Beyond Ecocidal Futures: Eco-Conscious Possibilities of Simondonian Technicity in Science Fiction

The 21st century is ironically a time of technological advancements and ecological destruction. In the field of literature, science fiction narratives become particularly rich sites to analyse these simultaneously occurring phenomena because they allow us to perceive the complex evolving relationships between humans, technology, and the natural world and their implications for the future. Such evolving relationships are vital to the 20th-century French philosopher Gilbert Simondon’s notion of technicity. In Western philosophy, technicity broadly refers to the evolving relationship between humans and technology – a theme that has developed from the time of Plato and Aristotle to date. However, in this talk, I argue that commonly adopted philosophical approaches to technicity anthropologize technology by considering it only in relation to human beings. In contrast, Simondonian technicity is relatively unique because it acknowledges the active role of the natural world in the evolving human-technology relationship, characterised as it is by mutually constitutive and transformative relationships between humans, technology, and the natural world. I contend that this focus on mutually constitutive relationships makes Simondonian technicity an appropriate analytical lens to speculate about eco-conscious futures in science fiction texts. To illustrate my contention, I analyse these relationships through excerpts from selected science fiction texts to glean eco-conscious implications from them. My overall aim is to show how the given philosophical-literary approach contributes to a much-needed shift in perceiving the co-constitutive relationships between humans and technological forces in more eco-conscious ways.

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Amrita is a third-year PhD candidate from the School of Humanities. Her thesis explores how philosophies of technology can be used to analyse science fiction texts to speculate about potential futures, particularly focusing on Asian imaginaries and their contextual implications. She has presented her research at international conferences such as the Northeast MLA Conference, the Popular Culture Association's Annual Conference, and the American Comparative Literature Association's Annual Conference. In addition, she has recently published a book chapter in the forthcoming Asia Shorts volume Eco-Disasters in Japanese Cinema edited by Dr. Rachel DiNitto.