From ascendence to transcendence of the anthropos: 2001, a prospective odyssey

Abstract

The Science Fiction drama 2001 Space Odyssey is the motive to analyse in this paper the 3 moments in human history -ascendence, decadence and transcendence- that identify homo sapiens as a transitive being, a self-realized product of evolution but in constant risk of succumbing to its own autopoietic dynamics. According to Clarke and Kubrick, the beginning and ascent of the sapiens species lies in the evolution of intelligence from an extraterrestrial induction, a premise that emerges from the characteristic imagination of SF.

The article proceeds by means of an analytical reading of the object of study and appeals to complementary sources to contextualize and interpret Clarke's and Kubrick's theses, and to infer conclusions from them. The theoretical perspective of science fiction critic Julián Díez is taken. Díez, in his essay "Secession" for the Hélice Revue, applies the concept of prospective to name a category of the science fiction genre that seeks to elaborate narratives that operate as a warning about plausible but ungrateful futures; the narrative of prospective science fiction "warns about possible exacerbated developments of trends present in our society in order to denounce their inconvenience" (Díez 2008, p. 5). From this perspective, this article determines that the evolution of human intelligence is a paradoxical resource: it could be, or not, means to survival, instrument of environmental domination, objective rationality that induces self-destructive behaviors and interactions, and finally self-reflective lucidity that protects the possibility of evading extinction as destiny.