After Utopia. Hypothesis on the Neoliberal Cyborg Starting from the TV series "Black Mirror"

Abstract

In modern era science and technology represent one of the most important resources for utopian theory, in order to emancipate human beings. At the same time, both literature and media show the possibility of a dystopian reversal, a sort of “perversion”, of technological and scientific projects. The essay intends to consider the issue starting from the tv serie Black Mirror (in particular the first season), in dialogue with the works of Foucault and the cyborg studies of Caronia and Haraway. In this sense, the dystopian transformation of new technologies is deeply linked to techno-nihilistc capitalism (Magatti). It is therefore through the last figure assumed by late capitalism that is possible to understand the dystopian dynamic that new technologies are taking in our imaginary.