CYBERSPACE AND THE POST-CYBERPUNK DECENTERING OF ANTHROPOCENTRISM A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES OF GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN ENGLISH BY THOMAS LEE, B.A. WASHINGTON, DC MARCH 4, 2016 Copyright 2016 by Thomas Lee All Rights Reserved ii CYBERSPACE AND THE POST-CYBERPUNK DECENTERING OF ANTHROPOCENTRISM Thomas Lee, B.A. Thesis Advisor: Christopher A. Shinn, Ph.D. ABSTRACT The sub-genre of science fiction known as “cyberpunk” has been subject to varying degrees of criticism, questioning the cyberpunk movement's success in its resistance to late capitalism. Neil Easterbrook, among others, alleges that the cyberpunk movement eventually faded, and criticism on the movement has since dismissed the movement's relevance to literary studies. This thesis seeks to examine the extent of this criticism on one of the cyberpunk movement's introductions to science fiction: cyberspace. This thesis argues that the cyberpunk movement still continues through the trope of cyberspace, and its envisioning of cyberspace within the genre of science fiction has expanded beyond the scope of the cyberpunk movement's focus on capitalism, ultimately decentering this narcissistic fixation on Earth and, thus, envisioning a future for humanity beyond the Earth. Chapter one analyzes two of the cyberpunk movement's representative works, William Gibson's Neuromancer and Mamoru Oshii's Ghost in the Shell, in order to examine their construction of cyberspace under the original goals of the cyberpunk movement, an imagined site of materialist resistance. Chapter two investigates how a novel from radical hard science fiction, Greg Egan's Diaspora, decenters the anthropocentrism of cyberspace to claim a different kind of material space for the posthuman. These two chapters culminate in the argument that cyberspace in Chinese science fiction, exemplified by Cixin Liu's The Three-Body Problem, engages in a historical argument that bridges the cyberpunk movement iii and radical hard science fiction, and outside of Chinese science fiction, cyberspace distances its subjects from Earth. The aim of this thesis project is to survey science fiction works during and after the cyberpunk movement in order to construct an overarching narrative on the cyberpunk movement's influence in promoting discussion on cyberspace and posthumanism. iv The research and writing of this thesis is dedicated to my mother, Laura Kim, who has always supported me despite not going to medical school, and to Professor Shinn and Professor Hochman, whose dedication and support I will never forget. Many thanks, THOMAS K. LEE v TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction...................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: The Problems of Cyberpunk's Cyberspace..................................................... 7 Chapter 2: Information and the Post-Human in a Post-Cyberpunk Cyberspace............ 27 Chapter 3: Cyberspace, History, and Authority............................................................. 42 Epilogue.......................................................................................................................... 59 Bibliography................................................................................................................... 63 vi INTRODUCTION The term “cyberspace” has enjoyed a popularity in audiences since the 1980s when William Gibson published his short story, “Burning Chrome.” Since its publication, readers of science fiction have reveled in the imaginative landscapes of cyberspace that writers have portrayed in their many names and forms: the matrix, the grid, and the Net, among others. For science fiction writers who grew up in the emerging digital age, writing about a cybernetic world that is within their grasp, compared to the outer reaches of the solar system, was both intriguing and more relevant to humanity's increasing dependence on the emerging science of nanotechnology. The exploration of space in Arthur C. Clarke's works or the colonization of Mars in Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles seemed so distant compared to the promise of a digital space that was accessible to anyone. The subject of cyberspace, in light of this popularity, has been under the scrutiny of scholars since its inception: Fredric Jameson and Scott Bukatman, for instance, have taken strides into labeling cyberspace as a postmodern space or even a space which contrasted the “object-world of late commodification” (Jameson 384). Indeed, cyberspace, as the cyberpunk movement had conceptualized it, became the rallying point for a resistance to then-contemporary trends and politics. Even now, the term “cyberspace” connotes a digital realm that is both alien and infinite with possibilities, and technological innovations seem to make the dream of cyberspace as imagined by science fiction authors closer to reality than ever before. This thesis project considers cyberspace within its literary context: an imagined digital space, separate from material space. 1 Science fiction works since Gibson have incorporated cyberspace in some capacity, and each iteration has produced some form of criticism or insight on the ontology of cyberspace. For example, in the 1999 film The Matrix, humanity is inextricably tied to cyberspace: machines have forced humans into an existence that emulates reality. In this film, the matrix is the site of humanity's imprisonment, and in this case, cyberspace is a problematic space, a “prison that you cannot smell, taste, or touch. A prison for your mind” (Wachowski). The Matrix is not alone in these portrayals of cyberspace; rather, these portrayals have become commonplace in science fiction.1 Cyberspace has been a space for discussion or resistance against issues since the cyberpunk movement of the 1980s. Cyberspace promotes these discussions because cyberspace as a space for resistance in the realm of science fiction markedly differs from the technology that contemporary society has today. That is, cyberspace remains out of grasp in today's society, and the presence of cyberspace as “an alien terrain” (Bukatman 121) in science fiction deserves scrutiny. Directors and writers envision cyberspace as the arena where societal issues are displayed for that scrutiny. So, Neo's situation in The Matrix harkens back to epistemological issues precisely because the matrix is a representation of a philosophical problem that is further complicated with other elements in the film. Since the cyberpunk movement of the 1980s, science fiction writers have staged cyberspace as a space for resistance and for the discussion of contemporary issues. The arena of cyberspace has undergone different iterations over the years, and perhaps the most familiar iteration of cyberspace can be found in the cyberpunk movement, notably Gibson's Neuromancer: “[he] jacked into a custom cyberspace deck that projected his disembodied consciousness into the consensual hallucination that was the matrix” (5). The “consensual 1 Notable examples of cyberspace in recent films include Tron and its sequel, Tron: Legacy. 2 hallucination” of cyberspace is perhaps unsurprisingly suited to be the arena for the issues of urban life. As Bukatman writes, cyberspace “does have its precursors. The notion of a dark and crowded space broken by neon forms and corporate structures is surely not unfamiliar” (121). Indeed, one need only look at the major cities of today's society, New York City, Tokyo, or Los Angeles, to find the precursors of cyberpunk's cyberspace. So, when considering cyberspace in this context, I find it necessary to look at how recent works in science fiction have incorporated cyberspace as a space of resistance that Bukatman or Jameson have theorized. As society continues to develop technologies that bring cyberspace a closer reality, the issues that Bukatman, Jameson, or science fiction writers2 have examined become all the more relevant. Although Neil Easterbrook decidedly states that “cyberpunk is dead” (378), the cyberpunk movement's tropes continue in present-day science fiction. Cyberspace has changed the focus of science fiction narratives, and derivations of cyberspace have become a staple in science fiction. In this thesis project, I argue that since the cyberpunk movement's introduction of cyberspace into the literary landscape of science fiction, science fiction works have used cyberspace as a site of resistance to the anthropocentrism in literature and in doing so, the cyberpunk movement continues its project of resistance through cyberspace. In Chapter One, I examine the cyberpunk movement's use of cyberspace as a tool to resist the neoliberal ideology of the 1980s. This movement, a reaction to neoliberal policies and the increasing influence of corporations, resisted this trend towards globalization and capitalism. These works imagined gritty dystopian futures where the neoliberal policies of the present resulted in a future where society is all but forgotten. Cyberpunk has earned the moniker, “high tech, low society,” for these portrayals. Despite the goals of early cyberpunk writers, the 2 These writers include William Gibson, Neal Stephenson, and Ernest Cline. 3 cyberpunk movement has been criticized for its failure in resisting against the corporate system, but several texts have withstood this criticism: William Gibson's Neuromancer (1984) and Mamoru Oshii's Ghost in the Shell (1995). These works have