Document Type

Article

Language

eng

Format of Original

25 p.

Publication Date

11-2015

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Source Publication

Journal of American Studies

Source ISSN

0021-8758

Original Item ID

doi: 10.1017/S002187581500167X

Abstract

This article examines science-fictional allegorizations of Soviet-style planned economies, financial markets, autonomous trading algorithms, and global capitalism writ large as nonhuman artificial intelligences, focussing primarily on American science fiction of the Cold War period. Key fictional texts discussed include Star Trek, Isaac Asimov's Machine stories, Terminator, Kurt Vonnegut's Player Piano (1952), Charles Stross's Accelerando (2005), and the short stories of Philip K. Dick. The final section of the article discusses Kim Stanley Robinson's novel 2312 (2012) within the contemporary political context of accelerationist anticapitalism, whose advocates propose working with “the machines” rather than against them.

Comments

Accepted version. Journal of American Studies, Vol. 49, No. 4 (November 2015): 685-709. DOI. © 2015 Cambridge University Press. Used with permission.

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