Living in Technical Legality
Science Fiction and Law as Technology
Published on 4. June 2020
Book
Paperback/Softback
256 pages
978-1-4744-7479-5 (ISBN)
Description
Through detailed readings of popular science fiction, including the novels of Frank Herbert and Octavia E. Butler and television's Battlestar Galactica and Doctor Who, this is the first sustained examination of legality in science fiction. Kieran Tranter includes substantive worked examples of the law and legal concepts projected by these science fiction texts, such as Australian car culture, legal responses to cloning and the relationship between legal theory and science fiction. By examining science fiction as the culture of our total technological world, it journeys with the partially-consumed human into the belly of the machine. What it finds is unexpected. Rather than a cold uniformity of exchangeable productive units, there is warmth, diversity and 'life' for the nodes in the networks. Through its science fiction focus it argues that this life generates a very different law of responsibility that can guide living well in technical legality.
Reviews / Votes
I most love the way Tranter constantly looks beyond the obvious appearances of lawyers and courtrooms to unearth the idea of law and its technical function in society. -- Everett Hamner, Western Illinois University * Science Fiction Studies * In Living in Technical Legality, Tranter leverages his prior work to produce a masterful examination of what it means to be living in an era that seems infused with sci fi tropes from the past. This is a valuable contribution to law and technology studies. -- Arthur Cockfield, Queen's University, Ontario, CanadaMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Illustrations
6 black and white illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 155 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
386 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4744-7479-5 (9781474474795)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
07/2018
1st Edition
Edinburgh University Press
€0.00
Available for download
E-Book
07/2018
1st Edition
Edinburgh University Press
€24.49
Available for download
Person
Kieran Tranter is Associate Professor at Griffith Law School, Griffith University. He has a background in science, law and the humanities. He is fascinated by the ways that culture imagines, mediates and disrupts legal and technological change. He has written widely on law and technology and law and popular culture.
Content
List of Figures
Preface
Introduction: Living in Technical Legality
Science Fiction and LawThe Chapters to Come
Part I: Technical Legality
1. From Law and Technology to Law as Technology
Cloning LawFrankenstein MythLaw as Technology
2. Dune, Modern Law and the Alchemy of Death and Time
Sand, Spice and EmpireThe Illusion of ControlSovereignty as the Alchemy of Death and Time
3. Battlestar Galactica, Technology and Lfe
Battlestar Galactica ReduxSovereigns and Subjects in Battlestar GalacticaThe Metaphysics of Technology
Part II: Living in Technical Legality
4. Xenogenesis and the Technical Legal Subject
Biopower and Natureculture on an Alien Rehabilitated EarthThe Technical Legal Subject of XenogenesisLiving Well as a Technical Legal Subject
5. The Doctor and Technical Lawyering
Time and a Blue BoxDeath and the DoctorThe Doctor as the Paradigm Technical Lawyer
6. Mad Max and Mapping the Monsters in the Networks
Identity, Myth and Biopower in Mad Max 2The Australian Human-automobileCartographies of Technical Legality
7. Deserts and Technical Legality
BibliographyNotesIndex?
Preface
Introduction: Living in Technical Legality
Science Fiction and LawThe Chapters to Come
Part I: Technical Legality
1. From Law and Technology to Law as Technology
Cloning LawFrankenstein MythLaw as Technology
2. Dune, Modern Law and the Alchemy of Death and Time
Sand, Spice and EmpireThe Illusion of ControlSovereignty as the Alchemy of Death and Time
3. Battlestar Galactica, Technology and Lfe
Battlestar Galactica ReduxSovereigns and Subjects in Battlestar GalacticaThe Metaphysics of Technology
Part II: Living in Technical Legality
4. Xenogenesis and the Technical Legal Subject
Biopower and Natureculture on an Alien Rehabilitated EarthThe Technical Legal Subject of XenogenesisLiving Well as a Technical Legal Subject
5. The Doctor and Technical Lawyering
Time and a Blue BoxDeath and the DoctorThe Doctor as the Paradigm Technical Lawyer
6. Mad Max and Mapping the Monsters in the Networks
Identity, Myth and Biopower in Mad Max 2The Australian Human-automobileCartographies of Technical Legality
7. Deserts and Technical Legality
BibliographyNotesIndex?