Lacarra Ramirez, Fabrizio (2024) Reading Robots, Making Human: An Examination of Consciousness, Agency, and Programmed Entities in Ex Machina, BioShock, and Soma. Masters thesis, Concordia University.
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Abstract
This thesis uses the analogy of human consciousness as a computer program and its reversal, computer program as human consciousness, as bases for examining the consciousness and moral capacity of programmed entities depicted in popular media. An understanding of the term ‘program’ as it relates to the analogy plays a crucial role in exploring how modern media depictions fit into the analogous history.
My argument is explored through depictions of the analogy found in three major texts. Beginning with Alex Garland’s film Ex Machina, I frame my argument through the film’s interventions with established ideas of consciousness and agency, emphasizing Cartesian mind-body dualism. Following, I introduce two games, Irrational Games’ BioShock and Frictional Games’ Soma, that provide their own interventions to these ideas, introducing an additional variable to the discussion of agency through ludonarrative dissonance.
Using these texts, I argue in favor of moral patiency and agency as indicators of consciousness in both human and artificial subjects. Ex Machina engages with this argument by presenting how moral capacity alters a subject’s quest for freedom. BioShock adds to this argument by having the player experience the protagonist’s inconsistent agency, inspiring them to help the character break from their programming and regain complete control as an agent. Soma reinforces the argument by depicting the quest for freedom as a relentless struggle for agency, rewarding its protagonist with a life in paradise thereafter. These deliberate interrogations of the human-machine distinction invites the audience to embrace programmed entities as moral patients.
| Divisions: | Concordia University > Faculty of Arts and Science > English |
|---|---|
| Item Type: | Thesis (Masters) |
| Authors: | Lacarra Ramirez, Fabrizio |
| Institution: | Concordia University |
| Degree Name: | M.A. |
| Program: | English |
| Date: | 21 March 2024 |
| Thesis Supervisor(s): | Yeager, Stephen |
| ID Code: | 993516 |
| Deposited By: | Fabrizio Lacarra Ramirez |
| Deposited On: | 05 Jun 2024 15:31 |
| Last Modified: | 05 Jun 2024 15:31 |
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