VOLITION OF MEDIATORS IN ALICIA POLLARD’S “GHOST”

Abstract

The widespread development of technology has brought laurels to various fields which includes the medical field. The present world keeps changing and the innovations brought about in the medical field have also an equal and upcoming competition in the black markets where ethics are put to question. The demand has made human beings put oneself first in most of the cases. Transhumanism dedicates its knowledge to the improvement of humans on three basic pillars with the notion of improving the intelligence, longevity and wellbeing. The Ghost is a short story written by Alicia Pollard which has the protagonist Eve living in a mining ship with multiple cabins designed just as if living on land. Her foster brother Simon has been with them for only three months. Just as it can be easy to put someone away from a crime, Eve takes a decision that alters a consistent network. This short story has various layers with stern determination that humans have indeed progressed. The interventions in the natural human body of Simon, has him in a state that is between a mechanical robot and a human. Using Latour’s Actor Network Theory, this paper will unfold the actants’ choices and also the indispensable actor that influences the choice. The equally important functioning actors are the crux of a system in the Actor Network Theory (ANT). The ethical state of the choices is debated with only a few moments to spare the transhuman. The paper also tests the human action based on the existing hybridity in reality and fiction.