The contradictions and complexities of the cyborg therefore hold particular appeal to programme makers of dramatic TV narratives. Bronwen Calvert examines the uses and representations of the cyborg in this ground-breaking text, by looking at its frequent appearance in a wide variety of popular and cult shows: from the iconic Daleks of Doctor Who and bionic female empowerment in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, to the duality of humanoid and distinctly robotic cyborgs in Battlestar Galactica. In doing so, she reveals how television's defining traits shape our experience of cyborgs and help us as viewers to question contemporary issues such as surveillance and terrorism, as well as the function of simulation and ultimately what it means to be human.

This book outlines a new conception of the cyborg in terms of consciousness as the parallax gap between physical and digital worlds. The contemporary subject constructs its own internal reality in the interplay of the Virtual and the Real. Reinterpreting the work of Slavoj Žižek and Gilles Deleuze in terms of the psychological and ontological construction of the digital, alongside the philosophy of quantum physics, this book offers a challenge to materialist perspectives in the fluid cyberspace that is ever permeating our lives. The inclusion of the subject in its own epistemological framework establishes a model for an engaged spectatorship of reality. Through the analysis of online media, digital art, avatars, computer games and science fiction, a new model of cyborg culture reveals the opportunities for critical and creative interventions in the contemporary subjective experience, promoting an awareness of the parallax position we all occupy between physical and digital worlds.

How can art reframe the cyborg origin story as one of hope, transformation, and imperfection while simultaneously displacing Western social constructs and oppressive systems? Based on Donna Haraway and Manfred E. Clynes and Nathan S. Kline, the cyborg can be defined as any living organism (either real or fictional) who incorporates external components—drugs, machine or computer parts, and organic parts—into their body. As a framework, cyborgs offer a way of understanding the challenges and opportunities of contemporary U.S. society and its relationship to technology and nature. In particular, a cyborg framework offers insights into four areas that need to be ethically addressed now and in the future: the human-machine relationship, AI advancements, racial and gender equity, and climate change. First, this detailed TV series proposal views current, evolving, and future social and political concerns in the U.S. through the lens of the cyborg. Second, I address the importance of a TV series as it relates to the cyborg. Third, I analyze Bill Nye the Science Guy, Donna Haraway Reads the National Geographies of Primates, and Chris Marker’s The Owl’s Legacy as formal inspirations for the TV series. Lastly, I center artists, authors, professors, scientists, and philosophers and their work in the TV series synopsis. My TV series uses the power of art and discourse to imagine a potential positive future that embraces the power of racial and gender diversity, ethical integration of AI into society, and a new way of living with Earth’s changing natural processes.

This collection examines the child’s role in contemporary post-apocalyptic films and television.. By exploring the function of child characters within a dystopian framework, this volume illustrates how traditional notions of childhood are tethered to sites of adult conflict and disaster, a connection that often works to reaffirm the “rightness” of past systems of social order.