Identity Crisis in Postmodern Society — On Romance Between Human and Artificial Intelligence in Her

Journal: Arts Studies and Criticism DOI: 10.32629/asc.v2i4.531

Tianyun Wang

Adecco Personaldienstleistungen GmbH, Munich 81245, Germany

Abstract

With the advances of science and technology, artificial intelligence has become a part of our daily life. The 2014 film Her tells a romance story between a human and artificial intelligence operating system. The story unfolds as main character Theodore gradually develops doubts towards nature of his AI lover and himself as a human being. The article writes that this film is about identify crisis in our everyday life. Using postmodern theories, this article analyses the scripts and mise-en-scène of the film and discusses the identity crisis of the main character. In the end, the article points out that, just like individuals in the postmodern reality, the identity crisis of main character derives from the cyberspace new norms that boundaries between men and women, human and machines are blurred. It is an end of dichotomy self-identification. Each individual is unique in the postmodern society. The identity should be constructed in the contexts of each individual. 

Keywords

postmodern, artificial intelligence, cultural identity, cyber romance, film studies

References

[1] Bauman, Z. (2000). Liquid Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press.
[2] Bauman, Z. (2001). Consuming Life. Journal of Cosumer Culture, 1(1).
[3] Boparai, D. (2017, October 28). This week, Saudi Arabia granted citizenship to a robot and unveiled plans for a fully autonomous city. Retrieved from dezeen: https://www.dezeen.com/2017/10/28/this-week-architecture-design-news-roundup-saudi-arabia-sophia-robot-citizenship-neom-automated-city/
[4] Haraway, D. (1993). A Cyborg Manifesto. In S. During, The Cultural Studies Reader. London: Routledge.

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