This course explores aliens as metaphors, the politicized relationships between humanity and AI, how technology and science redefine the human race, and how ideas associated with the human body are reconceptualized or destabilized. We will examine these themes as represented in films and short stories. Science fiction media allows us to imagine the ways that technology will perpetuate the continuation of the human race, while at the same time they impel us to question the biological, gender, and sexual boundaries between human and non-human or virtual species. Through these narratives, we consider the transcending power and limitations of science and technology in envisioning humanity’s future and ask what constitutes the essence of the human species in a post-human world.

Upon completion of this course, students will:
1. Demonstrate a fair understanding of the representations of human—non-human relationships in key texts
2. Enhance critical thinking and analytical reasoning skills
3. Demonstrate adequate written and oral communication skills within various formal and informal circumstances.

This course explores aliens as metaphors, the politicalized relationships between humanity and AI, how technology and science redefine the human race, and how ideas associated with the human body are reconceptualized or destabilized. We will examine these themes as represented in films and short stories. Science fiction media allows us to imagine the ways that technology will perpetuate the continuation of the human race, while at the same time they impel us to question the biological, gender, and sexual boundaries between human and non-human or virtual species. Through these narratives, we consider the transcending power and limitations of science and technology in envisioning humanity’s future and ask what constitutes the essence of the human species in a post-human world.

Upon completion of this course, students will:
1. Demonstrate a fair understanding of the representations of human—non-human relationships in key texts
2. Enhance critical thinking and analytical rationalizing skills
3. Demonstrate adequate written and oral communication skills within various formal and informal circumstances.

Ken Liu, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, Saga Press, 2016 (selected stories)
Philip K. Dick, "The Little Black Box", "Human Is", "The Father-Thing"(short stories)
Arthur C. Clark, 2001: A Space Odyssey (selected chapters), "The Sentinel" (short story)
Ted Chiang, Stories of Your Life (selected stories)
Dona Haraway. Cyborg Manifesto.

Films:
The Man Who Fell to Earth
2001: A Space Odyssey
Blade Runner
Ex Machina

Ken Liu, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, Saga Press, 2016 (selected stories)
Philip K. Dick, "The Little Black Box", "Human Is", "The Father-Thing"(short stories)
Arthur C. Clark, 2001: A Space Odyssey (selected chapters), "The Sentinel" (short story)
Ted Chiang, Stories of Your Life (selected stories)
Dona Haraway. Cyborg Manifesto.

Films:
The Man Who Fell to Earth
2001: A Space Odyssey
Blade Runner
Ex Machina