New forms of authoritarianism, interpretations that envision populism, and inequality have possible future developments sprung up from the core of our from the seeds of the present— contemporary techno-capitalist e.g. Black Mirror (Charlie society—from the US and Brooker, 2011–present), Ex Europe to China. The corporate Machina (Alex Garland, capitalist dynamic has, further, 2014), Interstellar (Christopher comparative cinema comparative generated an unprecedented Nolan, 2014), Humans (Sam crisis of the environmental Vincent and Jonathan Brackley, conditions of society itself, 2015–18), Westworld (Lisa Joy which has led scholars to and Jonathan Nolan, 2016– characterize the current present), The Handmaid’s Tale age as the “capitalocene.” (Bruce Miller, 2017–present), 3% The permanent revolution of (Pedro Aguilera, 2016–present), technological capitalism is or Dragonfly Eyes (Qingting zhi throwing into question the very yan, Xu Bing, 2017). concept of the human, pointing The aim of this special towards a post-human society. issue is to use the tools of The specter of dystopia is cinema to engage some of haunting our social imaginaries engendering new apocalyptic the questions regarding the myths and narratives that have diagnosis of the current crisis of techno-capitalist 5 become even more relevant due to the current global pandemic. society and its consequences: what forms of narrative and And yet, the landscape of representation are used today social imagination is plural in cinema and television to and divided: AI, robotics, account for the present crisis neuroscience, biogenetics, and of techno-capitalism? How do evolutionary theory are breathing technological developments new life into eschatological shape (human) relations? How and salvation myths. In this are current myths (apocalyptic, situation of historical crisis and salvationist, etc.) interpreted openness, filmic imagination and constructed through film, and its capacity to read possible and what is the role of techno- futures into the “signs of times” scientific narratives? How do is a privileged site of experience technological developments and reflection. After the fashion shape the use of power in of postmodern fragmentation contemporary societies? and playful fictionalization, there has been a flourishing of (grand) In her article “When Your narratives drawing on scientific- Motherboard Replaces the technological inventions and Pearly Gates: Black Mirror and socio-historical ideas in order the Technology of Today and to anticipate and reflect the Tomorrow,” Rebecca Anne Peters Editorial in Society Techno-Capitalist Imagining the and Film Television coming post-human society. In considers five episodes from the particular, the predicament of anthology series Black Mirror. capitalist society has generated The article lays out an argument 2020 No. 14 No. for reading the use of the Vol. VIII Vol. a wave of filmic insights and DOI: 10.31009/cc.2020.v8.i14.01 technology within the series as a In her article “Loving the reflection of Christian concepts AI: Captivity and Ownership that haunt Western culture, in Unbalanced Dystopian positing that the specters Relationships,” Ida Marie of these ideas linger in our Schober analyzes what she idealized thinking of the god-like argues has become a trend in powers that technology might the dystopian and science fiction comparative cinema comparative give us. Likewise, these concepts genre of the last years, namely, endure in the persecutory role the depiction of a relationship that technology might play as a between a lonely male human moral enforcer, echoing one of character and a female man- the dimensions of the church made AI one. She concentrates throughout history. To construct on the spatial restrictions that her argument, she considers these AI female characters the episodes in relation to one endure, resorting to recent another and in the context of the psychoanalytic theory applied biblical concepts they mirror— to the visual arts, as well as to drawing from Christian theology Judith Butler’s developments as well as from historical and on the institution of gender through the stylization of bodies, contemporary events. seeing the captivity depicted In “Blaming the Poor: in these films as the blatant The False Allure of the objectification of the female 6 Capitalist Critique in the Age body. While these films are of Postmodernism,” Joseph counterhegemonic in that they Walderzak discusses the warn us of unsupervised creation question of the crisis of of AI, they also reproduce the capitalism by focusing on patriarchal distribution of space three class-conscious films that has primordially functioned from recent years: The Dark in the past. Knight Rises (Christopher “Foreshadowing the Future Nolan, 2012), Killing Them of Capitalism: Surveillance Softly (Andrew Dominik, 2012) Technology and Digital Realism and Snowpiercer (Bong Joon- in Xu Bing’s Dragonfly Eyes ho, 2013). These films address (2017)” by Ling Zhang deals with contemporary inequality using surveillance images as they are explicit Marxian imagery. used in Xu’s film without any However, as Walderzak argues manipulation, but not without following Fredric Jameson, in editing and anesthetizing them. treating those issues as mere The result, she argues, is a narrative devices, they display new model of filmmaking only a postmodern aesthetics that possible with contemporary ends up reducing antagonistic developments of digital discourses to residual forms technology and media. Zhang Editorial in Society Techno-Capitalist Imagining the and Film Television of history, preventing any truly reflects on the technological transformative discourse mediations of informational oppositional to ruling class capitalism’s present and future. 2020 No. 14 No. Her goal is to show that the Vol. VIII Vol. values. DOI: 10.31009/cc.2020.v8.i14.01 film delineates the contours strategies—and the Western of the social imaginary of liberal-democratic model of today’s capitalism, as well capitalism will be part of the as its temporal coordinates. debates on the future of our Surveillance not only connotes societies. This crisis will most the idea of controlling the future, probably nourish a new wave it also affects our relation to of cinematic dystopias and comparative cinema comparative the past, to history. As the utopias.1 current pandemic indicates, the confrontation between the Chinese model of authoritarian Camil Ungureanu, Sonia capitalism—based on AI and Arribas and Rebecca Anne comprehensive surveillance Peters 1/ The editors want to express their gratitude to Albert Elduque for his exceptional work in helping to prepare this special issue. 7 How to quote Ungureanu, Camil, Sonia Arribas and Rebecca Anne Peters. 2020. “Imagining the Techno-Capitalist Society in Television Editorial in Society Techno-Capitalist Imagining the and Film Television and Film”. Comparative Cinema, Vol. VIII, No. 14, pp. 5-7. DOI: 10.31009/ cc.2020.v8.i14.01 2020 No. 14 No. Vol. VIII Vol. DOI: 10.31009/cc.2020.v8.i14.01.