Artificial intelligence in science fiction as a model of the posthuman situation of mankind

The article focuses on the way in which science fiction genre and scientific texts alike model the ideas of Western culture concerning the functioning of the human mind (brain or intelligence), its knowability, and the probability of its successful simulation. The most problematic issue arising is that this kind of text rests both on the idea of absolute knowability of the human mind (thus stepping outside the "strange loop" defined by Douglas Hofstadter) and on the belief in the possibility of creating such an artificial live system that would reconstruct exactly this "loop". The article sees the distinction between scientific and literary texts concerning artificial intelligence as problematic - the resulting "hybridity" is further employed and enhanced in connection with theories regarding "the posthuman". Building upon the theories of autopoietic (self-referential) systems, the article concludes with an outline of a "theory of hybrid reading".