COMPLEX FEEDBACK LOOPS OF TECHNOSCIENCE, LITERATURE, AND CULTURE: DYNAMICS OF THE COMPLEXITY PARADIGM IN SCIENTIFIC FICTION A Dissertation by HO RIM SONG Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY August 2010 Major Subject: English Complex Feedback Loops of Technoscience, Literature, and Culture: Dynamics of the Complexity Paradigm in Scientific Fiction Copyright 2010 Ho Rim Song COMPLEX FEEDBACK LOOPS OF TECHNOSCIENCE, LITERATURE, AND CULTURE: DYNAMICS OF THE COMPLEXITY PARADIGM IN SCIENTIFIC FICTION A Dissertation by HO RIM SONG Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Approved by: Chair of Committee, Sally Robinson Committee Members, M. Jimmie Killingsworth Mary Ann O‘Farrell Michael Hand Head of Department, M. Jimmie Killingsworth August 2010 Major Subject: English iii ABSTRACT Complex Feedback Loops of Technoscience, Literature, and Culture: Dynamics of the Complexity Paradigm in Scientific Fiction. (August 2010) Ho Rim Song, B.A., Pukyong National University; M.A., Pusan National University; M.A., Kansas State University Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Sally Robinson This dissertation explores the emergence of the complexity paradigm in our technoscience culture and proposes ―scientific fiction‖ as a genre of cultural studies based on that paradigm. Throughout this dissertation, I use the terms and concepts of complexity theory developed by new science, which revises the reductionism and linearity of classic science. The complexity paradigm signifies a system of all knowledge that conceives the productivity and creativity of the complexity created by interconnective and interactive dynamics among and within systems. As a literary response to the complexity paradigm, scientific fiction emphasizes the productivity and creativity of the complexity, offering the possibility of the human‘s co-evolution with technoscience. These characteristics of scientific fiction help articulate new ontological, ethical, and aesthetic visions for the posthuman. This dissertation ultimately highlights iv the strong feedback loops of technoscience, literature, and culture, which promote the complexity paradigm. By comparing Pat Cadigan‘s Synners as a scientific fiction novel and William Gibson‘s Neuromancer as a representative postmodern science fiction novel, Chapter II presents the defining characteristics of scientific fiction, reconfiguring humanity in relation to the technoscience environment. Furthermore, analyzing Greg Bear‘s Blood Music, the chapter claims that the human subject is an adaptive, self-organizing, interconnective system. Grounded in such understandings of humanity and subjectivity, the next chapter examines Marge Piercy‘s He, She and It to offer a new ethical perspective, or the complexity ethics, which establishes the interconnective and interactive relationship between the human and the technological as an evolutionary partner. The complexity ethics describes human behaviors and thoughts in our technoscience culture rather than prescribing a moral guideline. Next, in investigating Shelley Jackson‘s Patchwork Girl, a hypertext novel that rewrites Mary Shelley‘s Frankenstein, Chapter IV explores a new aesthetics appreciating the creativity of the complexity produced by interconnective and interactive dynamics. Finally, through the analyses of the scientific fiction novels, this dissertation suggests that scientific fiction is a transdisciplinary field that can offer new cultural visions. v DEDICATION To my father and my mother vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express the deepest thanks and appreciation to my advisor Dr. Sally Robinson, whose persistent encouragement and support helped me finish this dissertation. The dissertation might not have been possible without her thought- provoking questions and insightful comments. Through her advice, I also learned how to question my own thoughts and better express my own ideas, tools that have enriched my scholarship. I have been absolutely fortunate to have her as my advisor. I also thank my committee members: Dr. Jimmie Killingsworth, Dr. Mary Ann O‘Farrell, and Dr. Michael Hand. I am very grateful to Dr. Killingsworth for his interests in my dissertation and his cheerful encouragement. His knowledge of and insight into ―complexity‖ helped me have confidence in my ideas. I also would like to express thanks to Dr. O‘Farrell, who recommended and lent books that I needed to sharpen my ideas about body. I also appreciated her insightful comments about gender and technoscience. I thank Dr. Michael Hand, who introduced a variety of interesting science fiction novels and texts of science studies to me. His encyclopedic knowledge helped me expand my academic interests. I must also acknowledge my colleagues and friends with whom I share memories and experiences here at Texas A&M as well as old friends in my home country, whose unchanging love for me kept me grounded. Without their friendship and support, I could not have survived. Although I cannot name all of them here, I hope they know how much I love and thank them. vii I would like to give special thanks to the Waddells: Carol, Lynn, and Shen. They are not only my friends but family. Through their unconditional kindness and genuine interest in me, they proved that cultural differences are not a barrier to understanding and loving people. Their constant support and hospitality kept me strong. Finally and most importantly, my greatest thanks must go to my family. My parents, sisters, and brother are part of my soul. Their endless love for me and belief in my work make me go forward. I am deeply grateful especially to my late father, who passed away while I was writing this dissertation. I was his always-loving daughter, and I am sure he would have been happy with my achievement because in life he let me know that this dream of mine was his dream for me, too. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................... iii DEDICATION ............................................................................................................... v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................... vi CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION: THE EMERGING COMPLEXITY PARADIGM, COMPLEXITY THEORY, AND SCIENTIFIC FICTION .................. 1 1.The Emerging Network Culture and the Complexity Paradigm ........................................................................................ 1 2. Complexity Theory: A Complex Marriage of Science and Cultural Studies ............................................................................ 7 3. Feedback Loops between Science/Technology, Literature, and Culture .................................................................................... 16 4. Scientific Fiction: Novel Perspectives of the New Paradigm ..... 21 II THE POSTHUMAN CONDITION AND SELF-ORGANIZING SUBJECTIVITY IN THE COMPLEXITY PARADIGM .................... 26 1. The Complexity of the Posthuman Condition in Synners: Postmodern Cyberpunk Vs. Complex Scientific Fiction ........... 36 a. Technology ............................................................................... 39 b. Synner and Complexity ........................................................... 48 c. Synner, the ―Bastard Offspring‖ of Machinic Phylum .......... 63 2. The Distributed Subject and Nanovision: The Assembled Individual Subject in the Superorganism ..................................... 75 a. Nanovision and the Machinic Process of the Superhuman .............................................................................. 79 b. The Distributed Subject and Agency of Self-Organization ... 89 III THE COMPLEXITY OF THE TECHNOLOGICAL MONSTER AS THE HOPEFUL OTHER: ETHICS OF DYNAMIC ONTOLOGY.... 106 1. Genealogy of Artificial Monsters: Yod‘s Interconnection with Prior Monstrous Others ................................................................. 120 ix CHAPTER Page 2. Ethics of Relationality: The Human‘s Encounter with the Asymmetrical Other ...................................................................... 132 3. Posthuman Partnership: Non-anthropocentric Sense of Interconnection .............................................................................. 141 IV THE COMPLEXITY OF ELECTRONIC LITERATURE: HYPERTEXTUALITY AND POSTHUMAN AESTHETICS ............ 156 1. Electronic Literature: Aesthetic Potentials of Technoscience ............................................................................. 159 2. The Hypertextual Aesthetics of Networking Heterogeneous Parts ............................................................................................. 175 3. Distributed Authorship: The Complex Network between Writer, Text, Medium, and Reader in Hypertextuality ............. 187 V CONCLUSION: SCIENTIFIC FICTION AS A COMPLEX SYSTEM ......................................................................... 205 WORKS CITED ........................................................................................................... 211 VITA............................................................................................................................... 229 1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION: THE EMERGING COMPLEXITY PARADIGM, COMPLEXITY THEORY, AND SCIENTIFIC FICTION 1. The Emerging Network Culture