Tecnoimortalidade: a inutilidade do corpo e a redução simbólica do imaginário da imortalidade a partir da série Altered Carbon

Resumo (EN)

This work aims to study the representations of the body exhibited in the show Altered Carbon, since its first manifestation, while organic matter, passing through its relation with the myth, until arriving to its dematerialization in the hologrammatic body inhabited by an Artificial Intelligence. Furthermore, it is the theoretical object of the investigation to understand if the technological immortality presented on the show, and proclaimed by the transhumanist movement, shows itself as a consequence of the desacralization of the body. The problematic of the dissertation is: at what point the transhumanist cosmovision, reflected in the series Altered Carbon, through the means of the massive investment on science and technology, sells the idea of technological immortality, based on the vanishing of the body, reflex of the disenchantment of the world. Would technoimmortality be the reduction of the symbolic value of the body and of transcendence due to the media culture? The methodology used is based on Bardin’s content analysis (1988). The first chapter presents the show, broadcast by Netflix, being composed of two seasons, with 18 episodes in total. In this chapter, the main characters and how the body and immortality are shown in fiction are still introduced, through the analysis of the most relevant scenes to the investigation of the research object. In the second chapter, a digression of the archaic body to the hologrammatic one is made, starting from the mythological body and passing through the categories of bodies identified in the series. The third chapter brings symbolic concepts of death and immortality, traversing the path since the irruption of the image of immortality and its symbolism, arriving at the current technophile desire of technological immortality. It is used, for research, the website IMDb in order to evidence the themes relevance, as well as the rise in the number of media productions versing about immortality; search on the internet of cases of attempts to immortality or delay of death; and also, documentary researches(books, documentaries, and news) are used with intention to deepen the virtualization of the body in favor of technological immortality. Ultimately, the work is based on the concepts of body, death, immortality, consciousness, technology and transhumanism. It is used the Complexity paradigm of Morin (2011). The term transhumanism is treated with Estulin (2019) and Ferry (2018). The term body and its vanishing are debated by Keleman (2001), Le Breton (2013) and Contrera (2005). Image, Symbol, Myth, Archetype and Imagination are brought from Jung (2008), Chevalier (2020), Eliade (2018). Death is treated from Morin (1970,1975). The term immortality was developed by Alexandre (2018,2022), Baudrillard (2002), Jung (2022) and Eliade (2018). Consciousness and Conscient are understood from Jung (2013) and Neumann (2008). Iconophagy is treated from Baitello Jr. (2005).