Note on this edition: this is an electronic version of the 1999 book ...

Technodemons of the Digital Self 207evil. The dualistic opposition (between ‘us’ and ‘them,’ or ‘good’ and ‘evil’)is linked with the need to raise boundaries for identity; the questioning ofthis boundary and the problematisation of self/other division is its necessarycounterpart. The demonic features in SF are interesting particularly becausethe rational emphasis associated with the genre leads one to expect a differenttreatment of otherness and selfhood in this “scientific” context. On acloser look, the univocally secular and materialist label of SF starts to wearout. For example, in the popular novels of Arthur C. Clarke, one of theworld’s best-known science fiction writers, science and technology pursueanswers to all humanity’s questions – reaching finally also those that havetraditionally belonged to religion. In Childhood’s End (1953) the first alienshumans confront are demonic in form, but much higher in their developmentof knowledge, morals and technology. The diabolical appearance ofaliens (they are winged and horned like medieval devils) is symbolically connectedwith their painfully transgressive role in the evolution of our species;they have come to lead humans into space, but only the children are capableof responding to the call of the transcendent – the older generation is boundto earth by their rigid structures of thought. 7 The tension between theyoung and the old is articulated with the help of demonic imagery: the futureis in league with the “scientific demons” (whereas the old are captivesof their own superstitious fears). The evolutionary leap is a central motif inClarke; also 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968; directed by Stanley Kubrick,based on Clarke’s earlier short story) carries religious resonance. The blackmonolith that manipulates the early humans into tool-users is a powerfulsymbol of the mythical force that technology exercises in SF. This story alsodepicts how man can leave his earlier limitations by endorsing the dark andfrightening powers of scientific evolution, technology, the unknown – movingtoward a new, god-like selfhood.Science fiction is sensitive and responsive to the promises of scientificand technological progress. Study of its mythical subtext reveals that it alsoexpresses the anxieties inherent in this process. In a collection of articles addressingthe relationship between religion and SF (The Transcendent Adventure,1985) Robert Reilly offers the explosion of the first atomic bomb inHiroshima (1945) as the turning point in our relationship to technology.The deal with technology promised free passage into scientific heaven; butafter this event, darker tones gained increasing prominence. 8 In 2001 theepisode with Hal 9000, the on-board computer, addresses the fears of toomuch intimacy between man and machine – “artificial intelligence” is, after7 Childhood’s End has a special note attached to it: “The opinions expressed in thisbook are not those of the author.” In his article “Immortal Man and Mortal Overlord:The Case for Intertextuality” Stephen Goldman argues that the need to make this ambiguousdismissal of the novel (which opinions? opinions of the characters? or the wholebook if read as a statement?) must have been due to the heavy influence that the intertextconcerning Satan (especially Milton’s Paradise Lost) has on the reader’s reception of it(Yoke - Hassler 1985, 193-208).8Reilly 1985, 4.