In Octavia Butler's Dawn transhumanism: Scientific utopia or humanistic dystopia?

Abstract

Transhumanism is a 21st century radical movement focusing on the evolution of the humanitythrough advanced technologies or scientific utopia that will lead to humanistic dystopia because theenhanced humanity would be partly ultra beings and partly aliens, robots, androids and other type ofhybrid nonhuman multispecies. Thus, as the human beings through advanced technology form ascientific utopia, they will change humanity into subhuman beings and different species. Namely, astranshumanism intends to reform a better future for humanity that is re-designed with the advancedtechnology, it will lead the path to transitioning humans into trans-beings. Recently, in the literaryworld transhumanism and posthumanism are exponentially growing subjects all around the worldwhich display enhanced human beings and human future either as a utopia or as a dystopia. OctaviaButler's Dawn is one of the literary texts that deals with the future of the human being and focuseson the multispecies Oankali aliens and the trans beings. In Butler's Dawn the protagonist Lilith Iyapoawakens 250 years after the catastrophic nuclear war, on a spaceship of the alien Oankali race thathas the power to reconstruct a new humanity due to their advanced biotechnologies, geneticengineering, and post-human reproduction. Thus, the aim of this study is to analyze Octavia Butler'sDawn in the light of transhumanism that seeks to reform an enhanced life with the advancedscientific utopian perspective but the result will be leading to a dystopian future for humanity.