robot’ into SF (derived from the Czech robotá, meaning hard or enforced labour). The play dramatises the simulacral, autonomised organs of the working class, bodies in pieces that (mis)identify with the specular imago of the productivist ego, only to rebel against their bourgeois human creators. This chapter thus situates R.U.R. within the discourse of biopolitics, and explores how its technoscientific inventions make possible a contagious and revolutionary — though ambivalent in denouement — line of flight, thus making it an antecedent to biocapitalism and the bioeconomy.Less
This chapter recasts Karel Čapek's 1920 play, R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots), as the foundational biopunk text, as it reveals a profound intimacy between capitalism and the life sciences, though the play is better known for introducing the term ‘robot’ into SF (derived from the Czech robotá, meaning hard or enforced labour). The play dramatises the simulacral, autonomised organs of the working class, bodies in pieces that (mis)identify with the specular imago of the productivist ego, only to rebel against their bourgeois human creators. This chapter thus situates R.U.R. within the discourse of biopolitics, and explores how its technoscientific inventions make possible a contagious and revolutionary — though ambivalent in denouement — line of flight, thus making it an antecedent to biocapitalism and the bioeconomy.
Anne Whitehead
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780748686186
- eISBN:
- 9781474438728
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748686186.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter takes up the question of empathy’s intersection with medicine in the era of biocapitalism. The first section, ‘Emotional capital’, considers the concept of emotional capitalism; a ...
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This chapter takes up the question of empathy’s intersection with medicine in the era of biocapitalism. The first section, ‘Emotional capital’, considers the concept of emotional capitalism; a culture in which emotional and economic practices mutually shape and constitute each other. Drawing on Sianne Ngai’s analysis of ugly feelings, I read Kazuo Ishiguro’s representation of narrative voice in Never Let Me Go not as affectless, but as symptomatic of what happens when emotion is placed in the service of the marketplace. The second section, ‘Life stories’, moves on to the question of cloning, asking what kinds of life stories are produced in and through biotechnological interventions and arguing for Ishiguro’s interest in their political, as well as social and ethical, implications. ‘Ishiguro and biopolitics’ addresses the novel’s treatment of the global organ trade, asking how models of flow and exchange affect the capacity to care for others. The final section, ‘Empathy and art’, probes Ishiguro’s critical treatment as art as a vehicle for empathy, arguing that empathy becomes, in his vision, the ultimate realisation of the neoliberal subject.Less
This chapter takes up the question of empathy’s intersection with medicine in the era of biocapitalism. The first section, ‘Emotional capital’, considers the concept of emotional capitalism; a culture in which emotional and economic practices mutually shape and constitute each other. Drawing on Sianne Ngai’s analysis of ugly feelings, I read Kazuo Ishiguro’s representation of narrative voice in Never Let Me Go not as affectless, but as symptomatic of what happens when emotion is placed in the service of the marketplace. The second section, ‘Life stories’, moves on to the question of cloning, asking what kinds of life stories are produced in and through biotechnological interventions and arguing for Ishiguro’s interest in their political, as well as social and ethical, implications. ‘Ishiguro and biopolitics’ addresses the novel’s treatment of the global organ trade, asking how models of flow and exchange affect the capacity to care for others. The final section, ‘Empathy and art’, probes Ishiguro’s critical treatment as art as a vehicle for empathy, arguing that empathy becomes, in his vision, the ultimate realisation of the neoliberal subject.
