Question:
‘Contemporary Science Fiction texts do more than challenge our acceptance of science and technology. They also challenge and disrupt traditional perspectives on human form, morality, behaviour and power.’
Evaluate this statement with reference to TWO prescribed texts and texts of your own choosing.
William Gibson’s 1984 cyberpunk novel “Neuromancer”, Frank Herbert’s 1965 soft science-fiction novel “Dune”, Christopher Nolan’s 2010 science-fiction thriller “Inception”, and Brandon
Sanderson’s 2006 hard science-fiction novel “Mistborn” all fundamentally concern themselves with how individuals react to ethical decisions brought about by the advance of science and technology.
They explore how individuals deal with moral dilemmas and choices that arise from scientific and

technologic advancement. They primarily do so through the exploration of the shared themes; how leaders use technology and the impact of technology upon leadership; the impact technological advancement has on the environment; how technology can lead to a loss of values and humanity; and the cost at which technology can provide stability.
This is a very literate paragraph. There is a plethora of developed noun and verb groups, the complexity of the sentences concisely and logically introduces key ideas and the candidate is addressing key elements in the question.
But notes from the Marking Centre emphasise appropriate use of genre theory and that’s not present here. The student has chosen a thematic approach rather than one driven by the concepts of genre. There’s also a content problem: Brandon
Sanderson’s Mistborn isn’t ‘hard’ SF. Its relationship with Dune is interesting but the introduction flags that this response may have difficulty in discussing the relationship of texts to features of the genre.
The ‘golden age’ of science fiction may have optimistically championed the possibilities for science and technology for human improvement but more contemporary works have challenged and disrupted this view. Frank Herbert’s
ecologically driven Dune, William Gibson’s techno-dystopian Neuromancer and
Brandon Sanderson’s ‘hard magic’ Mistborn seek in different ways to critique
morality, behaviour and power. Christopher Nolan’s Inception demonstrates the flexible and dynamic nature of the SF genre, reinventing its conventions in a way that explores human psychology while challenging the constructed nature of traditional SF story-telling. Science Fiction’s continued relevance as a genre comes less from its ability to explore the implications of scientific and technological advancement and more from its ability to continue to imaginatively reinvent scenarios that explore social and moral paradigms.
All four texts share the thematic concern of how a leader in a technologically advanced technology can use or misuse technology in leading, tying into how the moral choices of an individual – specifically, the leader – in the face of technological progress forms the heart of the texts. In
“Mistborn” a man named Alendi used advanced technology to turn himself immortal and infinitely

powerful, dubbing himself the “Lord Ruler”. With his newfound power and resources he created an army of genetically modified soldiers and cybernetically advanced enforces that he then used to enslave the world’s population. The technology that allowed him to do so, called Allomancy, could have been used to create fertile farmland on the otherwise near-uninhabitable planet, but was instead used for domination. When presented with the ethical choice of how to use his Allomantic power, the Lord Ruler chose the vile path. The Lord Ruler is a point-of-view and the primary antagonist in “Mistborn” and his decisions in coming into power and leadership spur the plot, the protagonist’s overthrow of him. His powers, Allomancy, are described in detail in included appendices, including in-depth explanations of how the technology logically is feasible and works in the internal logic of the text, such explanation warranting “Mistborn” to be labeled hard sciencefiction. Allomancy, Allomantic, Allomancer – Hemalurgy, Feruchemist, Feruchemy – both add to the novel’s sense of verisimilitude through phonetically suggesting a connection to real-world sciences.
The Lord Ruler’s domination brought about by the moral decision he made in gaining powers of leadership is symbolized by the constant fall of ash on the planet, “Ash fell from the sky” being a repeated phrase in the novel, a recurring motif that represents the Lord Ruler’s constant domination from “above” a position of power and leadership for the Lord Ruler uses his technological Allomantic machinery to keep the ash falling.
Again, this is a theme-driven response that focuses on a description of the world of the text and its invented technology. There are some references to textual form - the reference to point of view and to a ‘recurring motif’ – and some analysis of the verisimilitude in the scientific terms. I like the attempt to control the question through an original thesis statement, too.
I would like this to evaluate the place of this text in the genre more clearly and to consider its form, features and context more directly. It’s just not sophisticated enough on this text.
The embracing of fantasy motifs by contemporary SF composers is evident in
Brandon Sanderson’s cross-genre novel, Mistborn. Sanderson reinterprets the dark lord, magic and other common fantasy motifs within a post-apocalyptic setting. It differs from a work like James Cameron’s Avatar, however, because our interpretations of the world of the novel shift as it progresses. Originally , allomancy, feruchemistry and the ‘mist’ that plague the world seem to be fantasy motifs but as the novel progresses we begin to discover technological and rational explanations for the state of ‘Final Empire’. In an early chapter, seventeen year old Vim is able to draw on her ability to manipulate ‘Luck’, to

deceive ‘Obligator Laird’ from the ‘Ministry of Finance’ as part of her role in a thieves’ crew. At this point it seems like the ability to draw on ‘Luck’ is a
‘dungeons and dragons’ motif but Sanderson takes pains to explain the rational base of Vim’s powers.
Interestingly, at his point in the novel we can see further evidence of
Sanderson’s desire to blur the boundaries of SF and fantasy. Vim appears to be part of the ‘noble thief’ motif common in fantasy but here her role is to contribute to an elaborate confidence trick, the kind an audience might associate with ‘ Hustle’ or ‘ Ocean’s Eleven’ . Combined with the unexpectedly modern vocabulary surrounding the ‘Ministry ’it is a technique that reminds us that fantasy and science fiction are more about the ‘now’ than they are about the
‘then’. The ash that falls throughout Sanderson’s trilogy comes to represent the end of a current empire; it’s a telling commentary in a book that was written and published at the time of the GFC. Ultimately it is this conceptual dimension, rather than the technology of magic, that makes Sanderson’s work significant.
However, Sanderson’s attitude to science and the rational is cavalier. He has written that one of his goals was simply to make magic logical. There are some superficial similarities with Frank Herbert’s ‘Dune’. Both books, for example, seek to expose how the common people – the Fremen in Dune and the Skaa in
Mistborn – are victimised by corrupt, power-hungry governments and institutions. Dune’s descriptions of prescience may seem like a magical device but this is a contemporary view. When Herbert wrote Dune in the 1950’s and
‘60’s, prescience was still viewed as scientifically possible.
“Dune” follows a hero’s journey structure, Joseph Campbell’s monomyth in its main story of the protagonist Paul Atreides. Paul gains power and maturity throughout the novel and, in becoming a leader, is forced with tough decisions related to the advanced technology in the novel. He is taught how to use advanced technological weaponry, “…shield in his left hand, kindjall outthrust in his right”, a shield being an advanced type of physical energy barrier, and taught in the use of lasguns,
“continuous laser-beam wave projectors”, the jargon used in describing the weaponry not only contributing to the novel’s sense of verisimilitude but to Paul’s expertise in advanced technological weaponry. Paul uses no such advanced weaponry in a duel with a rival, playing ‘fair”, making the tough but morally good decision on fighting on his enemies terms, using a knife, not the advanced weapon he is so skilled in, such a decision relating to the use of advanced technology demonstrating
Paul’s good leadership qualities.
“Dune’s” antagonist, Baron Harkonnen, uses advanced technology to keep his immensely overweight body suspended and somewhat mobile. Rather than make the responsible decision to

make some effort to reduce his self-induced weight, he uses technologically to sustain his essentially unsustainable lifestyle, displaying an ethically wrong use of technology and poor leadership qualities, in contrast to Paul.
:
There’s evidence of some learning about Dune present, particularly in the links with
Joseph W Campbell, and the student is able to name a range of technological devices used in the novel. He also has some sense of how the technology is used as part of characterisation.
I’d like to see these paragraphs more tightly structured, focusing first on technology and then on the ‘ human form, morality, behaviour and power’ part of the question. I think there’s room to integrate a discussion of the significance of this text within the genre, too.
In a break with the technophilia of the golden age, Frank Herbert’s Dune associates the technological with the undesirable. For example, Dune’s antagonist, Baron Harkonnen, , is so overweight he requires anti-gravity suspension technology to keep him mobile. In contrast, Paul Atreides, when he escapes from the Baron’s complex trap, must learn to live without most of the technologies of his world, in the desert with the Fremen. His strength as a leader is confirmed by his ability to intuitively adapt to the environment. This contrast serves Herbert’s purpose: to champion the ecological over the technological.
Dune’s success as a novel coincides with the growing disillusionment with government, science and traditional religions in the late 1950’s and 1960’s.
Herbert’s achievements go beyond technological density of his novel. He has been able to write a novel that reflects the uncertainties of this time in its characters and themes. Paul, for example, breaks away from the monomythical patterns of traditional SF. While he is victorious over the Harkonnens, by the end of the novel there is a human and moral cost that adds a level of ambiguity to the conclusion. Paul’s victory comes with a rhetoric of ‘jihad’ and is won by political blackmail –Paul’s threat to destroy the ‘melange’ – as much as from strength of arms.
At this point, it’s back to you! What comments would you make on the points being made in the rest of the essay? What else would you like this writer to do?

“Inception’s” protagonist Dom Cobb uses advanced technology to infiltrate people’s minds and either extracts information secrets and sell them for profit, or implant ideas to fundamentally change a person, again for money. He is clearly a criminal. He leads a band of criminals that help perform these acts of “extraction” and “inception”, the invented lexicon pertaining to the criminal acts made possible through the use of the advanced Passive Awareness System IntraVenous Device that allows entering of another person’s mind during sleep, adding to the film’s sense of verisimilitude. Close-ups of the “P.A.S.I.V.” device are accompanied by eerie music and slight shaking of the camera, emphasizing the danger such a device inherently has when in criminal hands. Rather than use this skill with dream-hacking technology for good, Cobb uses it for criminal ends, partially out of personal flaws, partially for the money that helps him escape the eyes of a multinational corporation, Cobol Engineering”, that wants to kill him. As his group of criminals would follow him wherever he led including into using their skills for ethically good, legal, but less profitable ventures,
Cobb’s harnessing of them for criminal acts displays the unethical choice he makes concerning the use of technology (the P.A.S.I.V.) in his leadership. Cobb says as much when stating “Extraction. The ability to steal secrets from people’s minds when they are asleep, then sell it. The ultimate corporate espionage”. Cobol Engineering highlights the postnational elements of the film, and “extraction” and inception” are clear postindustrial information-era features.
In “Neuromancer”, the leaders are the AI, Wintermute’s puppet human Armitage, and Wintermute itself. As Wintermute isn’t human, attempting to apply questions of morals and ethics to it concerning its method of leadership are troublesome. “It. Not he. It’s not human Case,” says the protagonist Case’s artificial construct friend Dixie, emphasizing this concept. Ironically, Dixie himself is dead, the artificial construct containing his memories and personality perhaps closer in nature to
Wintermute rather than Case. Wintermute’s alien nature is reinforced through his adoption of realhuman personalities when talking, possessing no real identity of its own. If Case can then be considered the leader of the novel, at least in the sense that as the technological expert he leads the team in Neuromancer n ecological matters, and as a protagonist he “leads” the readers, his ethical decisions concerning technology in his “leadership” are best demonstrated in two examples. One, when on the space “town” Freeside he reverts to use of stimulant drugs, technologically synthesized, even after Wintermute used advanced technological processes to have his body “cleared out” from drug influence, his relapse potentially jeopardizing the team. Case has little value for his own life, his own body at least, a recurring motif sees Case refer to his body as “meat tying into the theme of technological progress causing loss of humanity and human values, but also the theme of technology’s effects on leadership as Case makes an unethical decision, in relapsing, endangering his team as the technologically-based society’s disregard of human life has driven him to not value his or his other team members. The second example is when case makes a decision readers in a modern context consider ethically right, abandoning the artificial paradise of the AI Neuromancer’s beach in favor of returning to the gritty, ugly, but real reality of the world. This is allegorical for Case’s rejection of the false premises and false “advancement” of technology, and acceptance of the

physical world. Similarly, Cobb rejects the artificial reality of a utopian infinite dreamspace shared with an apparition of his dead wife brought about by his subconscious memories of her, saying “I want to be with you, but this world isn’t real. You’re dead, and I could never imagine you with all your complexities. You’re just a construct”.
Through the thematic exploration of leader’s use or misuse of technology, the four composers highlight how their texts fundamentally concern individual moral choices concerning, or caused by, advanced technology. The Lord Ruler uses it to dominate rather than “fixing” the planet, Paul
Atreides demonstrates ethical understanding of when and when not to use technology, Baron
Harkonnen demonstrates misuse of technology in irresponsibly living and leading, Dom Cobb demonstrates irresponsible use in using dream-hacking technology for criminal ends, Wintermute is beyond ethical definition, Case both misuses technology and leads irresponsibly but also, as with
Cobb, demonstrates understanding o when to reject advanced technology.
“Dune” and “Mistborn explore the theme of technological impact on the environment, and how it relates to individual ethical choices concerning technology, in similar ways Antagonists Baron
Harkonnen and the Lord Ruler wish to exploit the natural environments of the respective planets of
Arrakis and Scadrial for their own personal gain, Harkonnen for the wealth mélange mining brings, and the Lord Ruler to satisfy his desire to completely domination. Protagonists Paul Atreides and
Mistborn’s Vin and Kelsier both seek more harmonious actions regarding technology and the environment. Whereas Harkonnen says “We tamed Arrakis”, Paul says “I want to learn more”, demonstrating Paul chooses to learn about the planet’s ecology whereas the Baron seeks only to exploit, “tame”, it. The contrast makes the character’s ethical choices clear. Paul eventually chooses a sensible policy, turning half of Arrakis ”green” as the environmentalist and religious leader Kynes wished the whole planet to be, and leaving half of it as it is so mélange can still be mined. Paul is ethically right in making Arrakis green as it’s what the native inhabitants wish, but leaving half as is is a more complicated ethical action. Paul relies on the technologically advanced mining o mélange to sustain his powers and thus his leadership, so it could partially be constructed as selfish, but he also recognizes completely changing a planet’s ecosystem may be ethically wrong in terms of the planets native natural ecosystems. Making Arrakis green would eliminate the Muad’dib mice for example, from where Paul takes his title.
Cobb schools his protégé, Ariadne, against unnaturally and unwarrantedly changing the artificial environment of his dreamscape, saying “It’s impressive but my subconscious picks up on the fact you’re’ foreign and forcing the environment to change so it will turn hostile”. Cobb’s subconscious acts as Dune’s Fremen do, as do the slave population called “skaa” in Mistborn, eventually rebelling against the Lord Ruler partially due to his destructive and unethical changes to Scardrial’s environment. In Neromancer environments aren’t even for humans, they’re for technology, “Night city was a deliberately unsupervised playground for technology itself”. Gibson is fairly clear in condemning the focus of technology over human value in terms of environments. This shared theme of technological impact of the environment demonstrates how the moral choices of Paul, Baron
Harkonnen, the Lord Ruler, Ariadne, all the corporations and governments in Neuromancer are vitally important in the texts, forms part of the bases of the texts, specifically in how this theme relates to the ethical choices of the environment-changers regarding technology, and how such decisions relate the conflict that is fundamental to the texts.

Neuromancer is a cyberpunk in its depiction of counterculture antiheroes rebelling against society through crime through the use of technology. The Western features such as the “lone hero” archetype in Case, “one last job” with Armitage, and settings such as Ratz’ bar, and the film noir features shown in the style and atmosphere of the novel, “The sky above the port was the colour of television, tuned to a dead channel”, and the Finn[s monologue about the Tessier-Ashpool’s both create a setting in which the ethical decisions of the characters have more impact because the setting doesn’t feel like hypothetical far-future science fiction, it feels like a melding of genres that ultimately makes it feel relevant and close, near future. This heightens the relevancy and impact of the ethical decisions the characters make regarding technologies.
This material was prepared by Denise McKinna (Dungog High) and Stewart
McGowan (HCC 7-12 Literacy Consultant) for the use of students and teachers studying Extension 1 English. You may use this material for educational purposes providing you acknowledge the copyright owners.