CARE TECHNOLOGIES AS A RELATIONAL PRACTICE IN ALEXANDER WEINSTEIN’S “SAYING GOODBYE TO YANG” AND JEFF LEMIRE AND GABRIEL WALTA’S SENTIENT
Keywords:
care, artificial intelligence, poshumanism, science fiction, assistive roboticsAbstract
ABSTRACT: Through an analysis of the short story “Saying Goodbye to Yang” by the American writer Alexander Weinstein and the comic Sentient by the Canadian writer Jeff Lemire and the Spanish cartoonist Gabriel Walta—both of which depict the construction of care via technology in a context of profound technosocial transformation of the human—this paper examines the delegation of affective and educational functions to artificial intelligences designed or adapted to replace parental figures. In doing so, it exposes the ethical, political, and ontological tensions inherent in a world where the boundaries between humans and technological devices are increasingly blurred. Drawing on feminist and technopolitical theoretical frameworks, the analysis explores the implications of outsourcing care to artificial systems that reproduce or challenge hierarchies of gender, race, and class, and reflects on the possibilities for agency, autonomy, and reciprocity in relationships mediated by technology
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