The Dawn is a Xenogenesis story

The Dawn is a Xenogenesis novel that describes the events that occurred during a futuristic third world war in which nuclear bombs were used to end life on Earth. The plot focuses on the relationship between two civilizations. The first civilization is that of Earthly humans. The other civilization is that of Oankali extraterrestrial aliens. The aliens have a sophisticated civilization that is concerned with environmental preservation and sanity. Following the nuclear war that wiped out much of Earth's life, including humans, the Oankali assembled and transported the survivors into their spacecraft. The story depicts Lilith Iyapo who was waking from stasis and realizes that she is an Oankalis spaceship. Lilith learns that she is among the survivors of the nuclear destruction rescued by the Oankali. The Oankali are dynamic, egalitarian, and non-violent species depending who rely on genetic engineering and the gathering of the new genetic materials. The aliens then observed the humans for more than two centuries and realized that the human species had many flaws that can make them destroy any place they inhabit. Surprisingly, the Oankali are willing absorb the humans by mating with them to remove the flaws through the alteration of the genes. The Oankali expect the humanity to join them and heal or live in the sterile form caused by the nuclear battle. Astonishingly, the aliens resolved to prevent humans from procreation to continue the flawed generation. The aliens understand that the intelligence and the desire to establish human hierarchies are the main causes of violence in the human world. The situation presents the surviving human with strict choice of either accepting to mate with the Oankali or go extinct.
Lilith is a black Californian first to receive the aliens’ proposal. The Oankali Jdahya admits Lilith into a training process to familiarize her with the workings of the new environment. At the training scene, the surrounding has green vegetations and calm, which probably signify environmental consciousness. Lilith also receives the company and protection of Nikanj. The association of Lilith and the Oankali makes her act as the mediators between humanity and the aliens. She stays with the Oankali but has a secret plan to escape. Later, the humans conspire to leave the settlements of the aliens, but not knowing the exit route to the Earth. Lilith seemed indoctrinated and adapted to the life of the Oankali. She fears about the exit and tries to persuade others about the escape. She knows that the plan would not succeed. Lilith supports Nikanj in life evolvement and eventually becomes it mate. The relationship between Lilith and Nikanj cause her to bear a human-Oankali child.
Statement of the Problem
It is indisputable that the art is a social science and the artists are social scientists. Most the artistic works reflect common issues, theories, and themes within the contemporary environments. A story like the Dawn by Octavia could have many themes or exhibit a number of social issues. This paper has interest in exploring the way Octavia managed to depict or feature the transhumanism. The concept of transhumanism is important in the currently generation and particularly useful in explaining issues such as the advancing biotechnology and the digital developments that wants to change humanity.
Purpose of the study
The purpose of this study is to analyze Octavia Butler’s book Dawn in relation to the transhumanist themes that are discussed in the book transcendence. The research aims at identifying a pattern or connection between the different aspects highlighted or exemplified on both books. It is an important area of study since it indicates the individual models that need to be used in the society and the identifying factors that need to be adopted across the society accordingly. It indicates a working scope that is matched and developed through indicating the best means of change that can be used in developing similar works in future.
Research Question: how does the transhumanist theme of performance enhancement exhibit in the Octavia Butler’s Dawn story in her book the Transcendence?
Hypothesis: Octavia uses the principle of performance enhancement to develop the main themes and characters that are included in her book
Definition of Terms
Dawn: Dawn is a book by Octavia Butler that tells the story of evolution of mankind after 250 years and how the positioning of humans is compromised by the changes that are identified in the world
Transhumanism: this is the belief that the human race can evolve and become better physically and mentally to move past the present limitations through science and technology
Transcendence: this is the existence or experiences that are beyond the human capabilities and nature that can only be dreamed of. They are in most cases conceptualized and defined through science fiction and are established through individual modptualized and defined through science fiction and are established through individual models and means adopted accordingly.
Evil and Weakness: these are the main characteristics that plague humans in the society and would draw humanity back even when they would be in a position to interact with other transhumant beings.
Literature
The literature review will concern the topics differently. A part of the review will concern the concept of transhumanism and the enhancement of human performance. The other part will be concern the Dawn novel by Octavia. The reason for the separate handling attributes to the fact that there are no authors or articles analyzing the Dawn story using the transhuman concept of performance enhancement.
Livingstone compares the idea of transhumanists with the Nietzsche’s concept of “Superhuman” (5). According to Nietzsche, the times are coming when the “Superhuman” who transcends the values of the human society will become a god that makes himself into own image. Livingstone defines transhumanism as a new pseudo-scientific movement that is gaining popularity and aiming to perfect the psychological and physical form of human beings (5). The eventual goal of transhumanism is to achieve an immortal form realized through the merging of machines and man. Livingstone summarizes the definition by claiming that it is the quest to apply the modern science to augment the potential of humans with the ultimate goal of achieving immortality (5). According to Livingstone, the transhumanism theory has gained expansive use in various arts particularly movies (5). The particular movies are the A Space Odyssey of 2001, the Blade Runner, The Matrix, Avatar, Robocop, Prometheus, and the Limitless. Livingstone analyzes that the Limitless features Cooper Bradley acting as a struggling author, who gains fame and excellence after using nootropic drugs called “smart drugs.” In the Her movie, the idea of transhumanism unravels through the depiction of a character loving an Artificial Intelligence (AI) computer. In another movie, the Transcendence, a character called Depp Johnny is “mind-uploaded” to the computer (Livingstone 5).
The defining facts of transhumanism theme appear in other artistic media. The theme has featured in television shows including the “Ancients of Stargate SG-1 and the Akira and Ghosts in the Shell. It concept of the transhumanism has also occurred in the role-playing games such as the Rifts. Video games such as the Deus Ex, BioShock series, and Halo have depicted the transhumanism agenda (Livingstone 5). In the video games, people create a technology that gives them magical powers that include superhuman strength and telekinesis.
The technological developments are transforming the human life at a rapid speed. The rapid changes are products of the combination of the various technological aspects including the robotics, biotechnology, nanotechnology, and the information and communication technologies. The convergence of the various technological aspects has made human beings to be design projects. Hansell adds that the technological developments have created modern cognitive tools capable of combining the artificial intelligence with the molecular biology, interface technology, and nanotechnology (19). The technological developments can also help in combating diseases, controlling desires, reducing aging, regulating moods, genetic enhancement of human physical and mental capacities, and the management of mental and mood states. Hansell notes that the genetic engineering enables humans to redesign themselves to eliminate limitations and redesign the future people. These abilities are interfering with the evolutionary process (20). Consequently, the new post human will live for extended time with superior cognitive and physical abilities. The new humans will not suffer from pain and the problems of aging and diseases. The nature will not control human activities, but humans will control the nature. Hansell discloses that the advocates and supporters of the post-human moments are the transhumanists (20). Essentially, the above discussions summarize the theme of transhumanism.
Hansell reports that Julian Huxley coined the term transhumanism in 1957 when he advocated for the fulfillment society. The new society will dedicate to the development of human potential and replace the welfare society, the power, and the efficient societies. Huxley used the word transhumanism as an alternative to the “evolutionary humanism” that is the deliberate struggle by humans to transcend themselves entirely. In the process, man is to remain man, but transcend himself by discovering new possibilities for and of human nature. Huxley viewed the transhumanism as the “new attitude of the mind” that would resolve the crisis faced by humanity through the bridging of arts and science and applying science to construct a better world. Huxley believed that the human species would attain a new form of existence different from the current condition, which is from the Peking man. The new form will be fulfilling its destiny in a conscious manner. Hansell reports that Huxley, as the evolutionary zoologist and biologist highlighted the evolving state of human beings and encouraged the sustained adventure of the development of humans with the intentional use of eugenics. In t6he views of Huxley, eugenics is the planning and control of human evolution. The advocates of transhumanism have also inferred to apocalypse that will involve the rupture called “Singularity” that will terminate human existence and allow an autonomous and artificially intelligent species. The new species will compete with humanity. Hansell says that the new Robo Sapiens species will succeed the Homo sapiens as the next level of evolution. Another advocate of transhumanism called Hans Moravec claimed that the current century would not end with the humans as the most superior entity on the Earth. The continued development of the artificial intelligence will lead to mind machines that that will constitute the next evolutionary level. Moravec added that the coming evolution will involve humans transferring their minds into the artificially intelligent robots that are their mechanical progeny. During the 1980s, Max More, also an advocate of transhumanism introduced the doctrine of “extropy” for the continued development of human conditions. More claimed that humans are a transitional stage standing between the animal custom and the post-human future, which is coming through genetic engineering, virtual reality, intelligent agents, intelligence intensifiers, life-extending biosciences, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, molecular nanotechnology, artificial life, and neural networks.