Technoethics in Speculative Fiction: Analyzing the Ethical Implications of Cloning and Artificial Consciousness in Matthew FitzSimmons' Constance
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55737/qjss.v-iv.24270Keywords:
Technoethics, Human Cloning, Artificial Consciousness, Ethical Frameworks in Speculative FictionAbstract
This research study focuses on the ethical dimensions of human cloning and artificial consciousness in the novel Constance by Matthew FitzSimmons, reviewing it through the technoethics framework. Embedding it in "long-range effects" presented by Hans Jonas, Karl-Otto Apel's discourse on ethical responsibility, supplemented by Vittorio Naess' ecological ethics, the study makes a comprehensive evaluation of the identity, autonomy, and the moral risks in advancing biotechnologies. The protagonist, Constance D'Arcy, a human clone who grapples with her fragmented memories, epitomizes the personal crises such technologies induce in clone-human beings. Her struggle, in the backdrop of corporate dominance of Palingenesis on cloning technologies, highlights the dilemmas of the clones about their autonomy, personhood, and social acceptance, reflecting contemporaneous dialectics revolving around the ethical integration of technological "others." The study also emphasizes the role of sci-fi in critiquing social, individual and environmental repercussions of technologies, advocating for the placement of ethical limitations and inclusivity. Although it fills the major gap in current scholarship by offering a focused analysis of the moral, social, and ecological implications of cloning for human beings, it also aims to be a suggestive study for the Pakistani literary criticism landscape, situating English fiction as a literary vehicle highlighting the moral challenges arising out of technological intervention in human affairs, workspace and relationships and specific impacts on identity and society at large for critiques.
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