The ethics of (im)mortality: technology and the post-human body in “Fringe” and “Terminator: Salvation”

«Mortality is an essential component of human nature.

Yet, literature, films and other forms of popular culture are replete with examples of figures who occupy liminal spaces. Such as the space between life and death. And they thus challenge the very nature of these boundaries which they transgress.

Two shining examples that illustrate dilemmas related to such representations can be seen in the Fox television series Fringe, trough a character named Alistair Peck (who appears in the White Tulip episode), and in the 2009 film Terminator Salvation with the character of Marcus Wright played by Sam Worthington.

Both of these characters complicate binaries between life and death as well between human/Posthuman, man/machine and thinking/programming. Moreover, both Wright and Peck challenge conventional views on morality. Indeed, both Wright and Peck work well as cases in points to illustrate how messy ontological categories can get.»